The Adventures of Quilt Making At Grandma's House
Did you know that JoAnn Fabrics has a totally awesome Black Friday Sale every year?
Last year (2013) on Black Friday I bought some adorable flannel at JoAnn's to make quilts for my two children for Christmas. Unfortunately due to some nasty morning sickness I never even got the fabric washed let alone cut and sewn.
While I loved the fabric I got for my son, I wasn't as happy with what I was able to get for my daughter. Oh don't get me wrong, the fabric was cute and all, but just not what I was visualizing for my daughter's room.
With that in mind, I got my daughter up insanely early and joined my little sister this year to hit JoAnns Black Friday sale in hopes of finding just the right fabric. I figured that if I found what I was looking for that I could use the fabric I bought last year to make baby blankets for my Etsy shop.
I am happy to say that this year they had many new prints which I just had to get, including the two that my daughter and I picked for her quilt.
Need to get a major project done with 3 small children in tow? Just call 1-800-Grandma!
Trying to work on such a big project alone with three kids under my feet was a bit overwhelming so I called up my mother to solicit some help. She readily agreed to yesterday I packed up my kids and drove the 25 minutes to my mother's home prepared to work, work, work.
With the help of my mother and little sister, I was able to get down to some serious quilt-making. I managed to sew up all three (now that I have a daughter and two sons) quilt tops and we only had one semi-major incident. At one point my precocious 2 ½-year-old son managed to get a hold of my phone and take a whole ton of pictures of my parent's living room Christmas tree and decorations before abandoning the phone to instead start playing with my mother's laptop which he pried off 8 of the keys...sigh.
A highlight for my kids in addition to getting to play at Grandma's house was when I let them help me sew a part of B's Quilt. They carefully followed my instructions as we took turns sewing a strip on. I am excited for when they are a little older and I can actually teach them how to sew and make things themselves. Life makes the best School!
Yey for finally getting around to making the quilts I originally planned to do a year ago.
As for the quilt tops; I decided that I wanted to keep the pattern simple, especially since I was working with flannel, Flannel is really soft and makes great blankets because of that. However, the reason it is soft is because it is a looser weave, which means it can fray a lot easier. I solved that by using a simpler pattern (a strip pattern with two different-sized strips with a border) and I made the seam allowance just a little wider. This way when I quilt it down on my sewing machine the seams will be reinforced.
Sadly due to having to semi-frequently having to stop to take care of my three kids (especially my 4 ½-month-old who I am still nursing), I was only able to get the tops of the quilts done, but I am really happy with how they turned out. I can't wait to finish them. I'll post more pictures when I get them finished.
