Friday 14 December 2012

Working with Flannel - a super quick quilt.

This quilt was something of an experiment and an indulgence. I had wanted to try out sewing with flannel, particularly after reading this post from Katy at I'm A Ginger Monkey. And I'd wanted to use some of Thomas Knauer's fabrics, after following his blog without realising he was designing fabric for a few months (god love me, but I'm slow upon occasion). Then, luckily for me, friends of Paul's were having a baby due in November. The perfect reason to try out these things!

I bought a bundle of fat quarters of Savanna Bop in flannel from the Fat Quarter Shop, and added a half yard of the yellow elephants and green vines so I could make a flannel backing to the quilt as well.


Cheerful and interesting, nice.
I decided to go super simple, and just halved each fat quarter, took one of those halves and cut them in half again. Then built up the quilt with alternating long and short blocks. The two half yards and a couple of leftover blocks made the backing. I cut and sewed the whole lot together in a day - which is super, super speedy for me.



Instead of stitching in the ditch, my default when I want to be speedy and not take any chances, I decided to quilt on either side of each seam about 1/4" away. This would have been a brilliant idea if I'd not just cut each fat quarter in half and half again, but actually measured and squared up the blocks. Hence the lines get a bit skewy in places... but the baby won't mind, right!?


Here is is pre-wash, casually slung so as to disguise not-so-straight seams!
The flannels were super soft and lovely with which to sew. I spent a lot of time stroking them. And they frayed a lot less than I was expecting! I will definitely work with flannels again, just interested now to see how they hold up to repeated washing. It washed beautifully for me, once I'd bound the quilt in Kona lime.


Proof of loveliness, and a partially clear sky in Ireland in mid-December!
And so I have a finish to report this week :) And baby Georgina will have a Christmas present. And I have managed to make it ok for myself to experiment with flannel, Thomas Knauer, and add to my fabric stash!! Win all round really.

Plus I have little blocks of the flannel left over, and I will at some point (post-Christmas) have to make some of these burp cloths by Cloud 9 Fabrics! Bonus points!!

I'm linking up this week, for the first time, with Link A Finish Friday and TGIFF :)

10 comments:

  1. Yay! Congrats on a beautiful finish. That flannel will be so cozy. Welcome and thanks for linking up to TGIFF!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It really is just lovely. I can almost feel the softness from looking at it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is very soft, and stroke-able! Another one that will be hard to give away :) thanks for visiting!

      Delete
  3. Ooh, this looks like so much fun! I just backed a quilt with flannel, and it feels so good! I will definitely be using flannel again, and maybe now I'll do a whole quilt version? We'll see. Lovely finish!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're so nice - thanks a million! I can highly recommend the whole flannel quilt feel :)

      Delete
  4. I'd really like to make a flannel quilt. :) I have a kit, but it's going to be a long time before I can get to it. I'll be like you, taking stroking breaks often. hehe!

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh brilliant - it's definitely worthwhile when you do get to it! enjoy and thanks for visiting me :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is so cute! I love how simple and quick it is. Nice work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting and for saying such lovely things! :) It worked out really well in the end, and it was amazing to have something finish so fast. Almost instant gratification!

      Delete

Thank you so much for commenting! I love hearing your honest thoughts and opinions on whatever I've been harping on about :)

I email replies as soon as I get the chance.