The Quilting Kit - Master Post

The Potholder

Piecing the Potholder - May 15, 2012
Quilting the Potholder - May 18, 2012
Finishing the Edges of the Potholder - May 22, 2012
Finishing the Potholder - May 26, 2012

Finishing the Potholder

The only thing left to do on the potholder was to finish the strap on one corner. This turned out to be the simplest part. 

I took a scrap of muslin about 1.5 inches by 4 inches and folded the short ends toward the middle. I then folded the scrap over on itself to hide the raw edges and backstitched along the open end. My stitches were pretty even too.

I then matched the remaining raw edges together, folded them under and stitched that bit to the back of one of the corners.

Pretty simple! Though not due to the directions. Still, that's one project down and two to go.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to the other two projects for another three months or so.

Finishing the Edges of the Potholder

With the potholder quilted, it is time to finish the edges. The directions say to fold the edges of the muslin over twice and pin, then sew as in the diagram below.

I don't understand. I don't. What is that suppose to be? Zigzag? This has to be one of the most non-intuitive list of directions I have ever seen. I ended up using the backstitch again.

The edges are sticking out because of course the directions have nothing on mitering edges or even where to stitch. I sewed along the inner edge.

I just don't understand this package at all.

Quilting the Potholder

With the face of the potholder pieced together, it was time to do the actual quilting.

...Which means "stitching next to the seams with an up and down motion".

Yeah. I'm not sure what that means either. I have an idea, but these directions are really bad.

Anyway.

I lined up a 9x9 square of muslin, a slide of batting, and the pieced face.

 I then basted around the edges.

It's rather hard to see, but I just ran two lines of very short basting stitches along the diagonals. My stitches were very crooked and irregular at the beginning but they started looking better about a quarter of the way through.

It is easier to see the stitches on the back.

This is the pinning for finishing the edges. Again, the instructions are very lackluster.

Piecing the Potholder

This week I have started on the quilting package.

Upon opening it, I discovered that there were only 6 5x5 squares when there should have been 7. I need 7. Lucky for me, I have scraps from other projects but that is not a good way to start the project.

The first project is a potholder. I picked two squares and cut them along the diagonal to form four triangles.

The sad part about this is that the instructions say how to cut squares into triangles but not how to sew them together. I used the backstitch.

I pinned and stitched one red triangle and one white triangle along one of the shorter sides, right sides together.

You cannot see it well but my stitches are irregular and crooked in the first few pictures. I got better later on.

I did the same for the remaining triangles.

Now with two larger triangles, I pinned and sewed along the edge. This formed the pieced section of the potholder.

Upcoming Project - Quilting

It's the last week of finals; in two day's time I will be home. I didn't want to start a new project only to pack it up again.

This is what I will be starting soon:

This kit theoretically contains enough material to make a potholder, a small pillow, and a doll blanket. I've wanted to learn to quilt for a few years now, so it's nice to start with something small.