A Love Story
While it may not be a traditional love story that comes to mind for some, this is a love story that many fellow quilters and sewists will understand. If you ask any of the people within my orbit… I think they all can attest to the fact that my first project blog post should definitely be about this particular love story and project. The details of this continuous and ongoing love story are one that I have talked quite a few ears off about, filling my friends and family with more information than they would probably ever care to know. But they humor me and listen… because they love me!
The Discovery
I was mindlessly scrolling through Pinterest one evening when I happened upon this pin. This fabric instantly made me stop scrolling… I have never been drawn to something so quickly, but I was immediately in love. This gorgeous bundle of fabric was from Fabric Bubb (gotta give a shout-out to Fabric Bubb for their awesome photo of this fabric. They sell the most beautiful fabrics and have the cutest fabric store name ever!).
I just couldn’t stop staring at these fabrics and needed to learn more about them. It turns out that this was a fat quarter bundle of fabric designed by Tula Pink. I immediately sent this to my aunt, a fellow fabric lover and incredibly talented quilter who is ever so patient to entertain my constant chats about crafty things. If I can be half the quilter she is one day, I’ll be so thrilled! She knew who Tula was, being more versed in the quilting world than myself. Little did I know the obsession *ahem* love story that this would become! On and off over the next few months I would think about that fabric bundle, and I mentioned it to my aunt a few more times when it was relevant to conversation.
Christmas Day
Cut to many months later, Christmas Day. I was instructed which present I was to open first, and my mom started filming me while I opened it (while that was not entirely unusual on Christmas Day, I was still a little suspicious). To my absolute true and sincerest surprise, in this comically oversized box (my dad has incredible wrapping skills), was the PRETTIEST little bundle of fabric, that little bundle I found on Pinterest many months ago!
The video my mom was taking was for my aunt, who had secretly informed my mom about how much I needed this fabric. My aunt wins for best super secret Christmas elf!! And to this day, I continue to remind them that THEY started this fabric obsession! I have never been this surprised by a gift, and it was so meaningful to me that my aunt and my mom made this happen. Christmastime is my favorite, and between family, the time together, and that amazing surprise, my gratefulness was overflowing that year.
After some recovery time from the busyness of the holidays, it was time for a little photo shoot with the most colorful, happy fabrics!
Plan Twice, Cut Once
The ONLY downside to completely falling in love with specific fabrics, is the difficult task of finding *just* the right project for the fabrics. I knew a few things that I wanted. I wanted to use every single fabric, the quilt blocks needed to be large enough that they showed off the polka dots and stripes well, and the finished project needed to work as a wall quilt. After quite a while and lots of deliberation, I decided on the drunkard’s path quilt block. I mainly chose that block because I love the illusion of circles it creates as the blocks come together, which gives a nod to the polka dots on the fabric. But an added bonus was that the name of the block makes me laugh!
The Hardest Part is the First Cut
I wanted a 6 inch finished size block, with a layout of 4 blocks wide by 6 blocks tall in order to use all the prints. At the time, I was very new to quilting and didn’t have a lot of the quilting tools I have now. Cutting curves scared me a bit, so I debated cutting them with my Cricut maker, but I wanted to be very particular about how I cut the stripes. Instead of using my Cricut to cut the fabric, I cut freezer paper templates. I then ironed the freezer paper to the fabric, being able to see through the paper just enough to align the stripes and polka dots exactly how I wanted. While maybe not the best way to cut these blocks, I was quite happy with the results. The freezer paper templates I was able to reuse several times!
After lots of cutting, it was time to step back and admire all the pieces!
Follow the Curve
Had I done much quilting before this project? Nope. Should I have started with a more beginner-friendly block when I had no idea what I was doing, what thread I should use, what needle I should use etc.? Yes. Did I listen to my own advice? Absolutely not! I find that whenever I want to learn a new skill, I always dive in head-first with *probably* not the most beginner-friendly project. But for me, I think if I’m not challenging myself and problem-solving as I go, I get bored easily.
So with nearly a complete lack of knowledge about quilting, but a head full of determination, handfuls of pins (and some band-aids for the occasional pin stabbing…) I was determined to make something, something hopefully beautiful. I began to sew by locating the centers of each piece, aligning them, and pinning them
I quickly got into a rhythm of folding, pinning, and sewing and I really enjoyed the process. I was able to piece this whole quilt on my vintage Singer Featherweight 221, which was given to me by a dear friend. It’s a joy to sew on that machine, and I treasure the quilt even more so because of the story behind that sewing machine.
Lessons
Looking back, knowing what I know now with many more hours of YouTube videos, Craftsy classes, and lovely Instagram quilty friends, I did do quite a few things wrong. The main thing I did wrong was I used thread that was too thick, which I believe to be the cause of some puckering/pleating along the curved seams.
Interestingly, though, it was intermittent. Some seams were worse, some seams were better. I may have over-pinned (shocking, I know!) and if I had it to do over again, I would try some other methods for sewing curves. Like using the one pin curve method, or using removable glue along the seam, etc. But this was truly my first fully finished quilt, and as I had heard many times from lots of quilters… it would quilt out! So I shut down the perfectionist in my head temporarily and left the blocks to pucker away as they felt necessary.
Decisions, Decisions
The individual blocks were all sewn (an individual block is a quarter of a circle with its corresponding background) and then it was time to decide the layout. I had no idea this would be so difficult! I laid out a bunch of different options, took lots of pictures, and stared at them for a while (and after all that crawling around on the floor, my knees dreamed about having a quilt design wall one day)
After lots of staring, I decided this was my favorite layout. I liked the matching pairs of quarter blocks next to each other horizontally. So I began sewing them together in this finished layout. I do like straight seams more than curved seams, but they almost felt weird after so many curves!
I had a purple piece of fabric that was exactly the right size I needed for the back of my quilt, and it coordinated beautifully with these Tula fabrics. At the time, either Tula Pink hadn’t released her line of solid fabrics, or I didn’t have any yet.
Quilting the Quilt
With this mini wall quilt, I wanted the quilting to not be seen from afar, but have a distinct texture up close. Big stitch hand quilting gave me the look I was going for. There are a lot of lovely options out there for big stitch hand quilting thread. All of which… I did not have. There was a lot of DMC embroidery floss in my stash, however. I had heard of a few people using DMC floss, by combining two to three strands at a time. I wanted enough threads to match each fabric, so for me, this was the option that made sense for the variety I was looking for. While I was very excited about it, it was yet again something I had never done. But off I went again with a few YouTube videos and thimbles (and some more fingertip band-aids) to attempt hand quilting for the first time.
Hand quilting is a very slow process, and I was interrupted by a lot of other projects that had a higher priority for my attention/energy. I still need a lot of practice when it comes to big stitch hand quilting, but I really do love how the perfectly imperfect stitches give a gorgeous texture to the quilt. The curves of the blocks were incredibly fun to follow as a guide for my stitching lines and made this a very straightforward (in a curvy kind of way) thing to quilt. I do want to do more hand quilting, but seriously, anyone who hand quilts full, queen or king size quilts? I absolutely admire you… because I certainly do not have that kind of patience!
After a bit of trimming, some fabric triangles to hang the quilt with, and some solid black quilt binding, I finally had a finished quilt!
I cannot express how much joy this quilt brings me! It’s moved spots a few times now in my room, but every time I catch a glimpse of it during my day, it makes me smile. I have always been drawn to color, and the incredibly skillful way that Tula Pink combines colors and playful designs in her fabrics is why her fabrics will always be my favorites to work with.
If you have stuck with me and are still reading this long post, thanks for reading! It is a bit of a long one, but it’s a project and story I’ve been very excited to share for quite some time. My love for Tula Pink fabrics started quite a while ago now, but it has inspired me to learn a lot more about quilting and sewing and make a lot of things I never thought I would have made. I have learned a lot from Tula herself, as she’s hilarious and a wonderful teacher. I’ve connected with a lot of other Tula Troops on Instagram and Facebook, and it’s a really lovely community of like-minded color-loving people!
Something I have come to understand deeply is that when you are going through anything difficult in your life, joy and happiness can be a lot harder to find. And yes, fabrics are a very materialistic thing (literally!). But whether it’s colorful fabrics, a good book, a beautiful sunset, a long walk, a puppy’s snuggles… whatever it might be, it is so important to find sources of joy in your life. If one of those joy sources is Tula Pink and her colorful fabrics or not, I hope you got a little joy from what I shared with you today!