Learning as I go...

Spookily, Tracey wrote about the very same post as I had read some weeks back and posted about it today.  I am more than hopeless at joining in stuff around Blogland but I was intrigued by the idea.  I particularly liked the notion of sharing the moments of indecision.  I am not a prolific quilter or sewist so I do often post about WIPs and more often than not, there will be many mentions of quilts or other projects long before I reveal the finished item.

You may remember me referring to an order a few weeks ago for a new cover for a food mixer.  Not having a pattern to follow other than being rather unceremoniously handed an ancient cover, I decided to record the process in trying to replicate one that would please my customer.  It pleased me because I used a lot of one of my favourite fabric ranges - Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt, plus some Carolyn Gavin Wild Thyme.

I decided to chain-piece some strips of fabric together.  I think they were about 3" wide and I sort of had in mind how much 'total' fabric I'd need to reproduce the cover.

At some point I realised I needed more fabric and so added in another strip.

Once they were joined into one panel, I sliced it in half and joined the two halves together.

Then repeated that process again so that I was left with 2 1/2" squares.

Still with me?  The original cover was thin and flimsy and so I thought a sturdier, quilted cover would be easier on the eye.  I used some off cuts of wadding and quilters muslin as a backing.  I decided this was a manageable size project to have my first attempt at machine-quilting.  Nothing fancy, just 1/4" either side of the seam, but I really like the effect.
 
 

 
I then used the original cover as a template and cut out the pieces to form the cover.  I wasn't sure whether to bind them together or sew seams.  I tested a scrap of off cut to make sure the seams wouldn't be too bulky but I didn't think they were so I opted to sew seams and then played with the zigzag stitches on my machine to prevent the seams from fraying.
 
 

 
It was simply constructed from just three pieces - 2 sides and a panel running up the sides and along the top.
 
 

 
I finished the bottom edges of the cover with some binding and here it is:
 
 

 
 
Even with all the indecision, this was a relatively quick project and hugely satisfying to go in blind, as it were.  It gave me the opportunity to practice some techniques that are given in tutorials all over the quilting blogosphere on a much smaller scale.  Who knows, maybe one day I'll machine-quilt a whole quilt...