Patchwork Weekend

Started another sewing project this weekend. This one probably wouldn't have gotten an attempt on the old machine, but now - wow wow wow! The project is a boxkleed cover, or a mini-duvet cover for the playpen. In Holland, a playpen is a box. Usually square, wooden, and given a prominent position in the living room. We've gotten that part down. We got ours second hand and it came with a blue kleed, the kleed being a thick padded blanket that you put in the bottom. I'm not a fan of blue and we don't actually know if we're getting a boy or a girl. But instead of replacing what we have, I decided to try making a cover for it. With a couple, we'll be able to exchange and wash them easily if there are messes. Seems like a great plan so far.

Not content to just trim down a duvet or make a plain cover, I decided it would be a good time to try making my first patchwork project. Already had some green fabric (some of you might recognize a couple patches) and wanted to compliment with yellow. This is my progress so far:


You can see the original beneath my patchwork project. I was worried about all the squares lining up well, but I think this is not too shabby. When we went sewing machine shopping, there was a lot of talk at the Pfaff store about a technology to keep your fabric lined up well, but apparently it's possible without. Instead of trying to plan the squares, I dumped them in a bag, and then pulled and pinned. My mistake (I think - are there any quilters out there?) was pressing the seams in opposite directions when I sewed the strips of blocks together.


It made ironing difficult and you can see the differences from the front (thing fabric). Not a major disaster, though. Good lesson for next time. I'm curious whether it will hold together for washing or if I should be worried about everything unraveling.

Now that the center panel of patches is done, I'm going to add strips to the side to make the front just the right size and cut the back out of one piece. Then just to decide whether it needs to close or not and how to do that - buttons? ties?