Saturday, November 27, 2010

My first quilt

I finally finished it up a couple weeks ago. Oh, I love it so much! I've been holding off posting about it until I got some decent pictures, but I still haven't brought it outside for proper photos, so these will have to do.
I pieced a log cabin/pinwheel strip in the backing so it would be reversible and I love that side too! No pictures of that yet.

I swear I didn't pose her like that, she likes to sleep with her hands tucked under her cheek like a little angel. It's the only time she tries to impersonate one, so I have to document it for proof.

Overall, quilting was a whole lot easier than I anticipated. Honestly, the hardest part was just sitting down with a calculator, ruler and graph paper to figure out the dimensions and factor in seam allowances, etc. And the cutting process was tedious. After that, it came together very quickly. I spray basted, which left and interesting film on my kitchen floor, but was quick and easy. Free motion quilting the stippling (is that want it's called? I feel like a fraud using quilting terminology, I'm such a newbie!) was challenging, but I felt like I hit a groove about halfway through. Handling a generously sized twin quilt on my small machine wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

Details:

The fabric is "hunky dory" by Chez Moi and the sashing and cornerstones are Kona cotton. I purchased them all from fabric.com, but the Hunky Dory is not available anymore - I believe you can still get select prints here and there if you are a savvy internet searcher.

I shamelessly stole the pattern from this gorgeous baby quilt. Like I mentioned before, I just sat down with a ruler and graph paper and figured out how large I wanted it to be and went for it.

The squares are 7" finished and the sashing and cornerstones are 2". I used a 1/4" seam allowance on everything. I started with a 2 layer cakes and just picked my favorite prints and trimmed them down to 7 1/2" squares. The scraps were used for the pieced backing strip.

I used cheapo machine quilting thread and it worked fine. I used "Warm & Natural" 100% cotton batting. It's pretty thin, but the quilt has a beautiful drape and it was much more manageable on my machine than I imagine a thicker poly batting would have been.

Here are some links that I found particularly helpful when working through the nuts and bolts of quilting:

Basting: Distant Pickles

Free-motion Quilting: Oh Fransson!

Binding: Jaybird Quilts

Thanks for letting me show off my very first quilt! It's the biggest project I've ever started (and completed!) and so I'm just a *little* proud of it. ;) My next quilting project(s) will be my "if it's a boy" quilt and my "if it's a girl" quilt. 11 weeks and counting until baby #2 makes his or her debut!

Molly




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13 comments:

  1. BEAUTIFUL!!!! Congratulations on your first quilt! It is just gorgeous!

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  2. This quilt is stunning!!! I wish could do something similar one day...
    I found you in Frenzy.
    Best regards, Lourdes

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  3. I am so impressed, it is beautiful and perfect in every way! She'll love it forever :)

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  4. Your quilt is beautiful! I LOOOOOOOVE the fabrics! And what a special keepsake for your daughter.

    Saw you at Blue Cricket Designs!

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  5. P.S. You should come enter my giveaway since I just realized you are expecting!

    http://happybabydesigns.blogspot.com/2010/11/binky-bag-giveaway.html

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  6. What an adorable photo! You should be very proud of yourself because that quilt is so pretty! Now that you have made one, you have the bug and will keep making them.

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  7. Well done! I am so impressed. Someday I would love to quilt my own quilt like that.

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  8. The quilt is so pretty! I wish I could make something like that haha. Great job!

    www.laforcebewithyou.com

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  9. Very beautiful. The quilt and your angelic sleeping baby!

    I hope to one day gather up enough courage to make a quilt. Yours is amazing.

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  10. Aww! Your first quilt is absolutely beautiful. I love the whimsical mix of fabrics!

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  11. WOW! It's absolutely beautiful!!! I love the fabrics. What a great job you did for a first quilt. You are inspiring me to give it a try! Your daughter is a little angel too!

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  12. love the fabrics. You did awesome. I just finished my first quilt a few weeks ago, it's great to be done huh!

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