First Quilt – FINISHED! Can you stand it? and How I did it.

I, myself, can barely stand it! I love it so much. It was super hard to part with it today, as it went to school with Iz, where she would be using it during her nap time during her FIRST FULL DAY of school. She’ll be home any minute (a friend is picking her up – our car wouldn’t start yesterday, and we were stranded in town. I tried calling Rob, but where he was working, there was no signal. I called this friend, who was home with a sleeping baby, this friend – who was at the dentist’s office with son, and more and more friends, who of course were not home waiting by the phone for my distress call. Poor little Iz, she started crying after the first few tries of me starting the car and it not starting, and her dad not answering his phone (I promise you there was no foul language when his phone went straight to voicemail – grin) and wanted to know between tears how she would get home to take a nap, and that she didn’t want me, she wanted her daddy, daddy, please answer the phone! Rob finally called and came to our rescue. He checked under the hood, and couldn’t see anything. I called our mechanic, such a great guy! First – he wanted to make sure I was ok, and if I needed a ride. He could give me a ride right away, but the tow would be at the end of the day. Rob drove us home and we dropped the keys with the mechanic. I spoke to him this morning, it was the battery, I now have a new battery, and everything is ok…).

Anyway… It was a strange day for me. I looked at another space for LuckyStitches, which is quite perfect. Much less expensive and I won’t have to set-up and break-down, which was starting to get old. Once I was home, I just didn’t know what to do first. Tons to do, and now all day to do it? I found my groove, and cleaned and organized and actually got quite a few little things done. A little after lunch, I realized that I really missed Iz! Would she nap ok? (she did, fell asleep fast…why does that happen so well for other people? Although I do love our cuddly time while she dozes off…). Would she melt down because the day was too long? Would she, would she would she? Of course, everything was great. She ate her lunch and her snacks. She fell asleep like all the other kids, and slept so long, she had to be gently woken up. She asked me if she could nap at school every day with her special quilt. (update: Iz could not fall asleep at night. Was she overtired from her first long day? Was she completely thrown off by napping elsewhere and having to be woken up? It took almost 3 hours of crying, backrubbing, crying, screaming, back rubbing, reading, screaming, crying, before she finally fell asleep. AND she was up at 6am. She is exhausted, and when I took her to school the next day, she wanted to stay all day, with me there too. We’ll see how she is in a few hours…)

I’ve gotten a few emails asking me how I made this quilt – so here’s how I did it. I have been sewing for over 30 years (but I’m only 16! how is this possible?). So I do know how to sew, but I think this is so easy, anybody can do it! If you are new to sewing, or just want to practice before you dive in and invest in materials (this can be an expensive hobby….), try making a doll quilt – say 24×28? And see what happens. And apologies for not documenting with more photos. I’ll do that with my next quilting project. I was just too excited and didn’t stop to take photos.

I didn’t refer to any books, or websites, but did ask questions.  Valley Fabrics really helped me with this, and without them, it would have taken me much longer to figure out.  If anyone knows of a great basic quilting book or websites, post them in the comments so people can find them.

Steps:
1. Draw a picture of your quilt and figure out the size you want. I wanted about a 50×53 quilt. Big enough for my daughter to lie down on, and big enough to wrap up in.

2. I then went to the fabric store and picked 10 prints that I thought I would like together. I also went to the fabric store with colors in mind, so I brought some inspiration with me – a cloth swim diaper. But you could bring a photo or a picture. I wanted red and aqua. I like how my quilt turned out, but I wish it were more red and aqua, I strayed with too much yellow – but I love it anyway.

3. So – based on my print choices (the more you have, the more interesting and varied the quilt…), and the size of my quilt AND the width of the fabric, I figured I needed 1/2 yards of each print, cutting 7×7 squares (BUT – I am making TWO! – so half of that if you are making one, but you won’t fit the same amount of squares in 1/4 yard as you would a 1/2 yard, might have better luck with fat quarters if you are doing 1/4 yards) – sketch them out with a grid and see how many squares you get. The thing to do is not waste fabric, so your square size needs to be efficient. I liked working with the 7″ squares. I love little squares but that is a lot of cutting and sewing and I didn’t want to get discouraged.

4. I then took everything home and put it in the washer. I iron my fabric dry, it helps to keep the wrinkles to a minimum, but you can dry them too (better so they will shrink). But make sure you iron everything as flat as possible, wrinkles will change everything.

5. I invested in a rotary cutter and self healing mat, and one of those big quilting rulers (not sure what they are exactly called…). Best $$ ever spent, it makes measuring and cutting a breeze. I cut several layers at once, and it worked out well.

6. After everything was cut, I wanted a really random layout, so first I mixed up my piles of swatches, then I placed them all on my bed 7 rows by 8 rows. Once I had it all laid out, I moved a block or two. I don’t have a space to leave these out (you can use a flannel sheet and they will stick to the flannel – you can hang it on the wall and they shouldn’t fall off). I pinned each row together, keeping tops up. In the upper left hand corner I pinned a label, A, B, C, D… so I could remember the order. I put my pile in order with A on top.

7. I used hot pink thread to sew my quilt together. I read somewhere that you should use 100% cotton for baby quilts, because you wash them a lot, but I only had mercerized thread on hand, and the quilt shop said that would work fine. I took two squares, and put right sides toghether. The seam allowance is 1/4″, or the edge of your presser foot, so I lined up the edge of my presser foot with the right edge of my two squares and just stitched with a straight stitch. DO NOT CLIP YOUR ENDS. Because we don’t back tac (too much bulk)- the stitching won’t be secured until the quilt is finished, so don’t clip your long threads. I opened up my two squares, picked up the next block in the row, and with right sides together sewed the next block down (basically, you are sewing the row together, then once all the rows are sewn, you will sew the long rows together – making the quilt top!). Once each row is finished, I pin the appropriate label in the top left corner and press all my seams open.

8. So, once all the rows are sewn together, I sew the long rows together. Press seams open when you are done.

9. Now your quilt top should be done, so measure it. You will need batting (100% cotton only, best for babies and washes well)), backing and a binding. The batting and backing should extend at least 2″ on every side bigger than the quilt top. I ended up piecing my backing, so just make a sketch and see what you like. I took the width of the fabric by the length of my quilt for the center, then pieced top, bottom, and side borders – like a frame. The top and bottom are the same length as the center panel (the width of the fabric) and the sides are as tall as the quilt (top, center and bottom).

12. I decided to quilt (on my machine) just a regular window pane through the middle of my blocks (so it appears that I pieced a lot more than I did). I pin basted the whole thing. There has to be a better way than what I did. I pinned 3-4 pins on every block seam. You do this to prevent shifting and fabric moving. Then I started on one end and stitched down the row, top to bottom. I then rolled the quilt (so it will fit in my machine) and did the next row down the center of the blocks. Out of habit, I always sew in the same direction, this prevents twisting of fabric when you sew. So, if pick a direction and stick with it. When I was done with the length, I turned the quilt and did the width. I did get some puckering (which makes me crazy, but I know my daughter won’t mind .

11. Next is the binding. I like to make bias tape (call me crazy..), so 1/2 a yard makes enough bias tape for this size quilt – with some left over. I used a 25mm bias tape maker and cut 2″ wide bias strips. There are other ways to do this. You can make straight tape – there are sources on-line or maybe a quilting friend can help…

12. I pinned my binding to the front of the quilt, then stitched it down to the front. I folded it over the edge and hand stitched it down.

I didn’t use a special foot, but I did use 2 new needles. One to sew the blocks together and one to quilt with. Use a heavier needle for the quilting and make your stitches a little longer and lighten up on the tension, or the batting will pull through. The sharp needles make it much easier to sew.

I am really looking forward to making another quilt.  This was so much fun, and I love that I have made something for my daughter that she will have forever.  I do need to “sign” the quilt, so I’m going to make a little patch and applique it on somewhere.  Pictures of that – later.