Quilts

I started quilting a couple years ago. It was my first real attempt at sewing anything. I picked up a book on the basics, and taught myself. It looks really complicated, and in some cases can be, but the basic premise isn't all that complicated.

My rundown of the quilting steps are as follows...

1.   Pick a quilting pattern. This can be one of the most complicated steps and sets the stage for the entire quilt. There are many different types of patterns out there, ranging from very simple to very complex. The first few patterns I attempted were from my quilting instruction book. I suggest your first pattern should be an easy one, so you can get the hang of it. The intricacy of the pattern will determine the difficulty of the pattern. A pattern with a bunch of squares is a lot easier than one with triangles and small strips. The size of your finished quilt will also determine the difficulty. Crib and lap quilts are quick and easy, while bed-sized ones are much more involved. There are many free patterns online (in fact, that's where a lot of my patterns were from). Craft stores and quilting magazines are also a good source.

2.   Pick the fabric. This is my favorite step. I LOVE putting colors together, and the main beauty of a quilt (I think) is in the colors. You can start off with a very simple pattern and make it gorgeous based on the colors of the fabric. When picking out fabrics, decide what you want your quilt to look like in the end. Are you making it to match a certain color palette? Have you found one focus fabric you love, and just need coordinating fabrics to go with it? Do you want a muted color palette or a crazy quilt?

3.   Prepare the fabric. This step involves pre-washing and ironing the fabric, and cutting it all out. I use a cutting mat with a quilting ruler and a rotary cutter to cut out all the pieces. Accuracy in this step is very important. If your squares aren't cut out evenly, then your whole quilt will be "off".

4.   Sew the quilt top. Most of quilting is just sewing straight lines. Sew all the pieces together according to the pattern.

5. Make the quilt sandwich. Lay out your backing fabric on a big, flat surface (I usually use the floor), layer the batting, then place your quilt top on it. Then take a bunch of safety pins and pin together the sandwich.

6. Put the quilt together. If you are in a hurry, or the quilt is going to be more of a play quilt, you can use the yarn tie method, where you sew through the quilt at different intervals and tie it off using yarn. Or you can machine quilt, where you sew all the layers together using either straight lines, or more intricate designs.

7. Sew on the binding. Add your binding material along the edges, fold it over to the back, and hand sew it around the edges.

Making a quilt can take awhile, or it can be quick, depending on what you do with it. It's also a very useful item and a great gift (who doesn't have a use for a beautiful quilt?). These are some of the ones I've made...

This is the first one I ever made. It was a crib-sized quilt, I actually gave it as a baby shower gift.

This one is lap-sized, pretty involved, but turned out nice.

The next two are flannel crib quilts I made for Madelyn before she was born.

This one isn't the prettiest, but it is made of flannel, and is really cozy. It's pretty big, maybe the size of a twin, so I just picked out the cheapest fabric I could find when I made it.



Another flannel quilt, this is about lap-sized, made from fat quarters I got for Christmas.



I think I'm most proud of this one. It is a queen-sized quilt for our guest room. I picked out a bunch of beach-themed fabrics and followed an awful pattern I got off of the Joann's website. But it turned out great.

I've realized I've made at least 5 more quilts that I forgot to take pictures of before I gave them away as gifts. I need to be better about that in the future...