Guys! I made a quilt! This was my
sewing dare so I had something to take to uni with me. I'm completely new to quilting so it was a bit of a steep learning curve!
All of the fabrics used are from my stash, and the only thing I bought was the wadding for around 15 pounds, so it was a pretty cost effective project! However, now I see why there is such a thing as quilting cotton. Some of the lighterweight cottons I used didn't behave well atall. Next time I would underline them or just use the proper fabric!
I wanted a fairly simple block design as 80 of them would be needed and I knew I wouldn't have enough patience to make 80 complicated blocks. I had a snoop around pinterest and decided to make a
value quilt which was very straightforward. Although I did get pretty bored after the 68th block. For the 4 corners of the quilt I wanted 4 of my favourite animals to make it a bit more personal. I choose a moose, elephant, dinosaur and penguin.
I found it very confusing to determine the size of everything. A twin quilt seemed to be the size needed for a single bed. Quilters seam allowances seem to be 1/4" so I made my blocks 9 1/2" and their finished measurement was 8 1/2". So I did 10 rows of 8 blocks.
After sewing all of the blocks together to make the quilt top I pieced the leftover fabric for the bottom. I then quilted from the centre to the edges in little diamonds, 1/4" from the seamline and halfway through the block. It was at this point that I learnt why quilters use safety pins to keep all of the layers in place. I also found out why there are specific sewing machines for quilters.
When everything was quilted I made the binding (all 308" of it) and sewed it to the bottom first, so I could be more accurate when attaching it to the top. Next time I'd probably do it by hand as my hands did slip a bit every now and then...
I did enjoy my foray into quilting, but I think that's the last one I'll make for a while! It takes a lot longer to see results than in garment making, but I suppose a quilt is on your bed everyday so it gets more daily use than garments which justifies the time spent on it?
Thanks very much for reading and to Gillian for the perfect dare!
Lauren
