Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I Made a Quilt!

One of my goals for the year was to sew a quilt before 2012 was out.  Quilts are so quintessentially cozy and homey that I wanted one, in colors and patterns of my choosing, that I could curl up under and nap with when fall hit.  Well, fall is here and I am finally finished with my quit odyssey.  It took like 9 months.  Mostly because I rarely had patience to do it for more than half-hour increments.  It actually took me forever to find pictures just now because I started this thing SO long ago.

I began by picking out five fabrics that I liked and cutting them into squares using a cutting tool and mat:


I had five one-yards pieces of fabric.  It was enough for a twin sized quilt, but just barely, so if you give this a whirl, get more fabric.  In fact, let's scrap the idea that this is a "Quilt Tutorial" because just about any other article on the web about quilting will be more thorough and informative than this.  This is just me showing you my new quilt.

Once all the fabric was pieced into squares, I laid it all out on the floor and started pinning it into strips. There was no pattern - the squares were lined up randomly, but I had to switch out pieces here and there to make sure that there were no matching squares next to each other.  From there, I sewed each strip together, piece by piece, and then attached all the strips together for the top of the quilt.  At this point, I ran around the house with the beginning of the quilt around my shoulders like an American flag.

After adding the batting and a back piece (just a full sized sheet, cut down), and doing the actual quilting on my sewing machine, my quilt is finally ready for use.  LOVE:


It has some imperfections, for sure.  It's sort of bunchy in a few spots and I have an mismatched corner here and there:


Imperfections and all, I am so pumped that I made this (and learned my lesson early on that I am not meant to be a quilter).  Stay warm and stay homey!

PS - Cats like it, too:


5 comments:

  1. It *does* look lovely and homey and charming! Good on you. I've always dreamed of doing a quilt but I know i would never have the patience...I just console myself by vicariously living through quilters like you :)

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  2. Why thanks! You are so generous to call me a quilter!

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  3. Bean looks not impressed. Fantastic quilt though! It looks great and very cozy.

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