sew a quilt

How I did it: I chose 8 "fat quarters" from the fabric store to get a pretty mix of colors.  I decided to do an "around the world" pattern, because it's all made of squares, so it's an easy first quilt.  This took one afternoon.

  I pre-washed the fabrics in hot water all together, because if they were going to shrink, fade, or bleed I wanted it out of the way before I invested my energy.  That took one evening.

  I spent a lot of time pre-planning my design on graph paper before cutting the fabric.  That took two days.

  I chose the size of square that worked best for me (3") and cut stacks of strips with a rotary cutter. 10 minutes.

  I sewed strips together in my chosen color order.  I had to be really careful about this part, and having my graph paper plan handy made a BIG difference. 2hrs.

  I cut the strips crossways into already-sewn-together squares.  10 minutes.

   I sewed the squares-strips together in the right order.  Again, having my graphed-out plan was really important here.  2hrs.

   I added borders (20 minutes) and laid it all out on a backing fabric, with batting in between (10 minutes).

   I pinned the layers all together (10 minutes) rolled it up, and sewed along the design lines to quilt it.  (stitch-in-the-ditch).  That part was annoying, and took me two afternoons.  My hands got tired, so I put on gloves with rubberized palms, and that made it easier.  I used a "walking foot" on my sewing machine".

I bound the edges by bringing the back over the front, and was done!

I am SO proud I did this.  It hangs on my dining room wall now, and will be a family heirloom.

Lessons & tips: Learn about rotary cutting, and the sew-before-you-cut technique.  It saves LOTS of time!

Use gloves with rubber dots on the palms to help when quilting in a home machine.

Dec 04, 2008, 10:51AM PST | 0 comments