Sunday, May 24, 2009

Quilt for my daughter

I had played around with quilting and had even made a few small quilts. I've always bee a big fan of one day projects. Then I thought, why not make a bigger quilt, how hard could it be?

I did a lot of Google searches for a basic quilt pattern. I wasn't having much luck. Then I searched for baby quilt images and found one I loved! I didn't know what it was called and wasn't sure if I could figure out the pattern.

I started with the image and then brought it up into a paint program. I started making lines on the photo and trying to figure out where the blocks started and ended. Finally it was making sense. Along with my husband's help, we simplified the repeating pattern and I was ready to make it.

I started with a butterfly fabric that we had already chosen for window valences. Finding matching and coordinating fabrics was more time consuming than I expected. Finally we had all the fabric and I was ready to cut, piece and sew.

The quilt went together fairly quickly. Then I needed to learn about sandwiching and binding.

After reading some tutorials and buying some new sewing machine feet I was ready to go.

Working on a larger quilt really is trickier. Stitching in the ditch, making designs and just getting from one area to the other is challenging.

Another thing we did to help with the quilt sewing was to lower my sewing table. I use a small wooden kitchen table I got from a friend. My husband shortened the legs for me and also made a cut out in the "apron" for my legs to fit comfortably.

Finished quilt! Now on to one for my son.