As I have mentioned I’m about to be an aunt and have used my niece as an excuse to get crafty and creative. I’ve always wanted to try a quilt, but to be honest have been pretty intimidated to try and tackle one until now. I found a great, easy to follow, step by step tutorial that made the whole process a lot easier and less scary. I really recommend checking out her quilting series at Diary of a Quilter. Plus, I got a bit carried away while I was making the quilt so I wasn’t so great at taking pictures to document the process.
Supplies:
- 9 coordinating fabrics for the small square, 1/8 yard each
- 1 3./4 yard fabric for backing (1 1/4 yard) and borders (1/2 yard)
- Quilt binding , at least 5 yards
- Crib size quilt batting
- Coordinating thread
- Quilting needles
- Basting pins or safety pins
Of course, since my sister is having a baby girl I wanted to use pinks to make the quilt. I picked a variety of soft pink and light greys. I got 1/8th of a yard in 9 fabrics for the front squares and 1 3/4 (1 1/4 yard for backing, 1/2 yard for border) yards of the pink paisley fabric I chose for the front border and backing. I also picked up a pink satin binding and crib size quilting batting. The end quilt will be 42″x42″ so you need to make sure you have enough binding to go all the way around.
The next steps I failed to take pictures of, so I’ll try to explain them as best as possible. Remember you can (and should) always refer back to the link I provided above for better pictures and instructions.
You need 81 total squares so cut the 1/8 yard strips into 4 1/2″ X 4 1/2″ squares, with 9 squares for each fabric. Once you have all your squares figure out what pattern you want to arrange them by. Each row will have 9 squares. Once you have your patten, begin sewing the first 9 squares together in a strip. When you are done, you will have 9 strips, with 9 squares each. Then you sew the strips to one another, creating the larger center square comprised of all the smaller squares. Again, the finished square will be 9 x 9 squares (see the center square below).
The next step is to make the boarder. You need to cut 4 strips of 3 1/2″ x 42″ of the boarder fabric you selected. I folded my quilt in half to find the center point and did the same for the first border strip. I lined the creases up so that the center of the strip lined of with the center of that side of the quilt. You could always just measure both and make sure the centers are lined up but folding them was easier for me. Sew the boarder strip to the side of the square. Repeat this step for the opposite side of the square. Now take two remaining sides and lay them so that they lay over and across the already sewn on strips. Sew the last two strips to the last two other sides of the square, including the already sewn on boarder strips. These two last strips will end up being longer than the first two. I know this last part might be hard to understand, but I promise it is easy. Again, I recommend checking out the link above since she has helpful pictures.
Now it’s time to baste. I’d never done this before, but the process is pretty simple. Simply iron the backing, the front, and the batting and lay them all flat with the backing first, followed by the basting, then the front panel. Starting from the middle of the quilt, using basting pins or regular safety pins, pin the front panel, batting, and backing together. Slowly work your way out from the center of the quilt making sure to get rid of all wrinkles and bumps. Once it is done, it’s time to decide what pattern you want to use when quilting. I decided to quilt along the already existing seams of the small squares, but you could also go diagonal across the squares in both directions. Start by sewing along each seam from top to bottom between each strip, both across and up and down. When you look at the backing, there will be little squares that mirror the squares on the front. Next, I quilted along the outer seam of the front square, between the inside of the boarder and the small squares. Last, I quilted along the outside edges of the front, batting, and back panels.
Lastly, it’s time for the binding, and to be quite honest, this was the hardest and most confusing part of the process for me. I strongly recommend checking out Diary of a Quilter’s Quick Machine Binding Tutorial because I can’t even begin to explain how to do it.
This quilt, even with the binding, really was much easier than I ever thought it would be. It was time consuming, but not difficult. Also, I’m not the best or most skilled sewer. Not all my seams are perfectly strait, not all my little squares line up perfectly, but it doesn’t matter, I still think it came out pretty well. You can do it too!
