a quilt for Weston

One day at work I was talking with my colleagues at the lunch table. I explained that I wanted to get my sister and her husband and bun in the oven a nice gift, not just some onesies from Target.  My friend, J, suggested that I make a quilt for the baby.  I laughed it off and joked that I had no idea how to make a quilt, nor do I even have a sewing machine.  So incredibly gracious, she offered to teach me how to make a quilt and let me borrow all her quilting supplies.  After thinking it over a bit, I decided that this sounded like a great idea, if a little ambitious, and I took her up on the idea.  I'm always up for a challenge, so head-first, I dove into the world of quilts.

Here I will chronicle some of the steps in the process.

Going to the fabric store was the first step and so much fun.  J went with me, and we searched all over the cutest little quilt shop in Ballard called: The Quilting Loft.  I found these three great fabrics that were all part of a theme (see owls, frogs and foxes/squirrels in 2nd picture down).  And then I saw the monkey fabric, which I loved.  So then I spent the rest of the time coming up with coordinating fabrics for these four fabrics.  I bought a quarter yard (or more) of each of the fabrics in the pictures below.

Thirteen different patterns/fabrics in total!  I lived with these fabrics for a week or so, trying different combinations of them to see what I liked best. I emailed my mom pictures of the fabric to get her opinion on which ones I should use.  In the end, five of them were cut from the final design.

Then, knowing which fabrics I would ultimately use, I did some conceptual drawings.  The plan, at first, was to make the quilt 8 squares across and 10 squares down for a total of 80 squares.  That sort of freaked me out a bit, given that was my first quilt.  In all honesty, it scared me so silly that I re-vamped my design.

[First design ideas with 80 squares]

Here is the new idea for the quilt. A much more manageable 35 squares (5 squares across by 7 squares down).  I was playing around with the location of the different fabrics, as shown by the different colors in the drawing.  Neither of these ended up being the final design.

Here are the 35 squares, each one assembled, but not attached to each other yet.  You are supposed to pin up your squares to make sure they are in the right locations.  I found that this design was not quite right so I slightly changed the location of a few of the polka-dot squares in the final version.

Here we have the blocks sewn into the rows, with the brown sashing material.

And here is the quilt top finished, with all the sashing and the polka-dot border material.  J. usually uses a wide border, but I wanted to keep the size of the quilt manageable for a baby quilt. It was already almost as big as the top of a queen size bed!

Then I had to go find the backing fabric.  I used a flannel so it would be nice and soft.  J helped me every step of the way, including making the "sandwich", which is the backing material, the batting and the quilt top all "sandwiched" together.  Then you safety pin the heck out of it so that you can quilt it without the different layers moving around on you. This picture shows the backing fabric and many of the safety pins.

I started by sewing "stitch in the ditch", sewing along the already existing seams.  Then, I did the rest in free-motion quilting techniques.

Here is the quilt, completely quilted, but without the binding.  The binding is a small strip that goes around the edges to seal it all together.  I used a doubled binding, to give it extra strength and machine sewed it to the front of the quilt and then hand-sewed it to the back.

TA-DA!

The final quilt!  This was after washing the quilt, and it seemed to shrink up a bit.  I washed it in Woolite on cold, but there was still some shrinkage.

Those are my feet in the picture.  It is a tall blanket!

And here I am, so happy to have made this quilt for my new nephew!

Oh!  Lest I forget, I wanted to do something special for the signature block that goes on the back of the quilt.  So, I learned how to embroider!  It is amazing what you can learn these days from the internet.  I found the website Needle n' Thread  to be especially helpful in teaching me how to embroider.  Below is a close up of part of the signature block.  I used 4 different stitches in this signature block:  stem stitch, whipped backstitch, backstitch and satin stitch.

And here is the final signature block!  I even added a monkey to it- since I know Weston is the newest monkey in the family!

Here are a few detail shots of the different squares.  I used a different free-motion technique for each of the different fabrics in the center squares.  I got some great ideas for my free motion quilting from the Free-Motion Quilting Project website.

Monkeys got spirals.

Frogs got a wavy, watery looking design.

Squirrels/foxes got a sort of raindrop looking design.

Owls got swirls.

Oh, and I couldn't just learn to quilt and embroider, I had to also make a quilted pillow.  I know, I know, glutton....punishment....me. :)


The first photo below is the pillow front, before quilting and sewing on the back. Next is the finished product, quilted and back sewn on.  The last photo is of the back, just to show you that I didn't choose the hardest design for a pillow- no zippers or anything like that- just a simple envelope style back.

So that's all folks!  My first foray into Aunt-hood combined with my first quilt.  I don't think it is my last quilt though.  Now I just need to get a sewing machine that will take a quilting foot!