I did it. I finally finished Harper's quilt. Woohoo. This is by far the biggest project I have tackled to date. I really think that I spent way more time thinking about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it than I did actually sewing.
It was a cold, dreary weekend so I had several uninterrupted hours on Saturday morning to knock it out. I can't tell you how happy I am to have this finished. It is far from perfect, but I am still proud of it.
I took photos so that I could share the process with you.
I decided to just stitch in the ditch, so it doesn't have a very quilted look to it. I was too afraid to do much more than this, maybe next time.
Then I trimmed the excess material.
Here it is all trimmed and ready for the binding.
I used the leftover fat quarters and scraps from the quilt to make my binding. I determined that 10 22 inch strips and 10 18 inch strips would make the binding long enough with some excess to work with. I made the strips 2.25 inches wide. If I had it to do over again I would do 2.5 inches though.
I sewed the strips together alternating 18 inch and 22 inch pieces. I also tried to distribute the colors evenly. Then I laid it out on the quilt to make sure it fit all the way around and also to get an idea of where to start attaching it.
Then I ironed the seams open.
Then ironed it in half.
Here is my lovely pile of binding.
I decided to attach the binding to the back and then bring it around to the front and topstitch it. I just could not imagine hand stitching the binding on and I knew that I would be able to make the topstitching neater on the front.
So I lined up the raw edges and stitched the binding on all the way around mitering at the corners.
Then I flipped the quilt over and brought the folded edge to the front and topstiched all the way around again.
Ta-da. All finished. I know I broke about every quilting rule, but I am ok with that.
I used some of my scraps to make this pillow to match the quilt. I almost used every bit of the fabric. Gotta love that!!
In case you missed it, here is Fat Quarter Quilt Part 1.
12 comments:
I love all the funky colors fat quarters come in! This would make a pretty quick quilt, I'll have to try it :)
THis is just beautiful!! I love the patterns you chose!!
Great job on it! The quilting looks good and I don't blame you for going easy on the first time. I would, too! It's so pretty. :)
I LOVE THE QUILT!!! Great job. I know Harper must love her new bedding.
Who cares if you broke rules? I say, throw out the rulebook if you can create beautiful things like this. So lovely!
I LOVE the colors and patterns you chose to use...so beautiful!! I've never made a quilt, but you might have talked me into it! :)
This turned out lovely. :) I bet Harper loves it.
Oh my goodness, that looks absolutely FABULOUS! Not that I had any doubt that it would, but wow -- I am even more impressed that this was your first attempt!
Um...what rules?? :-) Jen! It is beautiful! I love the binding and that fabric is just TO DIE FOR! It really turned out great! Well done.
Your quilt turned out AWESOME! LoVE it!
Holy...you just made the binding look so simple. It's something I've struggled with and now I want to rush home and try to do it! Thanks!!!
heh. you followed all the rules , in fact. the rules are: Piece. Quilt. Bind. you did all of them. I love that you did not go through the cut-it-into -pieces-and-stitch them -back-together thing that most "quilters" do.
and if i had that quilt, i would have done parallel straight lines, about 4 inches apart. so it would have a quilted look, but not too difficult. (knowing me, it wont be parallel, nor uniformly 4 inches, but thats the joy of handmade!)
wonderful look for the bed. good job!
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