Christmas Quilting

I made this quilt for my Mother.  I wanted it to be beautiful, without being old fashioned.  I am so happy with the result that it is difficult for me to give it away and not keep it for myself. 

I needed the pattern to be pretty simple because I made the decision to make quilts a little bit last minute.  Squares are definitely the least complicated shape to quilt.  I alternated big squares with four small squares that equaled the same dimensions as the big squares.


I wanted the big squares to be 8" square. Plus a seam allowance of 1/4" on each side, I cut my big squares 8.5" x 8.5".

The small squares were a little bit tricky because I had to add a double seam allowance.  Once for when the small squares were being sewn together, and another for when they were sewn to the big squares.   I needed my small squares to be 8.5 x 8.5 once four of them were sewn together.

My small squares were 4.75" x 4.75".  Once sewn together each square was 4.25 and equaled 8.5" as a whole.

After cutting the fabric, I separated all of the colors into piles and randomly pieced the small squares together.  Making sure that there weren't two red, or two blue sewn together. Once all of my squares were the same size (8.5 x 8.5) I laid out all of the squares on the floor and tried to make it so no two same fabrics were being sewn together.  Since this was laid out in my living room all day, I had to pretend with my three year old that this blanket was hot lava so she wouldn't step on it and ruin my perfectly placed squares.  It only kind of worked. 

I did one solid piece of this fabric as my back.

My quilting skills are still pretty basic, and so for now, I like to have one solid fabric for one side, and the actual piecing of fabrics for the other side.  I think this is pretty standard, but I have seen some beautiful quilts that are two sided.  But for this quilt I used a solid piece of fabric.  The quilt was wider than the width of one yard, so I had to cut two pieces of fabric and seam it down the middle.  This was not difficult. 

Once both sides were complete, I started the quilting process.  I decided to be brave and free motion quilt this by hand.  It went better than I expected, but also taught me that I still have a long way to go before I will call my skill level "good". 

I flipped the back and taped it taut to the ground.  (Non-carpet flooring works much better - but this is the only space I have big enough in my wee little apartment.)  Then I placed the batting down on top of the back and last I laid the pieced squares on top. 

After smoothing out the top I pinned the three pieces together with safety pins.  This not only keeps the three pieces of your quilt together, but also keeps it pulled tight and helps avoid wrinkles when free motion quilting.   After pinning it together  I began to quilt.  My foot had to be changed to the free motion foot, and the feed dogs had to be dropped.  This allows movement of the quilt in any direction wanted. Making sure the tension is adjusted for free motion quilting is important.   Usually the tension on my machine is somewhere between a five and three, but when i quilt it is about a seven.  Check the tension on a scrap piece of your fabrics AND batting. 

 Free motion quilting this by hand was a little bit difficult and frustrating.  I believe I broke about  seven or eight needles through out this quilting process.  The speed of my stitches and the movement of my quilt aren't quite in sync.  When trying to move the quilt faster than your needle is stitching causes there to be a lot of pressure on the needle and it will bend or break.  I should have taken a picture of some of my bent needles.  A few of them were incredible. 

After i finished quilting (which is really more like doodling), I cut off the extra batting and squared off my quilt. 

Binding a quilt with a machine:

I began first by cutting my fabric into strips of 2.5".  My quilt was 54"x72" so total, I needed 252 inches of fabric strips to cover the perimeter of my quilt.  I always add a little bit more,  just in case. To get one continuous strip of fabric, I had to sew these strips together.  

Lay the fabrics as shown, and sew at a diagonal.

When it is open, it will look like this on the back.

And beautifully sewn together from the front.

 Fold and iron the 200+ inch strip of fabric in half.

Fold and iron the very edge of your binding strip to eliminate raw edges.

 

 

Begin sewing the binding onto the quilt in the middle of one side (NOT at the edge of the quilt), and a few inches from the end of the strip (NOT at the edge of the binding).  Once the binding strip has been sewn all the way around the quilt, the other end will be stuffed inside of the beginning end and finished being sewn.  This make the connecting ends almost invisible.

To make the corners beautiful, sew to the edge of the quilt and stop 1/4" before reaching the corner.

 Fold the binding strip diagonal and then fold it over on top of itself. Then sew that in place.

This is what it will look like once it has been sewn in place.

 

After the binding strip has been sewn all the way around the perimeter of your quilt, fold it around the raw edge of the quilt and using 1/4" seam allowance sew this binding in place.  My quilting skills are not yet advanced enough to do the binding by hand.  This way is faster and easier.  One day soon I will be trying and documenting my attempt. 

 

My Mother's Christmas Quilt