Last week I made my first ever quilt (pictured above) from a pattern in the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, which is based on the traditional "Flying Geese" pattern. I just love how the triangles look like little pennants- they remind me of the flags that fly over christmas tree lots and used car dealerships (is it strange to be inspired by a used car dealership?? Anyway...) It is a crib sized quilt, and a gift for my sister who is about to have a baby. The process was fun, a little confusing and very exhausting, but I finished it in time for the baby shower yesterday and I thought I'd share some of pics of what it looked like in the various stages of construction.
My favorite part of the whole quilt-making process was laying out all the triangles of cut fabric and moving them around until I was happy with the design. Then I numbered all the rows and stacked them up so I would know what order to sew them in.
The numbered stacks of cut fabric. There were 14 rows of 11 triangles each.
Here is a completed strip, with all the seam allowances pressed towards the colored fabric pieces so they wouldn't show through to the front. (Good idea, right?). Those little triangles of fabric were snipped off before proceeding to the next step.
Next, I took all the numbered strips and attached them one by one, until I had my completed quilt top.
Then it was time to make the "quilt sandwich". I layed out my bottom piece, (which was a twin size sheet cut down to size) my cotton batting, and my quilt top, then hand basted all three pieces together so they wouldn't shift once I started quilting on the machine.
I quilted 11 vertical lines down the center of each triangle, and then "stitched in the ditch" around each white triangle, which took FOREVER! My sewing machine was not happy with this chain of events, but we made it through.
Finally, I cut a bunch of 2 1/2" wide strips and sewed them together make the binding. which was pinned into place, attached with the machine, and slip-stitched by hand to the back of the quilt, which Derek was kind enough to stay up and help me with until the wee hours of the morning on Saturday night. I learned a lot and of course have a whole new appreciation for the art of piecework and quiltmaking. I'm already looking forward to picking out fabric for my next one!