It's takes a long time, and I usually end up with a backache by the time I'm done. ^_^
This is not so, with quilting. With quilting, you use a rotary cutter, and you only cut straight lines. And it can be done in a relatively small area. Aka, a tabletop. This pleased me, so I decided to make a quilt.
Now, I have been meaning to make a quilt for years. I am a ridiculously nostalgic person and I thought it would be very cool to make a quilt out of bits and pieces of clothes that I had worn or made over the years. Clothes that meant something to me, but that I wouldn't, or couldn't wear anymore. I think I first got this idea when reading a Little-House-On-The-Prairie type book, where a character had a similar type quilt.
People said I'd never finish it. Actually, people said I'd never begin it. I set out to prove them wrong.
First things first. I had to gather the fabric. I raided my closet, and the attic, and found myself a nice assortment of old clothes. Dresses I'd worn as a little girl, the first outfit I'd ever made on my own, favorite skirts and blouses, and even some old t-shirts I had loved, but due to things like stains on the front and holes in the collars, would never wear again. Then I had to plan it out. I got out some graph paper and, while my kids at work were taking a nap, I designed the quilt. I decided to make it King Size, to accommodate my bed, which is a Queen, and then some. This would take twenty-five 20 inch square quilt blocks. I designed them into 10 different designs. My papers looked rather complicated, but they all made perfect sense to me.
Next, I had to cut out my patches. I had bought a rotary cutter just for this occasion and it sliced that fabric beautifully. It was love at first cut.
Once I had all the patches cut out, I folded them into neat little packages, all arranged according the the number I had assigned each fabric. This made it much easier to pull the correct patch out and match it with the rest of the patches for each block to be with the fabrics I'd designed it to have. There was much method to my madness!
Some of my fabric was stretchy. The t-shirts, especially, and some of the others as well. This made it twice as difficult to sew together, so I bought some fusible interfacing, ironed it to the back, and voila! Stiff fabric. :D
The next thing to do, of course, was actually start sewing the blocks together. This is where it became evident that I had not only never quilted before, but that I really had no idea what I was doing. I had cut out some patches with corners. Anyone who has quilted knows that you don't do that. Especially not on your first quilt. Undaunted, I cut apart the corners, and sewed the block together as straight pieces.
And now, once again, I realized a blunder. A rather significant one. Remember how I mentioned earlier that I would need my blocks to be 20 inches square? Well, I had failed to factor in the 1/2 inch I would need to actually sew the patches together into my blocks. Each block came up several inches short. Often in strange ways. I had some that were 16" by 18", others that were 18" by 16". Some were 17" square, and one was even 15" square! Somehow, this had to be fixed. I ended up carefully calculating how many strips of fabric I'd need, and what length and width (figuring in that 1/2 inch margin this time!) to make each block and even 20" by 20". This took me a very long time. I think I worked on this part of the quilt for nearly 2 weeks. Not steady, or course, but if I'd been more careful the first time, I'd have been done with this quilt two weeks ago. Ah well, I guarantee I won't make that mistake next quilt!
Finally, finally, my blocks were all done. Next thing to do was sew them into strips.
Once the strips were done, I could sew them together to make the entirety of the front of the quilt. I got both these steps done in about an hour. I felt very accomplished when I was done.
Here's the quilt, all laid out.
And the back of the quilt; not nearly so pretty.
Once these steps were done, all that was left was to add the batting and the back! I bought a sheet for the back and began to think of a place large enough to lay the whole thing out. There was no such place at my house, but the house I work at had a perfectly sized living room! And so, while the kids were napping one day, I opened up the sheet in the middle of their floor.
Then I rolled out the batting on top.
And began the process of unfolding my quilt top onto it.
It took much straightening and fixing and smoothing and more straightening, but finally it looked like this:
Next, I folded over the edge of the sheet and pinned it in place. It looks finished, but you wouldn't want to sleep under it, yet!
Sewing the edge was a painstaking process, as i was determined to do it by hand. I got about halfway down the side and had little to show for it except the knowledge that I was 1/8th of the way done, a bad backache, and nearly 2 hours gone. That's when I decided to use the machine for this part. 10 minutes later and it was finished! All I had to do was the actual quilting part! This seemed, again, extremely daunting, so I made the decision to turn it into a tied quilt. I added a tie at the corner of each block, and in the middle of each block. That's 37 ties in all.
Oh happy day when it was finally done! I spread it out on my bed and it looked beautiful. You may think it looks rather odd, colorful, and perhaps a bit discombobulated, but I love it very much. Each patterned piece reminds me of something, and for that reason it's special. It took me two and a half months from start to finish. I am very pleased with it.
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