Making a quilt is a series of steps that you follow, in order, for every one that you make. I can honestly say that I Love every step. From choosing the fabric, to hand-sewing the binding in the end. It’s all part of the process. My latest quilt has been delivered to it’s new home. Sometimes that is hard, to send a finished quilt on it way, but when you know it will be loved and used or displayed, it makes it much easier.
My latest quilt is one of the largest I have made, and a more traditional pattern. I usually make wall hangings or baby quilts, so a large lap quilt was a challenge – but I really enjoyed making it and I was very pleased with the way it turned out.
Here are some photos of the process:
Finding fabric that in the color range of the quilt is where the fun begins. I usually find the fabric either in my stash, the local fabric store, or online. I usually like to touch what I am buying, but if I need to go online, I make sure I got to a fabric site that I know sells good quality cotton.
After the fabric is washed and ironed, they are squared up and cut in strips. Then the strips are sewn together and cut into the sizes for the quilt.
Ironing the finished blocks.
Getting the intersections to line up is very important, and really just takes a second more to get it just right. Pressing the seams the correct direction helps to make the quilt top lay correctly.
Front seam left, pressed correctly below.
I use my design wall to make sure I like how the quilt looks.
Once I am happy, I get the quilt ready to be basted. The backing is ironed and laid on the table right-side down. Then the batting is smoothed over the backing. The top is ironed and laid on the top of the batting, smoothed out and then held down with large binder clips. The three layers are then pin-basted together with safety pins.
Then the quilting begins. I use a few different ways to quilt. This quilt was done free motion, which means I move the quilt on my sewing machine to create the quilting. I also use my embroidery machine to quilt designed onto quilts.
Once the quilting is done, the quilt is squared up and I make the binding. The binding is sewn to the front of the quilt, then wrapped around the edge, and hand-sewn to the back.
Then the label is added to the back.
The finished quilt.
If you are looking for a unique gift for someone, send me an email and we can talk about what you are looking for.
Kathy