Quilt: Part 1

As some of you may know, I have found a new love for quilting and sewing. I've made a dress for my daughter and a couple maxi skirts for myself (honestly, the dress was MUCH harder than a maxi skirt). I found this cool picture on pinterest from a friend. I fell in LOVE with the design and the colors.

I then took after my mom's own skills and plotted out the pattern on a piece of paper to figure out dimensions. It wasn't too hard because everything was square and rectangular. I decided to make the squares 4x4s as a starting place. I was able to come up with the size of a quilt based on my dims.

But that wasn't enough for me. I went ahead and searched (with the information I had on pinterest) to find a pattern to see if I was right with my math. I found it! And it turns out my dims were half of what the original called for. Now, the pattern is $8.99 for the pdf download. But they did offer information (like how many colors with yardage, the finished block size, how much batting and size, basing it on 1/4" seams and 42-44" wide fabric, and ironically if you buy the pattern instructions for the 31"x41" baby quilt- which was the size I had first tested measurements with on paper).

 

So, first I had to pick fabric (which was SO hard without my mom's good eye) and was able to rely on a couple friends opinions and help. 

Once I came up with my color scheme, I had to cut the fabric. I realized when I had gone to a friend's house to work on another quilt that I didn't really have any cutting mats or rotary cutter or rulers. She recommended a brand for the mat and cutter and then I talked to my mom about rulers. My mom said if I was really going to start doing some quilting that I should get a special ruler that had slits on it every half inch that lines fabric up and makes it much easier to cut the fabric. Everything was lining up- one magic day, I got my Joann's ad in the mail and they were having a sale on the mat and cutter my friend recommended and I knew it was a sign :) I was ready to go! With A LOT of guidance and phone calls and texts to my mom, I was finally able to get everything all set up. 

 I was SO SCARED to make that first cut into the fabric. I had to draw out the best way to cut the fat quarters because of making a mistake on the first try. I had to learn some lessons the hard way (cut the longest sashing first, not the shortest) but I know it'll all turn out great in the end (despite my mistakes and lesson-learning). I've been able to cut out all the fabrics and have now started to line up the sashing with the fabrics and am ready to just sew them all down. My next step, once the sashing is in, will be to figure out which block I want next to which. It's times like this where I am so glad we have an office/guest room where I can do that without kids coming in to move them around.

I am so grateful for this new found joy in quilting. I'm grateful for having friends who I can text and email back and forth as I've tried to figure this out and being able to get together to work on our quilts together. I look forward to my evenings out to go quilting/sewing. I am grateful to my mom, who gets a LOT of phone calls and texts these last couple weeks as I try to learn from her experiences and expertise. I look forward to posting the last half of this to show everyone the fruit of my labor of love.