Baby Quilt Finished!

I finally finished my first quilt! This is a big achievement! And it honestly wasn't hard at all - just a bit time consuming! And I think it actually turned out pretty good! I did learn as I went and would make changes/adjustments if I had to do it over again, but overall I am very happy with the results!

First I had to pick out my fabrics, which of course took longer than it should have! I was a bit disappointed with the selection at the fabric store. It just seems like there are too many trendy (aka UGLY) fabrics and very few cute fabrics: especially baby fabrics! But I finally decided and started by cutting out 5x5 inch squares (well, relative squares) out of the various fabrics. I did buy a wheeled fabric cutter which made the job pretty easy.

Fabric "squares"

Then I started sewing the squares together in a random pattern. My goal was to end up with 4x4 inch squares (which I did!) so thankfully I left a fairly big margin for seam error! I used a ruler to make sure my seams were spaced 4 inches apart rather than relying on the markings on my sewing machine. And thankfully I did! Because my "squares" were not exactly exact! I ended up making a 9 x 11 square quilt which ended up be about the right size for a crib and pretty darn close to the size I planned. Most of the seams miraculously lined up with one another. Only a few ended up being off.

Sewn together

Then I added the padding and a solid fabric backing, pinned it all together well and started the "quilting" process. I found a stitch that I liked and just went with it! I ended up quilting straight lines through the quilt diagonally and horizontally so that each quilt square was "traced" around the borders. The stitching is a bit inconsistent. Meaning: the quilt was thick and therefore didn't pull evenly through the machine so I had to hand feed it which resulted in inconsistencies. Some stitching is tighter and some is much looser. But overall I think it looks good. And homemade. :)

Some quilting done

Before I quilted in the last square, we added some fabric hearts inside (which are just barely visible through the backing). A heart from daddy, a heart from mommy and a heart from the goose.

Hearts for the baby girl

Then I trimmed the whole thing and made sure it was fairly square in the corners. Next I made the edging and carefully pinned it all the way around and carefully sewed it on. It took a while to get the corners together in a way I liked them, but I think they are pretty clean looking.

Quilted! Waiting for edges!

And lastly I added yarn details to the corners of all the quilt squares.

DONE!

I love it! Done!

I think it is beautiful. :) Hopefully it doesn't completely fall apart in the washing machine! I still have more to make with all that fabric, including a pillow, curtains and a dust ruffle. Eventually!

I must of course give credit to the fabulous online sources I found to help walk me through the process of making a quilt. I found Diary of a Quilter via Pinterest and used quite a few references for ideas and to help guide me as I went. (A fabulous site BTW! Lots of great quilts and plenty of info for beginners!)

Another great help that I found on Pinterest was The Scientific Seamstress Blog. She created a printable template for using to create bias tape. This was SO USEFUL when I was binding the edges of my quilt!! It was easy to assemble and worked like a charm! Seriously made the process of ironing out the edges so easy and fast! I think it would have easily take 3X as long and would have resulted in burned fingers!