I have been an admirer of quilts, quilting stores and quilting blogs for a couple of years now. I have spent hours meandering through quilt shops, touching all the fabrics, matching fabrics together and buying more than I care to admit. I have always wanted to have a blog that I share all of my craftiness and I have decided that this year I am really going to go for it. So, drumroll please................ introducing my first Quilt Along!
For those of you who do not know what a quilt along actually is, it is a step by step guide on how to make a quilt. Many times people will post it in real time, so we can quilt along with each other. I decided to make this my first quilt along, because I have recently had a good amount of people ask me to help them make their first quilt or to teach them to quilt.
This quilt that I am working on is fairly time consuming, not difficult at all, and really a high impact quilt. You do not need many skills to complete this quilt, but you may need some time and some stamina. I first saw this quilt on one of my favorite blogs. I showed it to Jay and he loved it and decided that was the quilt he wanted. I have devoted one hour a night after C goes to bed to work on it. I really want it completed in time for Jay’s birthday, and I think I might get it done before!
So....Sewers, grab your scissors, load that machine up with thread and get started.
In my version of this quilt we Jay has chosen 41 different fat quarters. (This is one of the many reasons that I love my husband, such a great designing eye.) The original quilt calls for at least 20, but we want it to be a larger quilt (7'x5.5') and want it to really have some diversity in the fabrics. If you do not choose enough fabrics the quilt will not have as much visual interest as it should. For this quilt we were sure to have plenty of all colors represented.
Quick Hint! Fat quarters are those square folded pieces of fabric. They are precut for you and generally fold up to be about a 5 inch square. At bigger stores like JoAnn's, they are kept on the wall with all of the fabrics.
Once you have all of your fabrics chosen you need to cut, you are ready to begin! Many people wash and dry all of their fabrics first to avoid shrinking. I have never washed and dried my fabrics first, and I have never had any shrinking with cottons. (If you are sewing clothes, curtains or pretty much anything else, I would suggest a W and D first.) Before you start cutting I would recommend that you iron all your fabrics to get the best cut. (V, that is for you!)
Okay, now you are going to cut a one square to one circle ratio. I was able to get four seven inch squares and four five inch circles out of almost all of my fat quarters. To cut the squares you will want to use a rotary cutter (pizza cutter for sewers), a cutting matt, and a clear acrylic ruler. You really need to cut straight, and if you try doing this by hand, it will take a really long time and your results may not be that precise. For the circles you can do one of two things: grab a cd, large cup, bowl from around the house and trace the circle onto your fabric and then cut these out with scissors by hand. Your other option is to have a GREAT husband that buys you a accuquilt for Christmas. I used my handy dandy machine to crank out my circles. At the end you need roughly 160 squares and circles. It seems like a lot, but I promise you really get into a groove and will have everything cut out in no time! Cutting is the worse part of quilting, once you are finished it is all downhill from here!
Part two of the quilt along will be next Saturday morning. We will start to do some major sewing. I will also share some of my best tips for sewing circles on your machine. In the meantime get to your fabric store, pick out some great fabric and get cutting!