The Crafting Accountant's been busy! First I had to do the accounting thing, and now I've been busy crafting. Everybody is getting married and popping out kids left and right! I'm trying to keep up. The blog has suffered. My apologies there.
I had a hot minute at the end of busy season to throw together a baby quilt for our cousin and her Baby R. It's a tradition in the family to keep the sex of your first child a mystery. Thank goodness I don't tend to make overtly gendered quilts; I was able to use all scrap to throw together this simple pinwheel quilt.
Remember, just because a quilt is simple does not mean it can be rushed. Accuracy in measurement and cutting is just as important as a larger, more complicated piece.
All the scraps I used were precut squares. I tend not to use precuts anymore, as they never seem to all measure the same. For quick piecing, I took my neutral pieces and drew a line from corner to corner with my disappearing ink pen. Then, I took a neutral and colored piece right sides together, and sewed with a 1/4 inch seam allowance down both sides of the line. (I used the "archaic" method Jenny mentions here).
This is really important to note- my neutral was one brand, and my colors were many others. This means my "5 inch precuts" were all totally different sizes. When sewing the pieces together, I made sure both points of both pieces always sat on my line (easy enough to do when holding it up to the light). After I sewed them together, I had to trim every square. I did this by using my 6 inch Fiskars square ruler (as seen here). The 45 degree angle line followed my ink line, and I made everything else straight and trimmed around it.
All the scraps I used were precut squares. I tend not to use precuts anymore, as they never seem to all measure the same. For quick piecing, I took my neutral pieces and drew a line from corner to corner with my disappearing ink pen. Then, I took a neutral and colored piece right sides together, and sewed with a 1/4 inch seam allowance down both sides of the line. (I used the "archaic" method Jenny mentions here).
This is really important to note- my neutral was one brand, and my colors were many others. This means my "5 inch precuts" were all totally different sizes. When sewing the pieces together, I made sure both points of both pieces always sat on my line (easy enough to do when holding it up to the light). After I sewed them together, I had to trim every square. I did this by using my 6 inch Fiskars square ruler (as seen here). The 45 degree angle line followed my ink line, and I made everything else straight and trimmed around it.
I didn't have time for my awesome quilt lady Terry to quilt this one for me, so I gave it a shot myself. I chose the simplest method I knew: stitch in the ditch. Because I took my time piecing and lining up my blocks, I knew I could follow those lines and have them be (relatively) straight. I also used a black thread on top and a grey thread on bottom for maximum "forgiveness". I'm incredibly pleased with the result for my first time.
I can't wait for Baby R to grace is with their presence! Enjoy the quilt!
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| Pinwheels can be deceptively challenging. There are a lot of points that need to match up. |
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| I used a circular pattern on the back to contrast the angular nature of the quilt face. |
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| I used a denim binding, and had a very hard time deciding the best color thread to use. I have black fabric on front and white on the back. I finished half the binding in black thread and decided I hated it. The gold worked perfectly. Look at your jeans... what color is the thread?? ;) |
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| The quilting detail isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it for a first time try. |
I have an AWESOME quilt to show you soon. I just have to finish it......
Keep Crafty my friends!
~Bri
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