My first quilt !!

I have been missing from the blogland for quite sometime. I took a few weeks off and visited my sister and my cute little niece. I hadn’t seen her since she was born. So this was a long awaited trip. I had seen her on skype everyday since the day she was born, but the feeling when I held her for the first time in my arms was just un-explainable. It was the awesome-est feeling on earth. She looked quite big on skype but in real she was actually quite tiny. she was like this cuddly bundle of joy which I never felt like putting down. 🙂

I was visiting her for the first time, and how could I go empty handed. I had made a lot of crocheted stuff for her. So this time I decided to do something different. And my first quilt was born. 🙂

Yes I tried my hands at quilting. It’d been more than a year since I bought my sewing machine, and I had used it only for the cushion cover I made and some alternation work. I had been putting off quilting for quite a while now as I didn’t have the right tools to start with. But my last yarn visit to the craft store turned out to be very useful as I found the self healing mat, rotary cutter and the quilting ruler on discount.  I could not procrastinate further.

My initial plan was to make a square blocks quilt, but later I decided to make a striped quilt. I followed this tutorial for this project.

These tools make life so easy compared to using scissors and cutting all those pieces of fabric one by one. But I also learned the downside of not using these cautiously when I cut my thumb with the rotary cutter. Well, initially it really looked like I might need a ER visit, but somehow managed to subside the bleeding after sometime. Phew!!

It took me a week to gather courage to hold the cutter again and continue working on the quilt. 🙁

With all the strips of fabric cut, I was ready to sew.

Prepping the bobbin with some matching thread.

        

My first quilting mistake where I sewed wrong sides of the fabric, but the seam ripper did come in handy.

Ironing the fabric – The best tip I got from all the quilting tutorials. I had tried sewing earlier when I was in college, but never ironed the fabric. Ironing does make sewing so much easier.

It really does gives you cleaner and even seams.

The front of the quilt is all ready with all the strips attached.

 I went a bit wild and chose this print for the backing 😉 Plain seemed a bit boring to me. For the batting I used a fleece blanket. It’s not very thick but keeps you warm.

With all the three layers pinned and sewn together, the quilt was ready for a top stitch all around.

It was indeed a beautiful day here when I made this quilt. The sun was out and shining bright. Well for us, it is a big thing as we hardly get to see the sun during fall and winter 😉

Finally stitching in the ditch to quilt all the layers together. This was fun as I had never sewn in between the seam line of strips of fabric.

I also sewed a label with a short message on it, so she can cherish it for years to come.

I hear from my sister that my niece loves the prints on the fabric.
What do you think of this quilt? Do post comments and let me know.
I hope your day is going well with whatever craft you are doing today.
Happy crafting!!
Ranjitha