Posts tagged sewing

Alliteration Bomb Warning.

Full disclosure: M (who turned 3 in July) is crazy about letters right now. He goes through phases in which he plays obvious favorites. Right now it is the letter F. Because of the letter obsession we have been naming everything that starts with F. Our days revolve around F. Any F word M is eager to learn. I am relieved to report that the only 4 letter F word he knows is fish!

So while keeping that in mind, I am forewarning you that this post will quite possibly be littered with F-ing alliteration!

Back to the point of the post…

How to make this Quilt!

One fantastic (see Fs!) thing about this quilt is how easy and how fast it comes together. I guess technically that is two fantastic things. Fast and almost effortless (effortless so counts as a F word!) are favorable qualities but my favorite part about this quilt is that you can make it as simple or as complex as you want. It is a great quilt and even better base pattern.

T was such a good sport for putting up with this mini photo shoot to show off the quilt

The quilt that I made is the base model. Start there if you are a novice quilter. This is a great first quilt. It is a small crib size/toddler wants to cuddle with tractors but die-cast tractors give owies sized quilt.

What you will need:

• 1 yard of Flannel Patterned Fabric
• 1 yard of Flannel Contrasting yet Complimentary Patterned fabric
• 1 yard Flannel Solid Fabric
• 1 yard Flannel Secondary Solid Fabric
• 1 package of crib sized batting they usually come in a 60X60 inch size or close to that.

** I can not reiterate this enough. This is a simple basic pattern, because of that you can switch it up very easily. If you want 3 or 6 or 100 different patterned fabrics – go for it. If you want one color on the back, that works too. I chose a simple checkered patterned and mimicked it on the back.

This would be a great scrap quilt. In fact, I plan on making one when our last baby is done with all the flannel burp clothes and recieving blankets and make myself one giant Imissholdingbabies quilt just for me to cuddle under.

Okay. So you got your fabric and your batting.

Before you go check out, add these things to your cart if you don’t already have them.

• Rotary cutter
• Cutting mat
• Quilt ruler- at least 6 inches wide
• Seam ripper- because event the best of us make mistakes
• Thread. This quilt uses quite a bit of thread so I would grab a coupe spools.

Now the fun begins. Well for me the fun began back at the store perusing the fabrics. But for good a blog arc, lets say the first-rate action packed fun begins NOW!

Start cutting your squares. You will want to cut all the flannel into 6 inch squares. This takes a while, but really isn’t that bad. I would suggest a Diet Coke and some reruns of your favorite TV series to pass the time. I like Friends, Fringe, Friday Night Lights, Funniest Home Videos….it is really hard to think of TV shows that start with F. If you can think of any list them in the comments. I am seriously stumped on this  F-ing one.

After you are done with that get up, stretch your back, let your eyes focus on something other than farm tractors. When you can see straight and your back barely aches, start cutting the batting in 5 1/2 inch squares. You will need half as many of these, so I promise there is a end in sight.

When you are done with all the cutting, the quilting begins.

Unlike most quilts, you will do the quilting before sewing the blocks all together.

I chose a simple X pattern, but you can do whatever you want. The goal is to make it so that the batting does not shift around inside each of the blocks once the quilt is all pieced together and you are cuddling under your one of a kind creation.

You will need to do this to every block. It doesn’t matter what side is up while you stitch (unless you chose a different bobbin color-if you did, kudos to you for going the extra step to make the quilt more uniquely yours and you now have to be careful what side is up) all that matters in that the batting is sandwiched in the middle and as close to square as possible (perfection is not needed though-this is a very forgiving quilt)

Next start attaching the blocks. READ THIS: WRONG SIDE FACING IN! Do not make the mistake of putting the patterned fabric facing in….that is unless that is the look you choose. I personally prefer the pattern (oops, Ps was M’s favorite on Wednesday… a bit of alliteration deja vu, forgive me.) side to have the fringe though.

Make your rows 9 blocks long.

Then, you guessed it you forward thinking fox, attach the rows to each other. I pinned the heck out of these to help deal with all the layers.

When you have attached all the layers together, admire your work. You did good, very fine indeed. However you are not done yet.  You have to make one more choice to make. Bind, surge or fringe finish.

I chose the Fringe finish because I LOATHE binding. I can never make it look good. Side note: if anyone knows of a good how-to bind link please leave the link in the comments. I would greatly appreciate it!

note: I didn’t have the fringe finish done at the time of this photo.

Now.

Now you are done.

Wait. STOP! Sorry, not done quite yet. Go put on something on TV again. This takes a bit. Snip all the extra thread. Double check there isn’t a pin stuck somewhere in the all that flannel.

Ok. Now. You can celebrate. You finished a quilt.

Go show off, wrap it up for a gift, or hand it over to your little boy who doesn’t understand how much he should appreciate his mommy’s hard work, effort and love that went into his little tractor quilt. It must be said that M spilled juice on it, drug it in the dirt and demanded to take it to bed with him that night. The later of the three, is why I do this. He loves tractors. I love him. I provide tractors. He loves me. It is a give and take relationship, but it works.

Nothing like a homemade bribe to elicit the sweetest words a mom will ever here, I love you Mommy!

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