It's a new year and time to get started on my donation quilts as well as quilts for my family members who are trying very hard to wait patiently for me to get them pieced and quilted. Every year I set a goal to make a minimum of 12 quilts for Project Linus which is a local charity that collects blankets for those in need. They donate the finished blankets primarily to the local hospitals, ambulance services and two chapters of the Child Advocacy Center. Most of the blankets donated are made child size and are made from fleece, cotton or are crocheted or knitted.
This is one of the quilt tops that I have been working on. I try to do fairly simple quilts most of the time so that I can make as many as possible without taking too much time cutting out small pieces. For this quilt top I cut out 12 1/2" blocks using a plastic form that I picked up at Walmart. First press your fabric and then lay it out on your cutting board. Place the square form on the fabric and use a rotary cutter to cut the fabric from around the edges of the form. Repeat this step until you have the number of squares that you need to make the size quilt you want.
Next you will pin the squares together in rows, sew them together, and press the seams all in the same direction. Then you will sew the rows together. Once I sewed all the pieces that I had cut out I realized that I didn't like the size of this top, so I added a red strip boarder to make it the size I was looking for.
The next step is to quilt this top. There are several methods that you can use. If you don't have a quilting machine, you can do a quilting method call tie quilting where you use yarn and a darning needle to attach the backing, batting and the quilt top togethter. You can also do what is called "stitch in the ditch", which is a method where you stitch near the seams around each piece. For this quilt you would have horizontal and vertical lines. And finally, you can put it on a quilting frame and use a quilting machine to add a more detailed pattern to the quilt.
I hope that this post inspires you to get started on your own quilts.
Happy Sewing!!!
This is one of the quilt tops that I have been working on. I try to do fairly simple quilts most of the time so that I can make as many as possible without taking too much time cutting out small pieces. For this quilt top I cut out 12 1/2" blocks using a plastic form that I picked up at Walmart. First press your fabric and then lay it out on your cutting board. Place the square form on the fabric and use a rotary cutter to cut the fabric from around the edges of the form. Repeat this step until you have the number of squares that you need to make the size quilt you want.
Next you will pin the squares together in rows, sew them together, and press the seams all in the same direction. Then you will sew the rows together. Once I sewed all the pieces that I had cut out I realized that I didn't like the size of this top, so I added a red strip boarder to make it the size I was looking for.
The next step is to quilt this top. There are several methods that you can use. If you don't have a quilting machine, you can do a quilting method call tie quilting where you use yarn and a darning needle to attach the backing, batting and the quilt top togethter. You can also do what is called "stitch in the ditch", which is a method where you stitch near the seams around each piece. For this quilt you would have horizontal and vertical lines. And finally, you can put it on a quilting frame and use a quilting machine to add a more detailed pattern to the quilt.
I hope that this post inspires you to get started on your own quilts.
Happy Sewing!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment