MyLittleMan: First Quilt

I needed to think of a present for a friend who was due to turn half a century. I thought it would be more special if hand crafted so I thought I would crochet her a blanket. But more and more I was getting the vibe that she was more of a quilt than a blanket person. Would I dare to try my first quilt?! My sister has made me 2 quilts, and has made a few for herself and friends so she has a bit more experience…She warned me of the time and cost, but encouraged me to have a go. Could I make one?! Well let’s see…

I found picking material the worst bit! I ummed and ahhhed for ages over pictures on the internet (not quite as easy as seeing things in the flesh). I went with one idea, then changed colours, then questioned myself. I think I’ve had this problem before…picking for someone else is a lot harder than picking for yourself. I went with blues in the end, and I half cheated as I went with a pack of materials with co-coordinating colour/patterns so that I could be half confident that they would match.

I went for simple squares. I did a lot of cutting out, a lot of ironing and a lot of sewing. Here are 2 lines of the quilt top…

We all know my cutting out is not great…hence the not so exact alignment of the squares…but shhhhh…no-one needs to know that! So on we went and soon I had a quilt top. After waiting for the wadding to arrive, and picking the backing material I was ready to assemble the quilt.

CRUMBS!

How hard is it? Very! I think one of the main problems was my little bluebell! She is a small machine and there was a lot of material to contend with. I had 2 needles bend on me during this project! There was a lot of puckering, and even more unpicking. I founds using pins more of a nightmare then holding the material. It took me ages to get it in an acceptable state! And then binding…oooh la la! It kept not catching some of the material…so more unpicking and re-sewing…! I think I got the hang of the corners…but the binding I bought was of cheaper quality than I hoped for (too little time to re-order unfortunately) and wasn’t great to work with. BUT…I got there!!!!

Here are some pictures of the finished item…