Memory Quilt

 

My mom recently unearthed some old fabric from my childhood that she had used to make me pajamas. Now that I have started playing around with quilts, she decided to bestow the sentimental pieces upon me.

 

So, I've gathered up several of my childhood fabrics and cut them into squares. Then I set up my squares on the floor in the order that I wanted them.

 

 

Next, I sewed the squares together by column. Then, I sewed three or four columns together in order to quilt these five strips directly onto the batting and backing. 

 

 

 

1. Take the strip on the farthest right and lay it out on top the backing and batting.

 

2. Next, take the strip next farthest to the right and lay it upside down on top of the first piece, making sure that the left edge matches before pinning to the layers of batting and backing.

 

3. After quilting that down, unfold the upside down strip so that they both face upward.

 

4. Repeat steps 1-3 with the middle piece, then the left, then the farthest left, until the entire thing is quilted.

 

 

Finally, tuck in all the loose ends. I double folded the excess backing on the edges onto the front and sewed it down as edging.

 

I was quite happy with the end result!

 

 

 

What are some of your favorite childhood fabrics?

 

Happy crafting!

Falling for Quilts



I cannot tell you how happy I was to work on this project. This is the first quilt that I have made, and I put this lap quilt together by my own ingenuity without tutorials or study. This is the most wild thing I have done my entire life! :)

 

I started by choosing my fabric and cutting out as many 3.5" x 3.5" squares I could make from each piece. I came out with a little more than 160 squares, and decided to make a 10 x 16 square lap quilt.

 

 

 

My next step was to sew the squares into strips and then sew the strips together. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the corners matched up very well.

 

 

After the entire top was pieced, I cut the muslin that I used for the back.

 

 

While I was cutting the fabric for the back, I also cut strips that I used for the edging.

 

 

Since the back and the edges are muslin, I wanted to make sure there would be a noticeable color difference. To darken the color of the edging pieces I coffee stained them overnight.

 

 

Next, I cut my batting and pinned the top, batting, and back together.

 

 

From here, I hand sewed the three layers together in a triangular pattern.

 

 

As a side bar, one of the times the thread got tangled it shifted into the shape of a beautiful treble clef and I could not resist sharing this. Now, back to the quilt!

 

 

I used the machine to sew the edging onto the front, and then hand sewed the edging on the back side.

 

 

My corners are a bit rough, but with diligent hand sewing I was able to make them kind of corner-y.

 

 

And here's the finished lap quilt, my lovely little creation!

 

 

Hopefully this project has been helpful, or even inspirational. Happy crafting!