Quilting 101

So I started this quilt.

I'm not what one would consider a "quilter". I made a t-shirt quilt in college but that hardly counts. This new quilt, small as it may be, is a legitimate step towards being an actual quilter. A few months ago, a lady in my most recent old ward (Chapel Hill 1st) decided to teach a basic hand-quilting class. And who doesn't love a good craft day?

I needed a basic pattern to start my quilt. I wanted something simple and attainable. In my "free quilt pattern" Googling (because I'm cheap and didn't want a buy a whole book of ugly quilt patterns), I found an abundance of baby and kid quilts. Bingo! I'll make a baby quilt! It's small and not some overwhelmingly huge Amish quilt. Most people choose to make quilts for something useful like, ya know, a bed. I chose to make the most miniature quilt possible and have it still be considered a quilt. For two reasons: 1) small means attainable in a reasonable time period and I won't get bored when it's only half-done, and 2) I know that I'll have a baby someday and since most of my projects end up with a someday deadline, the timing will be perfect. 

In the class, I learned how to do this. It's called piecing. Each one of the pieces is hand-cut and hand-stitched with this cute little "quilter's stitch". It was recommended that I take the small pieces around with me and work on them in church or the bus stop or the beauty parlor with my friends Maude and Harriet. Alas, I chose to do mine solely at home while watching football. It took forever. And it was only half done at this stage.

This is the side you'll actually be seeing. Much better. My most jubilant part about this quilt? My corners lined up in the center square. I danced around the room with it trailing me like a cape. It was glorious. 

After the above section was done, it was time to get some batting. I did some research and decided on cotton because it's thinner and apparently easier to work with and it was on sale. Lesson learned: if your batting/fabric is bigger than your kitchen table, don't cut it on the table and expect the measurements to come out accurate.

With all three sections cut (roughly) and pinned together, it was time to start quilting. Since I'm super novice at quilting, I chose a design that would hide and not accentuate the flaws. It's a bunch of squiggly lines. When it's done, it should look like this. Look at my hoop. Don't I look pro? 

When I started this project, like many of my other projects, I was all jazzed about my new venture and that I was succeeding. And the fact that I only had a someday deadline was even more reason to do it just for the fun of it. No deadline equals no stress! Right?

But, a couple of months ago, my someday deadline was gone. My non-existent completion date turned into August 5, 2011. My baby quilt-in-progress now has a real, live, prospective owner. A teeny, tiny, yet growing owner. We've got a ways to go before he/she is big enough for my awesome hand-made quilt, which is fine, since I'm not done yet. While not having a project deadline is nice, knowing I'm making it for my current, growing baby is fantastically fun.