Gab with Gaby

An engineer's creative corner studio.

Making my First Quilt

Color, Crafts, Sewing, How to, QuiltingGabriela SimsComment

Hi everyone, I am continuing to work on my baby quilt(s) and decided to make them at the same time.  So since I do not know if boys or girls are expected, I tried to make these gender neutral.  I cut 275 2.5" charm squares for the centers of the tops, which require 100 squares each. Luckily I have a co-worker who is an amazing quilter, so she talked me through the beginning of this and was even kind enough to draw me a diagram for my first rows.  In addition to the fabric, she instructed me to buy starch, spray baste, and to start my rows by chain stitching. That last piece of advice was priceless, I was able to finish 4 rows last night.

 

Each row is 10 squares across. 

Each row is 10 squares across. 

I could not believe how quickly this came together, especially since I once spent an entire Saturday sewing and it yielded 2 sad placemats.  My coworker told me if I just worked a little everyday and then on the weekends, I could finish both quilts in 6 weeks.  When she first said it I thought she was joking, but now that I've started, I think she's correct. She suggested I time myself for this one so that I will have an idea in the future how much time I would need to make one. As of this post, I am 4 hours in, including cutting the fabric. Oh yeah, this is my first quilt, but I'm hoping one day I can make a quilt with these squares.

 

How amazing is this? 

How amazing is this? 

I'm also still working on my cowl, just had to get started on these quilts though, hopefully both quilts and the cowl will be finished by April! I will post my progress here, happy crafting!