Making my First Quilt

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. 

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? 

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!

Demystifying Quilting

So I just got word that some folks I know are expecting babies later this year and I have always wanted to make a quilt, and here's my chance, baby quilts! I'm excited about this because now I too can be one of those savvy crafters that buys the correct thread and modestly says "A quilt" when the cashier asks what I'm making. Hahaha! Seriuosly though I have wanted to make a quilt forever but it just always seemed like such an overwhelming task, like I could not make a quilt unless it was worthy of being entered into the county fair.  I'm saying that because I feel like quilters are almost a secret society, where you have to be grandfathered (grandmothered?) in, or at least have learned the skill when you were little. I am the first person in my family to attempt quilting and the only one that knows how to use a sewing machine, it's like being first generation, but with crafts.  The difficulty in jumping in solo is that all of the tribal knowledge and nuggets of wisdom are hidden from you. Who are you going to ask about the best way to cut strips? Unless you can find a sewing circle, you're going to use my good friends YouTube and Google! Because these exist, you are in luck and you can meander through just about any crafting task with these two resources, that's how I learned to knit, by watching YouTube! In fact all of my crafts started with YouTube, knitting, crochet, paper crafting, and coloring.  So as I start my first baby quilt, I will take you on the journey with me and share my experience and anything I might learn along the way! Here are the first 110 charm squares...I need 220.

Charms squares all day. 

Luckily these babies are due in the fall, so I have time to try, make mistakes and then try again. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting! Oh, I am still working on the Veritas Cowl and expect to have it done I another week or so.