Adventures in Quilting

So people have long told me that I have an old soul. I admit it, I love knitting and crocheting (although in NYC, this would be considered "hip"), and I have recently started quilting. And by started, I mean I made one little test quilt. It is by no means perfect, but I think it is a pretty neat first attempt. I definitely feel more confident in my sewing abilities and love seeing the final product come together. I have to admit, when I was piecing the blocks I got sooo bored! I wasn't sure quilting was for me, but I will say to anyone who is learning to quilt and is stuck at the piecing stage...Keep going! It goes much faster and gets more fun once you start putting the blocks together. Good luck!

Below is a photo timeline of my progress leading to the finished blanket!

Here are my pieces. I used the strip piecing method to create the checkered pattern:


Then I made nine blocks like this by randomly matching the strips:


Then I created my quilt top by laying out the blocks in the order I wanted them and numbering them



Then I played around with quilting scraps to see what my sewing machine would do. I love the circular one, but since my quilt is really geometric, that will have to wait.



I decided on the straight lines to run through the solid black squares, and this is how it came out. I battled with my thread and tension for a while, so the back is not perfect, but I finally got the hang of it with better quilting thread.


I chose a white patterned border and hand sewed the back. Not too bad, and it came together nicely. Here's the back so you can see the quilting pattern and the border:


After finishing, I am already thinking about what the next quilt project will be. It is time consuming, but seeing the final quilt makes it all worth it. I made that!!