I can do things

Occassionally I decided that I know how to do things.  Things that I in all actuality don't know how to do.  Maggie and I have an on-going debate about me believing that I can just do things (and I WILL play you a song on a piano one day) and so a couple weeks ago I decided that I could sew well enough to sew a quilt.  Not true, but I decided to go through with it anyway.  I had ordered fat quarters online from a lady on Etsy and spent a few hours on my day off cutting the fat quarters down into 4x4 squares.  It took forever because I made a pattern out of a piece of cardboard and scissored them all. Since then, I got a rotary cutter and a cutting mat which makes things so much easier but hey, ya live, ya learn.  

So, I went to town, cut all my squares, then put together a pattern that I liked.   Steps 1 and 2 done!

The next evening I decided to start sewing.  Like I said, I have never sewn a quilt before, so I don't know that this is the way to do it, but I started with my 4 squares right in the middle and worked around them sewing together 4 blocks at a time, then the small blocks into big blocks.  This was the quilt top after I finished it up.

After that I ironed it all flat (as flat as I could since I didn't sew my seems all the same direction), then laid it on top of a minky fabric and cut the back. 

Once I had the back cut to size I started sewing.  I ran along all 4 sides and left a spot just large enough to flip the quilt inside out, like you would if you were making a pillow, then hand stitched the little bit closed by hand.  This is the quilt with the back on.

I messed it up a little.  The minky fabric has a little bit of stretch to it, so I cut it a little wonky and it wanted to pull the top funny so I learned my lesson there.  Since I don't know how to hand quilt, I decided to just tack each square to the minky fabric and make it a tied quilt.  I just used embroidery floss and tied the center of each square.  This is the finshed product.  I was happy that my lines were so straight except for one spot....where I sewed in a set of blocks upside down and then was so frustrated with myself that I couldn't bring myself to seam rip it and do it over.  

So....that's my first attempt at quilt making.  I love that quilt.  It's just pretty.  I made it for Miss Ollie who will be here shockingly soon.  I've just finished my second quilt for Maggie's baby.  I'm sure hoping it's a boy because the quilt is definately all blue and red.  I'll throw up some pictures of it soon.  I hope you like it too!  And remember, I CAN just do things.  You can too. 

P.S.  I forgot to mention that I know very little about sewing machines....what type of needle should I be using for this kind of project?  My thread keeps breaking on me at random so I have changed my tension to be tighter and looser and that didn't seem to help so I thought maybe it's my needle.  I suppose I could read the instruction manual but come on...who wants to do that.