Every Christmas my step-grandparents (Patty's parents) send us lovely and wonderful gifts for us and the kids. The kind that make me cry because of their generosity. Every year. I wanted to do something extra special for them this year, and I decided to make them a quilt. And I actually did! And it turned out beautifully! AAAH! Can you tell how excited I am?!
The journey was long and tedious. It started in the summer when I found a jelly roll of fabric I had to have (a jelly roll is a bunch of 2.5 inch strips of coordinating fabric rolled together to look like a jelly roll). Of course it was Moda. Why even ask?
I decided to cut each of the 44-inch strips into four equal smaller strips and sew five of them together to make a block of fabric. I then appliquéd them onto some soft jean-type fabric and had it quilted professionally. The next two pictures are from my phone and horrid. I'm sorry.
The professional quilting makes a huge difference!
When I got it back, there was the binding to do. Usually I just take the extra backing and roll it up and over onto the top and sew it down and call it a day. But the back of this quilt is a divine and super-soft red paisley minky. That wouldn't work for multiple reasons. First, minky slides everywhere when you try to sew it (learned that one the hard way). Second, it's too thick for a binding on such a nice quilt (ugly much). I had a decision to make, and I decided to try my first real binding. (Take notice that I'm using the word "real" a lot because I don't know the official terminology for quilting yet. I'm learning.) It took a lot of work and a few mistakes to get it just right, but by the time I was finishing the last piece of the binding I had it down to a science and it looked great!
Apparently when doing a "real" binding, you have to match up the edge of the back with the edge of the front EXACTLY or it'll look really bad. I thought with clear thread I could get away with not having it match perfectly. Not so much.
Aaah, that's better. I love perfection.
The final product all ready for packaging and mailing to the very cold Michigan
(until Clara got to it, that is).
(I guess we can tell Grandma and Grandpa Martin that Clara had to give it a "hug" before sending it.)
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Martin for always being so generous and kind. We love you so! Merry Christmas!!
And before anyone in our families gets too bitter that they're getting something store-bought in stead of with love, my goal is to make one really nice project for one person each year for Christmas.
