First attemp at patchwork quilt!

[FairyJen]

Making a patchwork quilt for my dd's birthday present. Her birthday is in may!! < panic stations >

I'm using old clothes from various family members etc do its really personal.

I have never made or done anything like this before! Today I have started cutting my squares and have realised I need more fabric and more pins!

I have a sewing machine but any advice, hints or tips would be welcome!

Or if you live in SE23 any fancy helping me... I provide coffee and cake!

Have I bitten off way more than I can chew??? Please help!!

No, not daft - do as you want! :) It's your quilt after all.

When I was doing my first quilt, I did it with no pattern/symmetry in mind, but did, like you, keep the bold/dark colours separate. I have to say, I laid mine out about a zillion different ways before I was happy with it - but massively over-thought each square! :o

Oh im the same lost track of how many times laid it out! Dp has had his hands on it am he is über finicky about symmetry do he has "fixed"'it for me

Will try put up new pic later

I find it best to sew 4 or 9 blocks together and play around with them that way. Otherwise you can get yourself in a right tis when you find you have put two colours next to eachother inadvertently!

HAve you considered sewing them on point...its no more difficult than a regular square setting, and you just need to cut triangles for the last bits.

look here

Another thing to consider is buying a length of a solid white or cream fabric and alternating coloured blocks with the solid - I love doing this and it creates its own harmony. You could of course alternate with a dark solid too!

How are you going to finish the quilt off? Tie or sew?

I was planning in just boring stitching the ditch but I may well wimp out!

stitch in the ditch is good! Easy too and forgiving of most mistakes. Machine quilting is actually quite difficult and easy to get yourself snared up. Make sure you baste well!

Ive seen some commercial quilts that have large (1cm) stitches in embroidery thread running over the quilts - looks quite cool, although I would check for colour fastness. I dont think the actual quilting is done that way - its more decorative effect

As a newby would you say it would be easier I tie then? My machine is ok/good but not excellent iyswim

When I made a quilt for DD out of her old baby clothes, I bought a load of medium-weight iron-on interfacing and ironed it onto the back of all my fabrics before I cut out the patches. That way everything was so much easier to handle and cut out, no fraying, and even the jersey/stretchy fabrics were fixed in position. It all gets covered by the wadding/backing fabric and didn't affect the softness of the finished quilt.

You'll be so chuffed with your finished quilt, OP, and I know from personal experience that the odd wonky seam doesn't matter in the end

I did a tied quilt - definitely easier and it looks lovely.

Oh, and when I finally had the blocks laid out how I wanted I took a photo on my phone, and numbered all the pieces on the back (in pencil so it didn't show through).
Will stop hogging your thread now

tied quilt is much easier than stitched, and you could make the ties part of the design using a bright coloured tie!

If its your first quilt, I'd recommend it, simply because once you have the top finished, you will want to get the rest done quickly!

I've Definately discovered the "loveliness" of wonky seams

Hog away all input is welcome and appreciated!

Have always wanted to do this, but never brave enough. Only have so-so sewing machine experience. But will give it a try now.

mamij defo try it! I have never sewn or anything before but already I'm in love with this! Is very cathartic in a way!

Be warned tho it is even more addictive than mumsnet! You have been warned

This has a lot of info

www.quilting-tidbits.com/quilting-instructions.html

I'm really interested in this. I've saved various bits of clothing from my children and want to make them a quilt each but I was thinking of putting a border on each square of their clothing patches if that makes sense? Has anyone else done this? I just like the look of patchwork that has borders.

I haven't tried that. Would you border each one the same? If so, would you border each one separately and then join them or try and border them all to one long strip of binding?

Well I'm still kind of thinking it through Flubba, and haven't done one like this before, but I'm thinking I would border each one the same, and make them up separately so I would end up with a pile of squares each with a plain border, then use strips of another fabric to join them all. Not sure if I'm explaining it clearly!

This is such a lovely thread!! I'm a quilt novice currently working on dd's 1st birthday present as well (her birthday was over a month ago now, so I'm running a bit behind, I figure it just adds to the charm!). My first few quilts were done with stitch in the ditch, I prefer the way it looks to tie ins but I think it's just personal preference. I had no problems machine stitching with my clunky old machine. I'm trying to do free motion quilting on this one though... And it's a struggle... My only advice it to take your time, she won't mind if its "late" and you'll be much happier if you enjoy doing it rather than rushing to finish. Can't wait to see it though, what you have so far is gorgeous!!

FairyJen I think your patchwork so far looks lovely!

I would have done what you did and cut out my squres wrong, and then corrected it like you did, trimming the bigger squares a bit!

I have only ever made one quilt, that I finished recently, made up of 3" squares cut from my scrap fabric. It is completely random with no patterns at all. my first finished quilt

I just stitched in the ditch and my seams were wonky too, but I love the end result!

I got so addicted after that that I am in the process of making another one, out of 1.25" squares of my scrap fabric this time. I must be mad, but I need 1650 little squares to make it.

Hope you're getting on ok!

Jayne you could make a border around each sqaure, and then more borders around it all, but it might be easier to just have the squares share borders, more like this

or have them on an angle like this

When you come to quilting it all together, roll it up and then just have the length you are sewing unrolled , and roll up the other side as you go along, it is easier to manage than a bit mass of fabric.

If you have the right needle you should be fine sewing it all together with your machine.

Overmydeadbody that does look good, but what I have in my mind is something I saw someone do for their children years ago, but I can't find any examples now!

I understand what you mean jayne - and think it will look lovely - especially if the borders are contrasting colour to the joining strips. It'll be a lot of work though I imagine, but am sure it'll be worth it. :)

quickly waves at over :)

waves back

Ooh have just stumbled across this thread - ideal. I've been saving some of dds clothes to make a patchwork quilt but no idea where to start. Am going to have a nosy at the link someone posted up thread. It could be a long, slow process as I don't have a sewing machine so will have to do it by hand... We'll just have to see whether I have the patience to finish the thing!