Quilting Projects for Christmas

Ok, so I made a few quilting projects as gifts for Christmas. These were totally done just by me winging it. I didn't have a per say "pattern" to follow. I just mapped out on a piece of paper what I wanted and done my measurements. 

Never the less, most of the inspiring quilts I find on the internet don't even have a pattern. They are just quilts people have done and posted. So, I thought I would share mine too. 

I made 4 quilted gifts but I only have pictures of 2. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the other two.

This is the quilt I made for my kiddos' sweet Sunday school teacher. Her girls were sweet enough to get me all their hand prints so I could do it for her!

 

This is one I made for my little sister.  I tried to do a whimsical theme for her. The 2 biggest hearts are for our daddy who passed away 2 years ago of cancer and our grandpa who passed away.

Flower Garden Quilts

I found the cutest little flower garden pillow tutorial with FREE templates at Don't Look Now!

I've been trying to find a quilt pattern that I wanted to do for my girls and I fell so in love with this adorable template that I decided to do them a Flower Garden Quilt!

My girls LOVE their new quilts! Head on over to Don't Look Now!  and get your FREE flower garden templates!

If you need help with your quilt, check these out!

How To Free Motion Quilt
How To Back A Quilt
How To Bind A Quilt

How to bind a quilt

Binding a quilts is really easy... even if you're a beginner! It's really just basic measuring and sewing.

You can get creative with binding too! You can use one color or many colors (scrappy binding).

To know how much binding you need, you will need to measure all the way around your quilt and add about 10" or so. You'll also want to cut your binding about 2.5" wide.

Now to sew strips together...
Take two pieces, place them right sides together like this. Kinda like an upside down "L".

Sew across like shown. (Sorry, it keeps loading sideways)

Cut off extra fabric.

Open up and iron down your seams. Now you will have one continuous piece.

 Once you get your entire huge long strip for the entire quilt sewn together, iron it in half lengthwise.

You are going to line you raw edges up with the raw edge of the quilt. The red is what mine was laying on, so pay no attention to that. To start, you are going to unfold one of the ends and make a point by folding it over and then you will fold the ends back together.

Start sewing about 2" from where my fingers are in the picture above.

Stop about 1/2" from your corner and back stitch.

Fold over. Pin.

Fold your strip back where the raw edges meet up again. You will have a little flap now. This is what makes your mitered corners.

Make sure your flap is laying flat. You will start sewing at the top edge and work your way around the quilt doing all corners the same way.

Now, once you have worked your way back around to your starting point you will open up the pointed beginning we made. Remember? Tuck your binding tail right in there. Cut off any huge amount of excess you don't need and finish sewing it up.

Once that's done, flip your binding over to cover the other side and iron down.

Now, you can either whip stitch the back by hand stitching or you can sew in the ditch from the front of the quilt, making sure the get the binding on the back sewn on.

Happy Binding!

How to Back a Quilt

The first time I done a quilt I was terrified! I always thought they had to be so hard, but they really aren't. So, don't be scared of trying. You CAN do it!!! 

Okay... lets get started, shall we?! The quilt I'll be binding in the pictures is a different quilt than in the above picture, but it's the same process.

You Will Need:

* Your quilt top

* Batting of your choice

* Basting Spray and/or large safety pins

* Backing material

* Painter's tape

You will need to sew your back material together to make one large piece. This all depends on how large or how small your quilt is. Just measure your quilt top and figure it by remembering that most fabrics come in a width between 40-45". And one yard is 36" (If your doing a larger quilt, I would really go for the 44-45" width though) You can also buy backing fabric, which is one large piece of fabric already together for you. 

TIP: Always make you backing material about 4-5" wider than your top on all sides! This is important for the quilting part! 

Once you have your backing material ready to size,  lay it on a hard surface like hardwood/laminate flooring
(right side fabric down). If you have a table big enough, that would work too.

Tape the entire back piece every so far. I do one on every corner and two or three on the sides. Play around with it until it is nice and taunt.

Spray your basting spray on your backing in sections while laying down your batting. Now, do the same thing for the top piece. You should now have a 3 layer sandwich. You can choose to also pin all three layers together with large safety pins. You don't have to do the basting spray and pins, but I like to... just to keep things together a little more.

Now you're ready for quilting, either stitch in the ditch or do free motion quilting.

 

Saw Tooth Star Memory Quilt

Ok... I've been keeping one secret the last few months. For a good reason though! I had my wonderful sister-in-law help me find pictures for my Mother-in-law's Memory Quilt for Christmas, but she had no idea I was making a photo memory quilt for her too!

My husband and my mom are the only ones who knew about both of the quilts. I wanted to show it when I was finished but I couldn't risk her seeing it before Christmas. 

I finally got to give it to her! FINALLY! It was hard not telling her when I basically tell her everything!

Here is Susan's Saw Tooth Start Memory Quilt!

What do you think??? It's not perfect but it is my first star quilt and only my 2nd quilt ever, so I'm happy with how it turned out!

I got the star measurements from Thought and Found. She has great measurements on the stars and explains how to do them very well! I used 4x6 photos (except 2 that were smaller) for the star centers. To make them the size I wanted, I just added the extra fabric around the sides that were 4". 

The Granny Quilt

This is the Granny Quilt pattern I made. (((Pattern Coming Soon))) It is a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law. It is also my very fist quilt! I've done small table runners but nothing this big.

I used 10 Sewable Printable Fabric Sheets for this Quilt. They are really easy to work with if you ever decide to try them.

I machine quilted it using my regular sewing machine and it was actually pretty easy. I'll have a post up soon on Free Motion Quilting with a home sewing machine. I done simple stippling quilting and I just love it! I love the cozy wrinkly feel of quilts... they are just so comfy!

(A big thank you to my hubby for helping with pictures! Love his heart... he really does try!)

Here are a few more pictures!

Photo Quilt Peek

I've been working on the quilting for my MIL's quilt for Christmas and I wanted to give you a small peak of what type of quilt stitching I'm doing. It's not finished yet but when it gets done, I will post photos of the full quilt along with the pattern I made up for it.

This quilt stitching is stippling. It's very easy once you get going. It's sort of like you're dancing all over your quilt.

The entire quilt except the pictures and the center will be done like this. The center will have hearts centered around my in-law's wedding picture.

I'll post full quilt pics soon! I hope you all are ready for Christmas... it's right around the corner!