Showered with Love

Mystery project unveiled.

Shower attended.

Gift gladly accepted.

There is nothing like deciding in the midnight hour that you want to make a quilt for a baby shower gift. Then you decide, hey why don't I take pictures of how I made it and quilted it. ugh. I'm so far invested now, there's no turning back.

There are plenty of ways out there to make a coin quilt. Take your pic of tutorials on the web. This isn't a tutorial on how to make the top as much as it is a simple way to machine quilt if you've never tried that before.

We're going to sew it and quilt it at the same time.

Here's the basic look.

Materials for 39" x 43"
Scraps for 'coins

1 yard of border fabric

Piece of batting: 43" x 46"
1 1/2 yard backing

1/2 yard binding

I wanted to use up a bunch of scraps in a fairly random way.

I cut them all into 5" x .....whatever. Usually they were 5" x 3", or 5" x 4" etc. Once I had all my little 'coins' cut into 5" widths, I started to sew them together into approximately 12+" sections. I did this so that didn't have to pre-plan the placement yet. Once I have 12 sections, I lay them out in 4 strips with 3 sections in each and flip them upside down and around until I'm happy with the placement of color. Sew the sections together to equal 4 long strips that should measure more than 36 1/2" .

Press the seams all in one direction.

Trim each strip to equal 36 1/2". I like to fold my strip in half, lengthwise, and press the fold. **

Now I will trim it at 18 1/4 ". (that's half of 36 1/2")

Trim all 4 strips, they should all measure 36 1/2 " when unfolded.


The following works mathematically, but you will always want to check your measurements first and adjust if needed.


With Border fabric cut:

3 ~ 5" strips ( 5" x 42" of width of fabric) INSIDE BORDER
Sub cut these 3 strips to measure 36 1/2 " (5" x 36 1/2 ")
**following the method shown above
4 ~ 4" strips (4" x 42" of width of fabric) OUTSIDE BORDER
Sub cut 2 of these strips to measure 36 1/2 " (4" x 36 1/2")
**following the method shown above

Sub cut the other 2 to measure 39" (4" x 39")
Now we're going to prepare the 'quilting part' next.


And I just want to document that I pieced my batt together, which I HATE to do, thank you very much. But someone has to be thrify around here.

Lay out your backing (wrong side UP).
Center your batting on top.
Selvedge edge is on the left.
We're working across from selvedge to selvedge.

Take a FOUR inch x 36 1/2 " strip and center it vertically (right side facing up) on the left hand edge.

You want to have approx 4-5" inches on each end. This is where your top and bottom borders will go eventually.

Lay one of your scrappy strips on top, right sides together.

Pin through all three layers, on the right side.

If you cut your border lengths as shown above at the **,

then you will have a crease mark in both your scrappy strip and border strip.

Line up those crease marks and pin. I pin a lot because it's apt to shift as you sew through all 3 layers.

Okay, the picture below doesn't show a lot of pins yet.

I learned the hard way.

Before you sew, make sure your bobbin thread will match your backing. Everything you sew will show. I backstitched at the very beginning and end of each strip. Sew a 1/4 ".

(on the back )

Once you've sewn that together, press open. Press out flat and crisp. This is the pattern you will follow with the rest of the quilt.

For the next 3 border strips, be sure to use the 5" width.

Place the 5" border strip on the scrappy strip, right sides together.

Pin and sew.

Tip: I like to fold up all of the excess fabric so it goes through the machine easier.

and on it goes, working across....

Now, you could add your top and bottom border and call it done or.......I decided to add some wonky, slanted, ziggity, zagging down the scrappy strips. Again, when you start to stitch, do a little backstitch first, and remember every stitch will show on the back.

Measure across the top and bottom. It should measure 39".

Sew a 4" x 39" strip to the top and one to the bottom in the same fashion as you did the side borders.

Now, you can be done with the quilting at this stage if you like. I almost considered it. I was going to put some cute little cotton ties, strategically placed and call it good. It would have been darling. But alas, I was lazy and wasn't sure where my needle was so I went with loopy-looing the border fabric. It was free motion quilting on my sewing machine. It was nice to do this way because I NEVER baste anything when I free motion and I usually have bloopers all over the back that I have to take out. So, this way, it was all nice and smooth on the back and I just had to mosey around the scrappy stripps.

This is my favorite girl.

I think she knows something I know.

Why else would she be winking at me.

And I LOVE pigtails.

p.s. the backing fabric is Alexander Henry 2005 "Let's Play House"

i don't believe it's in print anymore. :( but I could be wrong. :)

Bind: Cut 5 ~ 2 1/2 " strips from binding fabric.

I was a little nervous that it was a little too busy and maybe 'mom' wouldn't appreciate the 'crazy wonkiness' of it all. You know, maybe she was more into sweet and delicate baby than happy and peppy baby.

I also threw some of her wedding fabrics in there.

I think 'mom' liked it.

Label!

I made this cute little birdy rattle.

I love her.

Little bluebird girl.

And check out that tail feather!

Lots of pictures of her.

I really love her.

I'm sad she's gone.

Maybe I need one or 10. 

Join us at  one of our Quilt Retreats!!