Sewing for Silas: Woven Baby Quilt

So, I finished Silas's baby quilt last night. Here is the finished product! 

This was an interesting project for me because I have never made a quilt. Ok, let me back up. I have never made a quilt by myself from start to finish. When I was about 17 or 18 I made two twin size quilts (that are absolutely beautiful and I LOVE them!) but my mom helped me extensively. In fact, I don't think I would attempt to do the same project by myself again. And I didn't actually "quilt" them. We had that professionally done. So....this was kinda a "first quilt" for me. 

I followed this tutorial online for the "Basketweave Quilt Pattern". It was a great tutorial with lots of pictures. Basically you cut two inch strips of fabric (I used my rotary cutter and it went really fast, 30 minutes-ish?) and weave them together to make the top. 

Here is the quilt all woven! 

Then I quilted the top by layering the top, batting and backing (I used minky fabric) and sewed a grid, basically a 1/4 inch seam down each row on each side of the square (you can see the pattern in the picture below). Then I used scraps to do the binding, machine sewing it on one side and hand sewing the finished side. 

 The lady who did the tutorial said she made her quilt in an afternoon (it is super cute too if you click on the link above). She is an experienced quilter. This project took me over a week, though I didn't work on it every day. My favorite part was hand sewing the binding to finish the quilt. My least favorite part? Everything else. I don't think I have found a new hobby in quilting. 

For one thing, my back was KILLING me while I wove all the fabric together (though for a person who is not 9 months pregnant, this process would probably  be fun). Then the darn-minky fabric was so hard to sew on! Oh my word! Never again! It made my machine go super slow and I like to sew FAST FAST FAST--especially if I am just sewing in a straight line, which is basically what the whole quilt was. So I had to push the fabric with one hand and pull with the other so my machine wouldn't make the tiniest baby stitches you ever saw. I've heard a "walking foot" for your sewing machine helps this but I don't have one. Oh well. The quilt got done. 

I am pretty happy with the results. If I would do this project differently, I would cut the strips with pinking sheers or pinking rotary cutter to minimize strings (because the raw edged do show and there are a LOT of strings). I would also do a darker/different color scheme. I am not super thrilled with how beige the quilt looks. But I am glad I got it done and the back is SUPER soft...which makes up for how hard it was to sew on the minky fabric. 

 

I think it will be a perfect crib quilt or playmat for Silas though, and overall, (despite my hassle with the minky) this was a really easy project.