a quilt for little lottie

hello and happy new year! my, i was gone for awhile wasn't i? it's been a busy year. i took on a second part time job and then the holidays hit and the next thing you know, bam! it's 2013. i haven't been too crafty lately but there was a big project that i took me about ten months to complete and i wanted to share it with you.

last winter, i threw my sister a baby shower and one of the activities was to design a quilt square. i pre-cut several cotton squares (and sealed the edges with a fray check) and provided permanent fabric markers for guests to doodle on or write messages to my growing neice.

once they were done, it was time to take the squares home and sew them together, cut the batting and backing, and bind it all together.

 

and that's where it usually goes downhill for me. bindings are my weakness, my achilles heel. but this time i was determined to do it well. so i did a lot of research on youtube and discovered that there are a million ways to bind a quilt. i found this video by HeirloomCreations to be incredibly helpful in learning how to make your own binding, mitered corners and pockets.

i was so proud of my first mitered corner! they're so tidy and satisfying and surprising easy to make. i used a premade binding since i'm lazy but in the future i think i'll make my own.

then came the time for some hand stitching to secure the binding to the backing of the quilt. more youtube research led me to the ladder stitch. this little stitch is amazing. it's so easy (almost therapeutic) and results in a beautifully finished binding! hand stitching the binding is now easily my favorite part of quilt making.

 and here is the finished quilt! it took about eight months longer than i had hoped (sewing a quilt in a steamy hot summer apartment is not my idea of a fun time) but it's done! i'm quite proud of the results and am a lot more confident of my sewing/quilting skills now. i hope little lottie likes it too <3 br="br">