Last night (at midnight), I decided to start a baby quilt for a friend who is having baby #2 in a few weeks. I worked on it in-between meals today and now have a finished quilt after just a couple hours!
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The quilt started with a roll of 2.5" strips I got from fabric.com. The roll had just 20 strips from the Animal Hugs collection by 3 Wishes.
I had made this quilt for my friend's first baby, and I wanted this one to coordinate, but still be unique for baby #2. I knew a simple strip quilt would be perfect. And doing it quilt-as-you-go on my longarm would make it quick and easy too!
I cut a piece about 45" long from some yardage I had in my stash for the backing, then loaded it on my longarm. I had a leftover piece of Warm & Natural batting that was just the right size too! For thread, the only true brown I had in my thread stash was the new Forty3 thread from Aurifil. It's a 3-ply cotton thread made especially for longarms. I typically use Aurifil 40wt and 50wt in my longarm (which is 2-ply), so I knew this thread would be a bit thicker and need a slight tension adjustment. Kramer (my 1989 Gammill longarm) didn't have any issues switching at all.
I used my fancy channel locks to lock the wheels on my longarm and stitched a straight horizontal line across the top of the batting to start. Then I lined up the top edge of my first strip (right sides up) with that line.
Next, I laid the second strip right on top of that, right sides down. I did put a few pins across the strip (away from the bottom edge) to help it stay in place. I moved my longarm, reset the channel lock, and stitched another horizontal straight line 1/4" or so from the bottom to sew the two strips together.
See my fancy channel locks? It works great!
I repeated this with every strip, doing them in the order they were rolled up. I will admit, sometimes, my 1/4" went off the bottom and I just redid the line a bit higher up. And sometimes my 1/4" was much close to 1/2" or more. I didn't worry about being exact or if there were two or three lines on the back for when I redid one. Finished is better than perfect!
I had some coordinating striped fabric in my stash that I used to cut 2 1/4" binding strips.
Then I machine sewed it on. (Tutorial here.)
I even remembered to add one of my satin Ever Emblem tags into the binding!
From grabbing the 2.5" strip roll off my shelf to finished quilt, was about 3 hours total! Not too bad!
The quilt measures roughly 40" x 36". I know it will get lots of love and use by my friend and her new son!
I'm a huge fan of quick and easy quilts, and this one definitely fits into that category!
What have you finished this week? Link up your most recent finish from your blog, Facebook, or Instagram post here so we can all see what you've made too!
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I think that's brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI made a crib quilt this way once but sewed it with my sewing machine. I had a problem with the strips pulling towards the back since I had to feed it through the machine. I tried pinning and still had a problem but it definitely is a quick way to make a quilt! Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteHi Laura! HAHA - starting a baby quilt at midnight. That sounds exactly when I get my inspiration, as well. It is so cute and now that baby will be wrapped in your love. You can't ask for a better gift. {{Hugs}} Thanks for the linky party today. ~smile~ Roseanne
ReplyDeleteWell that was a quick finish. Interesting way to quilt it. Well done.
ReplyDelete