New Quilt

Pinterest is addicting. I am going on a craft weekend at the end of October and I need to figure out what I'm doing for Christmas gifts, so I've spent far too much time on Pinterest lately. I came across this A.MA.ZING chenille quilt and had to make one. Right away. Seriously, it's like this quilt is made with crack and somehow it came out of my computer monitor and sucked me right in. The day I saw it I went to the store & bought fabric, layered it & squared it up. 10 rows were sewn that day.

When my son came home from work that night, we had this conversation:
Micah: What are you making now mom?
Me: I saw the COOLEST quilt EVER on a blog today and I have to make one right now!
Micah: Really? The coolest one EVER?
Me: Yes! Wait til you see it! It's chenille you make by layering flannel... (I went on and Micah's eyes kind of glazed over. Read the blog post at Aesthetic Nest - all credit to her!
Micah: Great mom. Don't stay up too late. (They know me so well!)

That was Thursday. Friday night I finished the quilting on over half the quilt, Saturday night I finished the quilting, cut the chenille strips, rounded the corners (my first rounded corners ever!) and bound it. I also added a funky little zip-zag on the binding. Thursday night - Saturday night: Quilt - done! Here's my photo log, not a tutorial, but includes any hints or ways I did it that may (or may not) vary from the inspiring blog post.

Background fabric. It's a really fine textured corduroy that I thought could possibly be girl or boy material. (I know it's flowers, but the blue and red are really prominent and until you get close you don't really see that they are flowers.)

Had to roll and fold the material to get it through the machine.

168 lines of quilting. I counted.

The inspiring blog post says it takes a long time and I thought, "It can't take that long, it's only about 45" square." Well, it does take that long. I probably spent 3-4 hours quilting this sucker. Of course a bunch of that time is refolding the material. Oh! And redoing a line when your bobbin thread runs out. (Don't you hate that!?!) Keep your eye on your bobbin! I always forget to look, or think I can do just one more line - and then forget to change it! I used a spool and a half of thread, part of that being 5 full bobbins.

Cutting through 3 layers only, leaving the back layer whole. I don't know how people do it without the Olfa Chenille Cutter! That's a lot of cutting!

My hint for this tool is to actually follow the size gauge. (I know - why wouldn't you do that in the first place?) The guides on each of the 4 sizes looked a little too big for the 1/2 inch rows I was doing, but it's SUPPOSED to be a little bit big so it spits the row. So trust the sizing guide. Also, make your cuts while the quilt is laying on a flat surface to keep the line uniform. I have a couple rows that I am unhappy with the way they were cut, but it's totally user error, and I'm considering ripping out those rows and fixing them. (Would anyone but me notice them? And can I get over it? I'll probably re-do them!)

Rounding corners.

Binding, pre-wash.

Rounded corner binding, post-wash.

My chenille layers were a white backed red on the bottom, followed by a teal that matched the back, and then the cornflower blue.

Don't you love how it gets all wavy and soft looking when it's been washed?

It looks so interesting you just have to touch it.

I love how soft and pliable this quilt is! I'll definitely make more. 

I don't even know who's getting this quilt!

I think it costs a little more than a 'regular' baby quilt, you need 4+ pieces of material instead of 2 or 2 1/2 -ish needed for a quilt, but no batting, no piecing... I'm going to try to pick up neutral colored flannel sheets from yard sales to supplement new material costs.