Quilt of Squares

I'm wrapping up a special quilt this mroning in my sewing room. Literally, wrapping it up to send it to Germany. It took me a while to decide on this quilt design. I have an uncle who lives in Munich that has been in the hospital for quite a while now. It took me a while to decide what would be an appropriate "I'm thinking of you" gift that isn't girly. I landed on something practical, comfortable, hopefully comforting, and not-so-girly. I hope I got it right! 

Lucky for you, I documented the process and wanna share! 

Here are some necessary tools to have before we begin! 

1. Cutting board

2. Cutting guide 

3. Rotary cutter

4. Some good scissors 

5. Obvious but I'll list it anyway: a sewing machine 

And your materials:

1. Enough fabric of various coordinating patterns to cut 192 2.5"x2.5" squares, if you are making yours the same size quilt as mine. {Or, you could just let the number of squares you have dictate your size once they are laid out.}

2. 1.5 yards of white or natural cotton fabric

3. 1.5 yards of coordinating patterned cotton fabric

4. 1.5 yards of cotton batting (or a "crib size" precut pack)

5. Cheater binding

6. Thread

Here we go!

Cut out all those squares I mentioned. This is tedious, but pretty easy. Put something good on tv and go for it! I use a guide that is 2.5" wide. That helps. 

Aren't they cute? I mean, cool... And manly... ?

Next up, make your quilt sandwich! Lay the patterned cotton fabric on your floor if you have a big, open space. Better yet, tape the corners down with painters tape or masking tape to keep it from moving. Now lay your batting on top and make sure it's lined up neatly. Next up is the white cotton piece. Same thing, line it up pretty! Speaking of lining up... Here's the fun part. Line up alllll those squares in rows in random order! 

Or, how about a not-so-random arrangement... That could be fun. Stripes? Chevron? Checkers?

I space out my squares with 1" in between on all sides. 

Now you're at the tricky part. You need to secure the squares to the layers beneath. So you can pick this thing up without everything falling off. There are 2 ways to do the: pinning or a running stitch. I pinned mine and it was really a pain. I thought it was the easy way, but next time I'll try stitching. You would just run a loose stitch (by hand) through all 3 layers, up each row. You only need to do this in one direction. The point is to hold then down and you'll pull this thread out later. So no perfection needed, here! 

Actually, the whole look of the quilt is really made by its imperfections. So don't stress much about any of it.

Time to take it to the sewing machine! Just use the regular foot and settings. {As opposed to the quilting foot and settings.} With a 1/4" seam allowance, sew down a row near the center of the quilt. Now work your way towards the outside, sewing every row on your way there. Then go do the same for the other side. You'll have something like this: 

Now, turn your quilt 90* and repeat. When you are done, you will have attached your squares to the "quilt top" and quilted all 3 layers together, all in one step! This is such a huge time saver... 

Speaking of time savers. I love a good hand-stitched binding. But, sometimes I need something done fast. You can buy double-fold binding tape and use that instead. Square up the edges of your quilt that may have been a little off. Make sure you cut back to where all 3 layers come to the edge all the way around. 

Place the edge of the quilt inside the binding. You should begin about a quarter of the way down one side, rather than on a corner. This will help make a prettier corner. 

Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance - but check to be sure you are catching the binding on the underside as well. Sometimes it's hard to get them even. I say, it won't be perfect, so don't stress too much! It's the character that makes this quilt special.

When you hit a corner, fold to resemble this: 

I usually play with it until it looks right...

When your end is about 8" from where the you started, trim your end piece to a length that allows 1/2" overlap with the beginning piece. If you're like me, you'll have to pull some stitches out of the beginning because you didn't plan ahead this far... Turn the binding strips inside out and sew the edges together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Your binding should now be the perfect length! Just finish attaching it to your quilt and voila!

You just made a quilt of squares!

Machine wash/dry it and allow those exposed edges to get all raggedy! After it's washed it gets wonderfully crinkly and soft. 

After the first wash, some threads will need to be pulled off, like so:

Easy enough? I hope so!