New Wave Quilt

Pin It

Featured on Ladybird Ln

I finished my very first, legit quilt last night! I made a quilt for my bf's new son last year, but that was just me flirting with quilt-making: It was more of a blanket quilt. I didn't use batting. I machine sewed the pre-fabricated satin blanket binding. And I didn't use a pattern. 

I did all the right "quilty" things for this one. It's the New Wave Quilt from Oh, Fransson! I actually purchased the extended pattern so I could have the crib size measurements, but the free version on her site is awesome. I did take her advice and purchased the Wright's Fat Cats Ruler to cut my pattern. So glad I did as I see myself making more of these for gifts.

The main fabric and binding, purchased from Etsy, is from Kate Spain's Fandango line. The white sashing is Kona Cotton White, and the backing is Minky Cuddle Dimple Dot in Coral. I used Soy Soft Blend for the batting. (All three of the latter are from fabric.com.) 

When I "quilted" - that's what I'm calling the part where I sandwiched and sewed together all of the pieces...Is that right? - Anyway, when I quilted, I just "stitched the ditch." That simply means I ran my stitch along the existing pattern. Doing this left a neat design on the Minky at the back of the quilt.

And finally...The binding. Oh the binding. My friend, Evan, convinced me to hand-sew it verses machine sewing to finish it out. She showed me what she called the "ladder stitch" and swore it didn't take long. She also sent me this tutorial from Diary of a Quilter to help me out a bit. I recognized the technique from Oh, Frannson's site, so I also used hers as a supplement resource as well.

I want to first say that I'm glad I finished the quilt this way. It looks so nice and neat, and I'm proud of myself. BUT, I think machine sewing it would make it more durable. My impatience and achey hands got the best of me at some points, and I made the stitching too far apart (not shown, btw). I'm afraid the binding will come loose after use and washings. And it took about 2-3 hours. That's a long time. But I will probably do it this way again, knowing it will take awhile to do it right and giving myself the time to do it.

So baby girl #2 has her first piece of crib bedding. Lots more to do before I can do a room reveal, but this, I think, was the most labor intensive for me. (For the hubs it will be painting. :P) Can't wait until it's all done!

Linked to:

Lil' Luna

Party's Here