My Second Quilt

I finished my second quilt. Woo hoo.  And, it looks exactly like the first one I made... just with different colors. Hey, once you find a good thing, go with it, right?  Actually, I really loved the first quilt I made but it was a gift for my sister, so when it was time to make one for me, I decided to make the same thing... a little larger.  I started this project here.  Yes, July 5, 2011. One year and 6 months ago.  I didn't say I was fast.

This quilt is 5' x 5'.  I made it almost the same way I made the first quilt.  (the tutorial is here) This time I added a cream boarder on all sides before the binding.  I googled, like always, to figure out how to do that. If you're wondering what the quilting process looks like at my house... here ya go. (Yes, I iron on a tiny ironing board crouched on the floor).

Since I didn't have a good picture of trimming the squares in the last quilt, I took one durning this quilt.  This is the back of one of the squares. (you can see the green leaf scrapbook paper under the ruler). Just line your ruler up with the edge of the paper, and cut. Once you do all 4 sides, you have a perfect square.

All of my finished squares lined up on the guest room bed. The paper is still on them in this photo.

I used old scrapbook paper as the templates for each square.  Which, didn't end up being the smartest idea in the world.  You see, scrapbook paper is quite thick.  To try and rip it from my sewed strips was almost impossible.  After almost ruining 2 of them, I came up with the genius idea to soak my squares in the sink (for maybe 5 seconds).

Worked WAY better!  Soaking-wet paper rips quite easily you know. :)  After the soaking and ripping (and explaining to my husband wtf I was doing) I strewn the squares on every flat surface I could find in the kitchen and laundry room to dry. In hind sight, a spray bottle might have been the better option... but this way was kind of fun none the less.

Here's one all ripped off. The little white bits of paper still left don't matter.

After everything dries, layout your squares again in an order you like and start sewing them together.  Bottom two rows are sewn in this picture.

Keep going.

After sticking your quilt sandwich together (back, batting, top), start quilting.  I did free-motion again this time and it was a bit harder with a bigger quilt.  That's a lot of material to shove around! 

Also, I got the tutorial for the binding from Red Pepper Quilts if you're wondering.

So it's done!  I have no idea what I am going to use it for yet... I just like looking at it. :)  I originally thought I would bring it to the beach to sit on but after the amount of work I put into this sucker, I don't want it getting grungy.

 

Here's the back.  I made this pattern 100% from necessity. I was running out of fabric and this is what I came up with to cover the whole 5' x 5' square.  haha Seriously, that is what happened.

Hope you like it!

UPDATE: Click here for the video tutorial I made for free motion quilting.