day 256: raw edge quilt

my first completed quilt .. quite proud am i!  it's so late it's actually wet in this picture so the colours appear a lot darker than they actually are :)

day 256 and i am bravely going to start my other new year's resolution today ... to learn to quilt.  i have wanted to learn to quilt for ages.  a dear friend of mine showed me how to paper piece for quilting mug rugs and i absolutely loved quilting using that technique.  i wanted to venture into something bigger with today's creation and make a raw edge quilt.  after weeks of not being able to sew because of my torn hamstring, i now feel it's good enough to be able to sew, so this week i am making up for a lack of sewing by doing a whole week of sewing creations from pinterest :)

i am using two tutorials to make my raw edge quilt because they both had brilliant ideas and there were parts from each i wanted to use!  the first one is from bloom, the quilt is stunning but the actual quilting bit looked a bit complicated for my first go.  as such, i am also using kelly's tutorial from the complete guide to imperfect homemaking, she made her's as a gift for her daughter on christmas eve!  kelly uses a simple cross as her quilting and that seemed like something i would be far more capable of doing!  both quilts are stunning and the tutorials are also pinned to my quilting board on pinterest.

because i wanted to get this finished today, and it's a monday so i spend most of my day teaching the peeps, i cut out ALL 42 top squares, 42 backing squares, and 42 fusible batting squares last night.  it took me 2 1/2 hours so i was VERY pleased i did that part last night!

last nights work .. these are the fabrics i chose to make the quilt out of

this is the part i did last night, 42 tops, 42 backs, 42 fusible inners ... a LOT of cutting :)

you then iron the three pieces together and start sewing ... a lot of sewing!  once i had finished that part, i worked on putting seven squares together in a row, then began sewing the six seven square rows together ... are you still with me ;)  once that was done, i used a 1/2" seam and sewed right around the outside so i could rag the outer edge aswell instead of binding the quilt.  i can't bind, it scares me senseless i have yet to perfect my technique so will leave that part for another day.  then it is ideal to sit down in front of some good tv and start cutting all the edges down to the sewn lines ... this take a GOOD while and i saw a number of shows on the food channel before i had finished :)  then it was into the washing machine for its first wash ... at this point i was seriously considering whether my first quilt would come out of the wash still in one piece with the amount of cutting i had done ...

the quilt pieces sewn together ready to be cut along the raw edges. 

cutting along the raw edges

i took this photo of it in the washing machine in case it came out shredded!

and this is what it looked like after two washes!

outcome:  this was a LONG creation day for me at the sewing machine but it was absolutely worth it ... i am totally hooked and if you are a family member it is highly possible you will be gifted a quilt in the future :)  as this is my first quilt, this one is destined for my bed.  all that cutting and sewing was definitely worth the outcome :)  i love it and feel really proud of what i made today ... not perfect, but still beautiful.

my sincere thanks to the raw edge quilting tutorials from bloom and kelly at complete guide to imperfect homemaking, your tutorials got me through my first quilt and have me addicted to yet another craft ... go figure!