Minecraft Quilt

Brandon's big gift for Christmas is a Minecraft quilt. I actually started working on it for his birthday but.... never finished. I was planning on just making a pillow but the blocks turned out so awesome that I decided to do a quilt. So many squares.....

It turned out so cool! I used flat sheets for the backing and the front and did a hidden tie (thanks, Mom!) Can't wait to see Brandon's reaction to this quilt!

Binding

I've always wanted to know how to make binding. Bias tape is great but they're only in plain colors and sometimes you want a little something extra for the binding. Thanks to my mom for helping me put this blanket together for Brandon!

I found two tutorials that were very helpful here and here. Now that I've given them credit, I'm going to combine the two tutorials here for my own sake.

Making the binding
First, I cut my fabric into 2.25" strips. (I wish I had a rotary cutter!!)

Take one end of each strip and cut it at a 45 degree angle. (I did this by measuring 2.25" from the end and drawing a line from there to the top corner.)

Line the ends up, right sides facing, allowing for a 1/4" overlap.  Note the asterisk markings for your beginning and ending stitch line.

Using a short stitch length of 2 or less, stitch 1/4" seam.  

 Clip excess.

 Press open

Continue until you have attached them all (or as many as needed).
Then you need to press then entire strip evenly in half like this:

Attaching the binding: 
It's helpful to lay the binding all around the perimeter of the quilt, ensuring that no binding seams fall where you will be mitering corners.  It's not the end of the world if that happens, but avoiding it will make smooth even binding.
Leaving an 8" tail, line up the binding's raw edge with the outer raw edge of the quilt using a 1/4 inch seam\

Stop 1/4" from the corner. be precise here.. mark it if you have to... it'll make things perfect.

Fold binding over itself 90 degrees...

basically opposite of where you want to sew it to next.

Then fold it back to look like this.

 

Then turn the quilt and stitch again at a 1/4 inch seam from the top edge, all the way down until you are 1/4 inch shy of the next end.  Repeat.  You just mitered your binding.  EASY.

 

Joining Binding:
When you are about 12 inches away from where you started, stitch off.  You should have 2 tails like this.

You cut off tail 1 not any shorter than the half way point between the two tails (6 inches)

Now lay tail 1 on top of tail 2 and mark tail 2 with a pin or marking device right where tail 1 ends.

Mark a vertical line exactly two inches (or the width of your open binding strip) longer, to the left of the pin on tail 2.  Cut vertically there.  This will create an overlap identical to the width of the actual strips when they are open. 

 In order to connect the tail ends, you will need to bunch up the quilt for ease. With right sides facing, match up the front corner of tail 1 with the back corner of tail 2.  The asterisk in the diagram marks the matched corner.  Pin.

Draw a diagonal line as your guide, from unmatched corner to unmatched corner.  Stitch along this line with the pin to the right.

 Clip off the pinned corner, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Press seam open.

Now you can continue stitching the binding on at 1/4 inch seam.  Just overlap from where you left off.

The binding should lay perfectly flat on the quilt.

Now look what happens when you press all the binding back!

  

Both of these tutorials used handstitching to attach the binding to the other side of the quilt. I always feel like machine stiching is so much more secure, but the stitching does show through on the other side. So, it's up to you. I chose to use my machine. But to make the corners after folding the binding over, just do a little tucking and folding to make it look right.

So there ya go! Hope it helps. I will be referring to this for my next blanket project!

Conference Quilts

Every General Conference I get together with my SIL and MIL and make baby quilts. We made this one last conference. We were going to make a boy one this time but there was so much cute girl fabric too that we couldn't pick! So we made three :)

Baby Quilt #2

I know, project overload. This quilt gets another BIG thank you from my mom and mother-in-law. Thanks, LaNiece for showing me how to set up and tie a quilt and how to finish the edges. I'm so glad I know how to do that know. It's so much easier than I thought. I love that this quilt is nice and pink and feminine :)

Brandon wanted to be in the picture, too :)

Corner detail -- I'm so proud :)

Baby Quilt

First off I want to thank my mom for contributing to this baby quilt -- giving me a project to keep my mind off how uncomfortable I am. Thanks, Mom!! And I also want to thank my MIL for letting me borrow her quilting frame. I couldn't have done this without it!

I debated on whether or not I should have bought this nursery panel because it's blue, green and yellow...boyish colors. But then I figured it's Winnie the Pooh which is gender neutral. So I bought it. And I love the old novelty Winnie the Pooh. I quilted the inside (which was so fun) and used bias tape to bind the edges. I always think single fold is going to be the right size and it never is. Always, always, always get double fold! It turned out so great though! Although, It's not as puffy as I wanted it to be. I think I bought the wrong kind of batting. Oh, well. Can't wait to put it in the baby's bed!

 

Detail

Detail

Baby Quilt

This weekend I helped my mother-in-law LaNiece and sister-in-law Breanne make a baby quilt. LaNiece I think came up with this idea for the girls to make baby quilts every conference and then whoever has the next baby gets to choose one from the pile. We did a girl quilt this time and I am in love with it! I hope this next baby is a girl so I can have this one! It was so fun to get out my sewing machine and work on this.

Brandon saw it all finished and said, "Oh, cute!"