sam's quilt, part 1

i decided before we knew sam was sam that i wanted to make a quilt for "the baby." as soon as we found out he was a boy, i chose some fabric for his quilt.

i bought a yard and a half each of the argyle and the light blue. the light blue is for the back of the quilt (30% off at hobby lobby). then i got batting. i got poly-fil, fairly good quality (from what i could tell) in the crib size, which was just big enough to fill the 44" x 54" material (i think the crib size batting is around 45"x64") and that was 50% off at joann fabrics. i also got pins, brown thread, and bias tape (not used yet).

saturday night i decided to start on the quilt. i ironed the material because it was a little wrinkly and i didn't want that to affect the quilting. justin vacuumed the floor for me, and i laid down the backing, then the batting, then the argyle top. the batting had some overlap, so i just tried to get it even from side to side and top to bottom.

after smoothing and straightening for several minutes, i started pinning. i started from the middle of the quilt and worked out to the edges. the pinning alone took me 45 minutes to an hour, which was a combination of that being how long it takes and being halfway to my due date. i would pin every few inches just to be sure it stays together the way you want. you don't want to put that much work into it and have it not stay in place.
(most of the photos were taken with my lensbaby with its 5.6 aperture because that's what i had on the camera.)



i chose the material partly because i liked it and partly because there were lines to follow when i would begin sewing. i have trouble keeping those lines straight, so i need all the help i can get. i began sewing down the edge of every third diamond, which ran my stitching diagonally across the quilt. i worked from the middle to the side, and then back to the middle to the other side, just in that one direction.



after that was done, i did the same thing in the other direction, every third diamond, working from the middle to the sides.



i must mention that you need to be careful of a few things. first, those pins will stab the crap out of your fingers and arms if you aren't careful. i had to get a bandaid when i was wrangling with it on the first few passes across the quilt. second, read your manual if you aren't familiar with the sewing machine. thankfully i adjusted the tension because it had been set to something i didn't need it set on. third, no matter how smooth and beautiful the front of the quilt may look, your quilt backing can pucker and make ugly little folds that get sewn right in. i have considerably less of those than i thought i would, so i am happy, but just be sure you are keeping everything smooth as you sew and remove pins. and last, if you want to get it "perfect," go slowly. i'm not a slow-goer, so my stitching isn't as straight as it could be, but that's ok with me. just a word of warning.

and here is a non-lensbaby photo of the finished little imperfect, puffy diamonds.



i still have to trim and tape and sew the edges. i'm pretty satisfied with the progress so far. :)