My Weekend Project

This is half of what I spent my Thursday afternoon cutting out(which looks like a lot less than it really is), barricaded off in the dining room by pillows while Shea played so he wouldn't attempt eating my scissors:

Needless to say, it took a bit of repetitive work and time.  Although my summer spent working at a wholesale bakery accustomed me to doing repetitive work for a long period of time, this actually caused me to take lot longer on the cutting stage than it could have as I got a bit carried away, and probably have enough flags for another few several projects (the tutorial I based it after said to make about 21 flags per blanket...I ended up with a couple hundred).

So what are these flags for?  Tiffany guessed it in her comment on my previous post - a quilt!  a pretty cool life, a blog which I recently discovered (and recommend checking out!) posted a project that I was super excited to try out.   So, without further ado, I introduce the...

 I have never sewed a quilt before.  It's something I've always wanted to do, but it has always seemed much too daunting of a task.  Plus, I just don't get that excited about buying quilting batting and all of that stuff I don't know anything about.  But this one was so cute and looked so, so simple!  It also helped that two of Jeremy's cousins are recently expecting their first baby (one already welcomed into the world) , so I had the perfect excuse to make one (or two)!


This was especially fun, because I got to make a boy version and a girl version.  I made the first one with a predominately blue/red color scheme - and although its a little hard to see in the photo, I was able to personalize it after several attempts  with the name of the little recipient:

The second quilt is for a girl, but I didn't want to do classic girly colors (pink and purples) for it.  Baby isn't born yet, so instead of putting a name, I did a fun birdie/flower appliqué in the top corner:

And the full finished products:

(sadly, this shot cut out the scrappy coordinating binding I made)

                          

All wrapped up:

                                          

Another fun thing to make it a little more personalized - quilted card:

                                               

I got this idea from a post on MADE (another inspiring blog!).  It's a great way to make a personalized and cohesive gift without having to spend $$ on a fancy card.

I also made one with a sailboat on the front to go with the red and blue quilt, but failed to take a picture.

My sewing machine's zig-zag setting and I definitely got well acquainted this weekend, and I had fun being creative and playing with colors (thank you Jo-Anns for you're lovely Fat-Quaters on sale this past week!).

I was able to make this in just a few days.  I spent an afternoon cutting, and then was able to assemble each quilt in an evening (one on Friday, and one on Saturday) after Shea went to bed.

I definitely recommend this as a GREAT first quilt project!  If I can do it, you can definitelydo it!

Some other helpful links:

Here is a great tutorial on making your own binding (like I did on the birdie quilt).

and, I thought it would've been adorable with this faux-piping binding TLC Stitches shows how to make.

What about you guys?  Have you done any quilting projects before?  Any helpful tips you can pass on?  Any tutorials or things that you would be interested in me featuring from this project or others?

Thanks for reading!!