A Quilt to Make

QUILTING

I've made exactly one quilt in my life. It was a very easy one called Yellow Brick Road that is perfect for beginners and I cut out all the pieces in one afternoon session.

I started with the cherry fabric and used that as my inspiration piece.

But when I say that I 'made' it, I mean that I pieced the quilt top and then sent if off to my Aunt Theresa who had it quilted with a long arm and surprised me by doing the binding as well.

I *loved* making the quilt top and want to make another one. I adore choosing and arranging fabrics. I think about machine quilting though and sort of think, "ugh." Seems like a bit of a pain to get such a large project through the sewing machine and maybe sending it out to get professionally quilted is the way for me to go. (Aunt T, what do you think??) The binding seems more manageable. I know how to make it, sew it on and hand bind it and I want to master that process. So... I stumbled upon this Tiffany Quilt pattern by Rita over at Red Pepper Quilts. It's just so pleasing to the eye! And so is her blog.

Isn't this sweet?

I originally saw it on Jody's Everyday Beautiful blog (another great blog and Etsy seller) and just felt is was the project for me. (The me that has 3 kids, tries to exercise each day, has piles of laundry all over and just.can't.say.NO. to volunteering at school.) So I bought the pattern, ordered some fabrics from Jody's Fabric Shoppe on and pulled some of my own fabric to get started. Here's what I pulled out:

Pretty piled up fabric

More pretty piled fabric

Build Your Fabric Stash from Fabric Shoppe

Messy scrap pile

More messy

I really have no idea what fabric I'm going to use. It's not organized and figured out yet, BUT Rita's pattern includes her suggestions for choosing fabric and getting the "look" of her Tiffany quilt. I will be poring over her detailed guide as I go and I'm just going to start cutting and see how it turns out. Maybe you'll help me as I go?!

I'm also following Jeni over at In Color Order to learn more about making fabric choices. She is so talented and knowledgable about color combinations, values, saturations, etc. Things that I know nothing about! Her series The Art of Choosing is informative. Plus, her pictures are just pure eye candy!

So stay tuned, Peeps! I'm going to be documenting this process as I go; sharing my frustrations and thoughts, my successes and failures and I hope it will inspire you to make your own quilt or another project you've been wanting to try.