Here are the materials I choose. I wanted to do lady bugs (which is what I want to do the baby's room in once I get everything together). Right now there are lady bugs and butterfly's but the room was decorated in a hurry due to the fact that we planned on a boy, not a girl (long story....). Any who, I wanted red and black but no such luck. So I found a print with a lady bug on it and went from there. The colors turned out to be pink and green.
With this quilt pattern, I needed a front and back to each square. I choose 5 patterns for the front (all in cotton) and 4 patterns for the back (all in flannel). All in greens and pinks.
Figuring out how much material was one of the hard parts. A suggestion- draw out a plan first. Figure how many square you are making and in what pattern the quilt will be. I choose 5 inch squares (that would become about 4 inches on each side when finished) and 9x12 in rows.
I cut out all the squares (again I wish I had a rotary cutter!), plus batting to put in between the two squares. The batting was 4x4 and all the squares were 5x5.
I then laid out all the cotton squares out in the pattern that I wanted. I had to use a bed (my floor in my crafting room was not big enough and I needed it high enough away from prying baby fingers).
Its not shown but after one side was laied out, I turned them face down and put the batting on the square. Then I arranged the flannel squares (facing up) over the batting the the pattern I wanted.
This is what it would look like.
After I pined all the squares together, I began the huge task of sewing them all! I went row by row to make it simple and to keep the pattern correct. I sewed an "X" into the square, making sure to leave about a half of an inch from each corner.
After all the squares from one row were sewn with the "X", I could connect then together. I choose to make the cotton fabric facing up and with the clean stitch. I pinned two squares together at one end, making sure that the cotton fabric was facing each other and sewed a straight line down one side. Once all the squares were connected in a row, I moved on to another row, repeating all the steps above.
Once I had a few rows together, I could sew the rows to each other. I pinned the two rows together on one side (always making sure that your pattern is correct and that your cotton fabric is facing each other). This is why I have not sewn the squares from corner to corner and left the half inch open. This allows you to sew the squares and rows together and get the ruffled effect at the end.
After all the rows are completely sewn together, I sewed the edges all the way around the quilt. When you are finished one side will be clean edges (cotton) and the other side will have the ruff edges (flannel). I then cut little snips into all the ruff edges. This is so when I washed the quilt, all the ruff edges would fray and become softer.
For my first quilt ( first real sewing project, really) and no real teaching, I think it turned out pretty well. Now I am going to make a pillow with some left over fabric to match it.
