Finished! Nautical Baby Quilt & 5 Things I've Learned about Quilting

It's finally finished! My first quilt:

I'm so happy with it, I absolutely love the combinations of fabric. There are definitely a few dodgy bits, but none that bother me overly or detract from the impact of the quilt.

 It feels properly 'done' now I've added the binding - like when you frame a picture.

The basis for the quilt was a fat quarter bundle from M is for Make - plus a couple of extra fabrics from The Village Haberdashery and the backing and polka dots from my local Remnant Kings.

I'm very happy I picked this backing fabric, and I love how it looks with the polka dot binding. After the disaster with the red polka dot fabric I bought first of all for the binding, I saw this colour next time I went back to the shop, and much prefer it. Also, I only needed 60cm for the binding, not the, er, 1.5 metres I bought of the red, as I hadn't worked out how much it actually took!

I used the binding tutorial found on the blog of I'm a ginger monkey. I think it's the same method that was recommended by a few commenters on a previous post, and it's very clear and straightforward. I used 10cm width strips and wouldn't go any narrower than this next time, and I also machine stitched in the ditch on the right side rather than finishing by hand sewing on the wrong side. I always find my hand sewing (particularly hems) ends up coming undone and I wanted this quilt to be as robust as possible. I promise it wasn't entirely laziness.

So what have I learned about quilting?

1. It's not as hard as I thought
For some reason I kept putting off starting this quilt, and stalled over some aspects of making it as I was a bit intimidated. But there's so much advice online and of course as provided by you helpful readers. This isn't a complicated quilt by any means since it's only squares, but a quilt can be as simple or complex as you like.

2. The costs can mount up (but they don't have to)
I spent about £40-£50 buying fabrics which seems a lot but I was just picking the ones I loved from a couple of different online shops and my local fabric shop. Add in £10 for the batting plus the walking foot I bought for £20 and this is a classic case of project costs growing and growing. I don't begrudge it though, as I love the finished quilt - a heirloom item for sure. But now I've got the walking foot I can make my next quilt from some of those dressmaking fabric scraps which have been long awaiting being used!

3. Accuracy is everything
I hadn't appreciated how important it is to get your pieces exactly to size or they won't join up neatly when you sew them together!

4. It can get addictive
Once the fabric is cut and you start sewing together, it's really enjoyable and can be pretty quick. I got the quilt top put together in a couple of hours, sewing squares in strips and then into blocks. and the quilting itself is fun too. And now I've made one, I have plans for my next quilt!

5. I'm a practical quilter
I love that I could make a quilt from favourite fabric scraps and would be quite happy to go for simple block designs which let the fabric sing. I'll never be joining the high echelons of those amazing, technically-minded quilters but I'll be happy to make a quilt with special memories that gets used and loved.

K x