My Nana is a wonderful quilter and I’ve always wanted to give it a go. I made this quilt as a leaving present for a colleague who’s moved to the bonny shores of Scotland. It was a pleasure to make and I’ll definitely try quilting again. A big thanks to folks from work for stitching lovely quotes onto it, chipping in for the materials and adding crochet sheep to the back.
I got the general idea and colour scheme from the inimitable Namoo Quilts. Most of the fabrics are by Nani Iro or Kokka and I used Prinfab to print images onto fabric. It was only about £10 for a fat quarter of printed fabric and the images look crisp after one gentle wash.
Here are a few things I learned from my first quilting project:
- Pins, pins, pins! Mine were blunt and useless. I’m still finding pins I threw across the room
- Bigger is better. My backing was the same size as the front. Now I know to make one side larger so you don’t have to line them up perfectly.
- Fusible interfacing is the way forward. I used Hobbs Heirloom Fusible Cotton Batting and will never look back.
- You don’t need a special sewing foot for machine for quilting.
- Bias tape makers are magic. I found making custom bias tape to be really satisfying.
- Ordering fabric online gives you more options but the colours won’t be quite right.
The main thing I learned is that blogs and youtube are fantastic resources but nothing beats the real thing. The quilt my Nana made for me when I went away to university is a thing of beauty and showed me how things should look. I have a ways to go!
– Shannon Quigley
Shannon Quigley 