New Fave

This quilt was made by the YW and their leaders for our one and only graduate this year. It's a signature quilt. The girls helped cut the strips, pin the pieces, sew into blocks and iron seams. Then each girl signed a block. We also had her previous YW leaders and bishop and seminary teacher sign blocks as well, using a textile marker. Because the girls sewed the blocks our seams ended up being quite a bit wider than they were supposed to be. The blocks were supposed to rotate between having the signature strip vertical then horizontal then vertical etc...

Here is the picture from the book:

We ended up with rectangles instead of squares which made it impossible to rotate. We toyed with cutting all the blocks down but then we would have cut off parts of their names. So instead we sewed the blocks side by side and ended up with long signature stripes. It came out pretty well considering....

Sample of blocks:

Once the blocks were all created - the leaders pieced the blocks to the setting triangles (which I had never done before). That was a real learning experience and I'm not so good with spatial relationships and since everything was set on a diagonal I had some issues and had to pick out several rows. (It probably didn't help that we were watching the final American Idol performances.) The leaders then added the borders and the girls tied it for their last activity. I bound it over the weekend.

Close up of the setting triangles and borders:

It was a fun project where I tried and learned some new techniques such as setting triangles (I have been a bit fearful of triangles in any form) also I learned how to attach the long binding strips using a diagonal seam instead of a straight seam which I had never done and I bound it with one piece creating mitered corners which I had done before but it never came out right. This time it did. It was also fun because it was a scrap quilt. I did actually buy a few fat quarters so we would have some continuity because I didn't have quite enough scrap in these dark colors but I would say at least 1/3 of the blocks were made from scraps from my mother or me.

Here is a close up of the back which I found at JoAnn's on clearance for $2 a yard.

I love learning new things and I think Amanda R. will love it too!!