FIRST STRIP QUILT (+ a mini tutorial)

I was thinking that quilting might be a bit complicated for a first timer like me, so I thought, can I just be really lazy and do it with strips instead?  I designed a few in my notebook and then googled "strip quilt".  Lo and behold, there have been several people who have already come up with this idea.  There is a great tutorial from "a cuppa and a catch up" and another one from "film in the fridge".  They both make beautiful quilts and I just LOVE the simplicity of a strip quilt.

I decided that to whittle my fabric stash down a little I'd have a go and make a quilt topper in preparation for my sewing class on Tuesday night.  My aim is to take it along with wadding/batting and some binding and get Charlotte (our tutor) to teach me how to finish it off.

Here's what I did:

Cut my strips (these varied some were 18 cm, some 9 cm and some 13 cm).  I wanted mixed widths.  I cut mine 123 cm long, as I want the final quilt to be around 120 cm wide (as cot bed size is 120 cm x 150 cm).

I cheated and up-cycled a section of a quilt cover, which has three fabrics and some lace detail that I love (this saved some sewing time too).

I laid it out, and then paired the strips ready for sewing as per the tutorial from film in the fridge.

This is a pair being sewn together.

One of the blocks of four strips.

Then you sew them all together and iron.  You see that I need to work on lining up my strips and cutting the fabric straight, but it is my first attempt!  When I finish it I'm going to trim off the uneven edges and make it all line up.

I am going to back it with this blue fleece to make it soft and cosy.  I need to go and buy some binding as well - maybe pink?

I'll let you know how finishing it off goes later in the week.

I then have a plan to make another strip quilt, but this time with some cherry fabric.

Nikki

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