Before I started I made sure to reference a blog that has a quilt making tutorial: Diary of a Quilter. I didn't follow the tutorial exactly because the fabric I had for the backing wasn't the same size as her fabric, I didn't use all the tools she did because I didn't have them, and I didn't add a border because I didn't have enough fabric. Otherwise I followed it pretty closely.
If I could start over I'd do a few things differently but, overall, I think my first quilt turned out ok.
Steps:
1. I started by measuring the fabric I was planning on using for backing. From there I figured out how many 3 inch (well, 3.5 inch to account for seams) squares I would need for the front. I divided that number by two (because I'd be using 2 fabrics) then cut out the appropriate number of squares from the green and the black fabrics.
2. Once all the squares were cut out, I laid out the pieces to see what the finished quilt might look like.
3. Satisfied with the look, I took each of the squares in order and set them in their individual rows.
4. I sewed each square in the row with a 1/4 inch seem. When a row was finished I marked the first square in the row with a pin so I wouldn't get the rows mixed up and backwards or what not. This probably wasn't incredibly necessary since I was only using two fabrics but it made me feel better anyway. Then I laid all my rows out next to each other, pretty much recreating the look of the quilt again.
5. Once all the rows were sewn, I ironed down the seems. Odd rows (1, 3, 5, etc) were ironed to one side while the even rows (2, 4, 6, etc) were ironed to the other side. (For some reason, I don't have a picture of this step but the tutorial mentioned above does.)
6. After the seems of each row were finished I began sewing each row together by first pinning rows 1 and 2 together while right fabrics were facing each other. I sewed with a 1/4 inch seem.
(This is where steps for adding a border would have gone if I had done it.)
7. When all rows were sewn together creating the entire front of the quilt, I ironed the back again to try to get the seems under control.
8. Next I ironed the fabric for the back of the quilt and laid it face down as flat as I could. Then I placed my batting on top followed by the front of my quilt face up.
9. I didn't have any fancy quilting pins or anything so I just pinned all three layers of the quilt together with the regular sewing pins I had laying around.
10. The tutorial said to sew the three layers together starting in the middle, so that is exactly what I did. I found a spot near the very center of the quilt then started sewing from there to the outside of the quilt. Then I went back to that spot where I started and sewed the other direction to the outside of the quilt. From there I worked my way out sewing all my rows and columns until each seem line on the front of the quilt had been sewn over (or close to each seem, the quilt certainly isn't perfect).
11. When all the actual "quilting" was done, I laid the quilt out flat and trimmed any extra fabric off. This is where I learned that my squares on the front didn't end up being the exact right side for my backing but it was now too late to worry about that.
12. Now it was time to worry about the binding, the part I dreaded the most. I cut out three 2 1/2 inch wide strips of the black fabric. The strips were long enough to go all the way around the outside edge of the quilt plus just a little to make sure there was enough.
13. Next I sewed each of the three strips together at the 2 1/2 inch sides, creating a really long 2 1/2 inch wide strip of fabric.
14. I ironed the seems down then folded the strip in half and ironed to keep the fold in place.
15. I placed the right side raw edges of strip down facing the right side raw edges of the middle of an edge of the back of the quilt and began pinning until I got to a corner. Once at the corner I folded the strip over on itself to create a 45 degree angle; I pinned the fabric here. Then I laid the strip fabric down on the next edge of the backing. At the corner, this created a triangle of extra fabric (please see my pictures and/or the pictures on the tutorial mentioned above if this isn't making sense) which I pinned so the extra fabric stood up by putting a second pin at a 45 degree angle on the other side of the extra fabric. I followed all these steps until the end of my strip met up with the beginning of my strip.
16. Then I sewed the strip for the binding to the quilt. When I got to the first angled pin (and I mean right up to it), I removed the pin, folded the triangle down toward where I had just sewn, removed the second pin, turned the quilt so I'd be sewing down the next edge and sewed down the next edge.
At this point the tutorial said something about sewing the beginning and the end of the strip together but I didn't get it so I didn't do it.
17. Once the whole binding strip was sewn to the back of the quilt I turned over the extra fabric from the strip to the front of the quilt and pinned it down. Since the raw edges of the strip were sewn to the raw edge of the backing, the edge of the strip that is now on the front of the quilt is a folded edge.
18. Finally I sewed the binding onto the front of the quilt.
Done.
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