Step 6: After finishing all 25 of the 12" blocks, I played around with the layout to see what design might look best. I decided on a 4x6 block pattern.
Step 7: Sew the blocks into rows, then sew the rows together. This is the finished quilt top (before the border). While I thought the green/blue squares (the center diagonal of each block) would be the prominent design feature, the solid blue squares ended up being the ones that really jumped out in the design.
Step 8: After shopping for batting and fabric for the border and backing, I measured out the border (blue) and stitched to the edges of the quilt top. Then, laying the quilt top on the fabric backing, with the batting sandwiched inside, it was time to pin it all together in preparation for the quilting process
Step 9: The batting I chose suggested no more than 6" between quilted sections, so I decided to "stitch in the ditch" (sewing on the seams) after every third square, making a grid pattern. While many people machine or hand quilt in curlicues and shapes, I've never been brave enough to try that! The trickiest part is rolling the quilt tightly enough to manage to feed it thru the machine. Of course, doing this in 90+ temps was interesting too, as I had yards of fabric draped over my shoulders for hours at a time! :)
Step 10: After all of the quilting was finished, it was time to measure and cut the batting and backing to the correct size around all of the edges (while quilting, you leave at least 3" extra on each side to allow room to work) I decided to use the backing as the edge (rather than a separate binding material) and I really like how the white fabric frames the darker blue border. After turning under the edges, I hand stitched around the binding to secure it to the front with (mostly) invisible stitching!
The finished quilt is just shy of a twin size (it's big enough to cover a twin mattress, but is a few inches too short to have the proper drape over the edges of the mattress-- this is how big it is stretched out on my couch- with a fold in the middle!) I was too excited to remember to take a photo when giving the finished product to A., but hopefully I will remember when we give the quilt to her mother. I had so much fun working on this project, and was happy to have such a wonderful a reason to go into crazy crafting mode!!
