Patchwork Quilt, for non-quilters

Attention: If you are a skilled quilter and own one of those quilt cutter--rollie-thingers-- you might not want to read this post.  The juvenile-ness of it, might make you squirm. This includes my sister-in-law who is a fabulous quilter.

For you see, this is:

Quick background, this is my 2nd patchwork quilt now.  I describe in another post how the first one was lost in San Diego.  The 1st one was also very small, I made this second one about 4 times bigger.

Okay, onto business.  

MATERIALS:

1. 2 yards of minky fabric

2. Six 1/2 yards of matching fabrics

3. Cardboard

4. Normal sewing materials

STEP ONE: Cut out a cardboard square.

I cut up a cheerio box 8" by 8".

STEP TWO: Use the 8' x 8' square to be the guide for cutting 49 fabric squares out.

I did find this tool (green rolly tool-- which I have no idea what it's name is) that I used to trace the square onto my fabric.  It made a little indention that I could use as my guide for cutting my square pieces. 

STEP THREE: Decide on the pattern you want for your quilt.  Place pieces so they're overlapping (since you'll be sewing them together). 

STEP FOUR: Next, you'll pin each square (in it's row) with right sides together.  

STEP FIVE: Sew the pinned squares together. At the end you'll have 7 long strips all sewn together.

 STEP SIX:  Next you're going to take those 7 long strips and pin them together with the strip above them (right sides together).

I do this one strip at a time. Sew it up, pin the next strip on top, repeat 7 times.

At then end you have your patchwork all sewn together, now you need to add it to your minky back fabric. 

STEP SEVEN: Place your (freshly sewn) patchwork squares in the middle of the minky fabric.  Fold all the sides up twice and pin like Crazy!

STEP EIGHT: Sew the minky fabric in place to be your boarder.

I fold the corners in and sew up and down each corner.

Also, FYI Minky is hard to sew.  It stretches and moves all the time so be prepared for a little extra frustration.

STEP NINE: Sew down the middle to keep the fabric all in place.

Since I didn't want this to be too obvious I sewed down middle twice following one of the strips.  If needed you could also do this going the other direction, too.

STEP TEN: Enjoy.

Here's the birthday boy, enjoying all his new presents under his new blankie.

Good night, son.

FYI-- He loves his new blankie and I think he would notice if it were lost now.

Linked up!