Learning how to patchwork...

From the City...

I finally finished this patchwork quilt thing that I've been working on.  I say quilt thing because it's really just a quilted blanket cover.  See my granny gets each of her grandkids a heavy duty handmade wool blanket from MacAusland's Woolen Mills in PEI, whenever we hit a certain milestone, ie having our first baby, a big graduation, marriage etc.  Ours came as a wedding gift and it's amazing; super warm, rich bright red, incredibly beautiful, we love it.  The problem is that we also have a little shedding dog that also loves rich, warm, red, incredibly beautiful wool blankets. So I decided to cover it so she can continue to love it and we can try to keep it in good shape so that, maybe someday, we can pass it along to our kids.   

The blanket was about the size of a queen so using the old internet, I determined I needed 140 eight inch squares.  The fabric I used was actually old vintage sheets I found at thrift shops.  My goal was to not purchase anything for this project (which I succeeded at!).  I tried to have the same amount of squares per different fabric (5 in total) but that just didn't happen due to a lack of fabric in some.

    Impossible to quilt with this guy.  As soon as he found out that you can push down on the sewing machine pedal it was officially game over for quilting when babe is awake.  

Stitch the squares together, good side against good side.  

Iron down all seams, also known as, the worst job of all time.  

Completed strips.  10 squares in each row, 14 rows in total.

Lay out strips, making sure that no two same fabrics match up.  Much harder than you'd think!    Once we were happy with the arrangement we then numbered them in the top corner of the quilt block and then sewed and sewed and sewed until the whole thing was together in one piece.

(Look how happy Simon is to be helping!)

Like so.  

This is case in point why I am a horrible seamstress.  On the left you have a four nicely matched up blocks and in the section on the right, er, um, not so much.  

Yet another project where measuring is key.  Crap. 

I found this beige Ikea sheet at the Goodwill for 2.50 (hooray for 50% off day).  I sewed both giant pieces together, a feat in itself, making sure to leave about a foot and a half open on the side where I could get the blanket in.  

I made four ties and stitched those in making sure to line them up so you can tie the two together.  

Fini.    

-amelia