The Whimsical. A DIY Disappearing 9 Square Baby Quilt.

You will need

• Fabric- You will need 10 different patterns/colors ( you can choose whatever colors and patterns you want). One for the backing and 9 for the front of the quilt. You can choose to buy an 11th color in 1/2 yard for a binding or use the colors you already have to make a binding. 

1. Backing-1 yard. *** I had to trim the front of my quilt down a little to be the same size as the backing. Its the width that didn't match up quite the same. So buying a little extra in width won't make much of a difference. 
2. Front- 1/2 yard of each color ***You could get away with buying 1/4 yard of each color, but if you make a mistake ( like I did when I was going through the motions) you'll be wishing you had a little bit more fabric. Also if you buy 1/2 yard of each you will have enough of whichever colors you want to make your binding. 
3. Batting- 1 yard ***I bought the pre-washed batting from Jo-annes in king size. That way I am able to use this binding for multiple projects 

• Sewing Machine - I have a Janome DC1050 which is a basic sewing machine, so you don't need anything fancy to make a quilt.
• Walking Foot- I didn't use one, but they suggest it for making quilts.
• Thread- I used white, pink, and a blue to match the backing
• Iron 
• Ironing Board 
• Scissors 
• Rotary Cutter 
• Fabric Cutting Mat

*Note: sew all fabric together with a 1/4" seam 

If you want to use the fabric I chose:

Backing(1yard): Keepsake Calico Fabric-Bird Cage

Front(1/2 yard each): Keepsake Calico Fabric-Large dots on black 

           Keepsake Calico Fabric-on seafoam 

           Keepsake Calico Fabric-Bed and Breakfast Floral 

           Keepsake Calico Fabric- Crosshatch Pink

           Quilters Showcase Fabric-Damask Gray Tonal 

           Quilters Showcase Fabric-Damask Aqua and White 

           Quilters Showcase Fabric- Scroll Pink and White 

           Country Classic Cotton Quilt Fabric Solid-White

           Country Classic Cotton Quilt Fabric Solid-Gray

Batting(1yard): Warm and Natural-King Size http://www.joann.com/warm-and-natural-king-size/12378360.html

Binding: I used the Solid Gray and Crosshatch Pink after I cut out the front squares

Cutting Fabric 

I got the idea to do the disappearing 9 patch from here.

Cut 3 (4.5"x18") strips or 4 (4.5"x13.5"). 

I chose to do 4 (4.5"x13.5") because a half cut yard is 18" in length. So if you do it right you should be able to get all 4 strips out of the 18" side.

Then cut your strips into 4.5"x4.5" squares. Which will end up giving you 12 (4.5"x4.5") squares of each color. 

Next put your 4.5"x4.5" squares 3x3 like this picture. You can lay them out in so many different ways. Thats what makes this quilt so fun! The versatility!

Sewing Fabric Together 

Then sew three together into three rows. 

Followed by sewing those three rows together making it a large 3 square by 3 square. 

When I first saw how to make a disappearing nine square it said to make it 12.5"x12.5" by squaring it up. I chose to make mine 12"x12" though. So that I would have 6" squares to work with.

***Make sure that every time you sew your fabric together that you press your seam open with an ironing board. 

One you have them all sewn together into one square, cut it down the middle length wise and width wise. 

It helps if you have a 6"wide ruler because then you can line it up with the edge and cut straight down the middle without fussing too much with it. 

Then it will leave you with 4 (6"x6") small squares. 

You can lay them out SOOO many different ways. These are just some examples of ways you can lay them together. There are so many different combinations. So have fun! I chose the top left.

Sew your 6"x6" squares together into a 2 square x 2 square larger square.

Followed by sewing 3 of those squares into a long strip. 

Then sew those 4 strips all together. 

***Remember to Press those seams open with your Iron every time you sew. 

This will give you a quilt top that is 6 (6"x6") squares by 8 (6"x6") squares. 

Stitching in the ditch

Now lay your backing face down on your working area.  Followed by your batting. Then lay the front of your quilt facing up.

 Pin it all together with saftey pins so it doesn't move around on you. Then stitch in the ditch along the rows. 

I sewed down inbetween my 6 rows, and then inbetween my 8 rows the other way. I didn't worry about sewing the little lines in each of the 6"x6" squares. 

Here  is a video on how to stitch in the ditch.

Binding your quilt 

Next you are going to make the binding. 

I watched this tutorial when I was making my first quilt.

Click here to watch that tutorial. 

She shows some great tips on how to do the binding. I don't follow exactly how she does it at the end, because I machine bind the entire thing. 

Cut 11 (2.5"x18") strips. Then sew them together like I show in the pictures below. The bottom strip will be face up and the top strip will be face down. She shows it very well in the video.

Sew the strips (seen in the picture on the right) simultaneously. So the fabric that was face down, will now be the fabric that is face up when you sew your next strip together.

Then they will look like this. That way you use less thread. 

Then cut the thread that is binding them and lay it out flat. 

***Again remember to press your seams open flat with your Iron 

Then fold your binding in half and press it with your iron.

For attaching the binding I do it a little bit differently than the video I put the link for previously.

Here is a video on how to machine bind your quilt. 

Click here for that video. 

Instead of sewing your binding onto the front, you sew it on to the back. Make sure it is lined up with the edge. I use a pink bobbin thread so that its an easy line to follow on the other side. 

Pull the binding around to the front and line it up with the thread line. I used a decorative zig zag stitch for this. 

When you line it up with the pink line ( or whatever color you choose) it should show up on the edge on the front and back. 

Then your front is securely stitched on, and you don't have lines all over the place on the back of your fabric. 

Tada you are DONE!!! Great Job! I knew you could do it. 

Chevron Neapolitan Baby Quilt

DIY Chevron Baby Quilt with Machine Sewn Binding!

FREE PATTERN

This quilt was inspired from a pinterest picture. I did not go to the website or follow her instructions. If you would like to see her way to do this quilt, click here to go to her blog. My blog will go through the whole process and will also show you how to add your binding to your quilt with your sewing machine.

There will be links you can go to that I will add in, that will give you further information on how to do a certain step in the quilt. 

I have attached my legend so that you can have a visual of how it goes together. You can use any colors you wish. 

To make the Chevron Neapolotan Baby Quilt you will need...

***This is based off of your yard width being 45". Fabric widths are not made equal. Some can be between 45" to 60" width. So when you find the fabric you like, see how wide it is and you can adjust how much fabric you want to buy. It never hurts to have more than you need however, what stinks is when you have just under the amount you need. So don't worry about having a little extra. 

• Sewing Machine- Mine is the Janome DC1050
• Walking foot- I did not use one, but when making a quilt most people suggest it
• Iron
• Ironing Board 
• Water Spray Bottle 
• Fabric Rotary Cutter
• Fabric Cutting Mat 
• Fabric Ruler 6"x24"- They sell them lots of places, Joanne's Fabric, Walmart, Amazon, Quilt Specialty Stores etc
• Thread- I used a light blue for my finishing stitch on top, and a dark pink for my bobbin, I used white for my basic sewing together.
• Fabric  

1. Tan and Brown = 12 (6"x6") squares each, buy 1/2yard (18"x45") of each color 
2. White, Blue, Coral, Pink = 6 (6"x6") squares each, buy 1/4 yard (9"x45") of each color
3. Backing = 1 yard ***I used the same pink for my backing, but you can choose a different color, I was just using up colors I already had sitting around
4. Batting = 1 yard, I used this prewashed batting that I had left over from another project
5. Binding = 4 (4"x45") strips, 1/2 yard *** you can do your binding the regular width of 2.5" I just wanted to try something different. I like the look of a binding and I feel like sometimes 2.5" comes out too small for my liking. You can do what is to your liking. 

Making Your Squares 

This is where the 6"x24" fabric ruler comes in handy . I am sure there are different brands, but I use the omnigrid one. It's already 6" wide so it helps to make perfectly squared up 6"x6" squares. 

I just cut out a 6"x 45" strip (or however wide your fabric is). Lay your ruler parallel with the edge of the "width" (45" long) end of the fabric to do this. Then once you have your strip, take the end of the ruler and line it up vertical to your 45" strip. Then you will get awesome 6" squares! You will get around 7 squares from each strip. 

Making your Isosceles Right Triangles 

When you have all of your squares cut, use the 45 degree angle marking that is on your fabric cutting mat. You want to line it up as perfect as you can so that you can get sharp edges.

Making Your New Squares 

Then use the legend that I provided to know which colors get sewn together. 

You want to sew your isosceles right triangles at 1/4" of an inch. That's right! You are doing math! I guess I was wrong, trigonometry does come in handy after all. For mine I used the edge of my presser foot as a guide. I was told that it is 1/4" of an inch but I think it could be a tiny bit bigger. 

What matters the most is that you make every single one the exact same.

TAKE YOUR TIME!!! You want your points to be sharp.

When you have your isosceles right triangles all sewn together making a square, press the seam flat with your iron, like this. 

You will have little edges that you cut off (I forgot to take a picture but I'm sure you will understand) so that it is all lined up. 

Making your Rows 

I like to lay my fabric out a few rows at a time. That way I don't make a mistake and sew the wrong angle or pieces together. Refer to the legend to lay them out correctly.

Then I take one square at a time and sew it to the row. Double Check and triple check your angles are facing the right direction. 

Complete one row at a time. Then press the seams flat.

This is what your edges should look like, nice sharp points! 

Finishing the Front 

When your rows are all done, sew each row together, adding one at a time. Then press those seams flat.

Again double check that you are sewing all the angles in the right direction and to the right color. 

Then iron the front out to make it lay as flat as possible. 

Now lay the 1 yard of backing fabric ( I used the dark pink) facing down on the table or work area. (The back of the fabric should be facing up)

Next lay the 1 yard of batting on to the backing fabric.

Then lay the front of your quilt facing up, and safety pin your quilt sandwich together so it doesn't move around. 

Instead of stitching in the ditch, I wanted my chevron pattern to stand out. I picked the zigzag stitch on my machine and set it to 1.0 and 1.0. You can change this to make the zigzag further apart if you wish. The best way to know what it will look like is to test it out on a scrap piece of fabric. 

To do this, sew along the lines where your colors meet. 

***I did not stitch in the ditch or sew anywhere else. This is because I wanted my chevron lines to be the most prominent. 

Making The Binding

To make the binding you are going to cut 4 (4"x 45" strips). 

So basically you will cut the width of your fabric 4 times at 4" wide.

Then you want to lay your fabric strips right sides together like this and sew a line right where my pink thread is. 

I really enjoy this ladies video of how to make a binding. She shows the entire process, but I will be showing you how to sew your binding on a little bit differently. 

Go here to watch the video of how to make a binding. 

Next cut the extra fabric off. It doesn't matter if that line is perfectly straight as long as you sewed it straight.

Then open up the binding and iron the seams. 

Your lines should match up. If they don't match up perfect don't stress too much. You will be folding this in half, and those lines will be sewn to the back side of your fabric and folded over, so you won't see them. Try your hardest to get it as close as possible though. 

Then fold your binding in half and iron it one more time. I like to spray mine with water because it makes the fold sit flatter.

Attaching The Binding 

 To attach the binding with my machine I watched two youtube videos to give me an idea of how to do it. To watch these videos click 

here 

and 

here

I first sewed my binding on to the back of my quilt. This might be a little tricky to line up with the front of your quilt if you want to make your binding fat. 

The way I did it, was I ironed my backing fabric folded under the front of the fabric so that it made a nice line for me to sew on. You could also use chalk or find your own creative way to show you where your front edge is. 

If this seems to complicated and you would rather a flat binding cut the back of your fabric and the batting so that they match/line up with the front.

If you have never done binding before, this video here will show you how to do your corners (keep in mind she will be showing you the version that is sewn to the front and needs to be hand sewn to the back)

***Use a thread that will stand out so that you can see it to follow along, on the front side. 

Now fold the binding over to the front.

See that pink thread I was talking about? Line the binding fabric up with it and start to sew your decorative stitch. I chose the zigzag to keep with the theme. 

You will want to take a scrap piece of fabric and test out which one you want and how long and wide you want it. 

It may take a little practice, I know it will take me some time to get it just right. 

If you did it correctly your decorative stitch should line up with the back. If it doesn't, undo the stitch and learn from your mistake. Notice in the previous picture those tiny holes? Thats because I made a mistake and undid the stitch and just tried again. 

Don't be hard on yourself, and just try again if you make a mistake. Thats how you learn.

The speed at which you show and how fast you feed your fabric through will alter how your stitch looks. So keep it consistent. 

GUESS WHAT!?!??!

YOU ARE DONE!!! Congratulations!!!

***Update: Isn't it so cute in its new home!?!?

Not Your Average Wedding Guest Book- My first Quilt, Wedding Style

How to : DIY :  Make your own special occasion quilt  

Ideas on how to use this quilt : Quilt for Baby (smaller size), Graduation, Wedding, Family Reunion, Family through the years, Loved one passed on, or really anything you want to remember.

I got married back on the 12th of July, 2014. Im a planner and I like to do things different then mainstream and way in advance. I know this isn't the first ever wedding quilt guest book, but its not something you see at every wedding. I knew I would never look through our wedding guest book and it wouldn't mean that much to me. I LOVE being warm though, and knew that would be the most sentimental to me. My husband is very easy going, so he's pretty much down with whatever when it comes to the specifics of how we do something. Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is?

I started WAAAY before the wedding day, drawing out what I wanted my quilt to look like. It was my first quilt so I decided to stay pretty basic with it. I measured out my quilt design to have my paper be 1 inch on paper equal to 6 inches of fabric. I figured out how big I wanted my blanket to be and I went to work on trying to fit everything together. You can just find a pattern that is already made, or you can design your own. I love creating, so I wanted mine to be unique and designed it myself. 

YOU WILL NEED

• Sewing Machine (Mine is a Janome DC1050)
• Thread (The only thread color that matters is the bobbin when you are stitching in the ditch so that it doesn't stand out too much on your backing. My backing was bright pink so my bobbin thread was bright pink. The rest you won't see so I used white.)
• Fabric scissors 
• Fabric rotary cutter (makes cutting straight lines easier) 
• Fabric cutting mat
• Ironing Board 
• Iron 
• Saftey Pins 
• Pins 
• Printable Fabric sheets (I used printed treasures sew on sheets to print out my wedding pictures) 
• Fabric 

1.      Front: 2 yards coral,brown,blue and 3 yards of the tan and white. (You will have extra. I used my extra for the binding)
2.      Back: 3 yards for pink backing (My pink fabric was 36x44 for a yard)
3.      Binding:I used my extra fabric, it was roughly a yard
4.      Batting:I bought this pre-washed king size from Jo-anne fabric here and didn't use it all

***anything you have left over can be used for future projects!

DESIGNING THE QUILT 

If you are going to use large squares or rectangles, you need to keep in mind that the 6"x6" are going to come in a 1/4" for sewing on each side. So your large square won't be exactly 12"x12". I accidentally started sewing the pieces together at 1/2", so that took quite a chunk out of my larger pieces. I didn't feel like adjusting everything and unstitching so I just went with it. So due to that mistake, the sizes I did won't apply to you. you'll have to do the math to alter it.  Mine ended up having the length of the rectangle with 1" off the end, and my squares having 1/2" off all four sides. ( I didn't just take 1" off width and length because there was already writing on mine and I tried to make as little casualty as possible.) 

If you want to make yours the size mine ended up being (85"x85") then you can take my mistake and run with it. Just make sure to tell people to write as far from the edge as possible when they are signing your quilt squares. Most people wrote near the edge not realizing i was going to be sewing it together later. I had people only write on the big white squares and the small white squares. 

HOW MUCH FABRIC?

Once you have your quilt designed you will need to figure out how much of each fabric you will need. Then figure out how big your blanket is going to be and get the appropriate amount of fabric for your backing. If you buy a little bit too much fabric that is totally OK! Then you have left over fabric to make a beautiful scrap binding like I did. Or you can buy a premade binding, or buy fabric specifically to be your binding and make it from that. There are lots of options for your binding fabric.

I bought 2 yards of the coral, blue/turquoise, and brown. Then I bought 3 yards of the white and tan. I had a fair amount left over for most of the fabric. To get the white the size I need it to be however I had just barely enough. 

For my backing I purchased 3 yards, but that is simple enough to figure out if you need a different size. When you know how big your quilt is going to be, measure it out and add a little forgiveness fabric, in case you make a mistake.  Same goes with the batting. I just bought a pre-washed batting from Joanne's Fabric and Craft that was on sale and already cut, as mentioned back in the "Need" section.

***Remember that not all yards of fabric are made the same. A yard of fabric in length will always be the same, 36", because they cut it for you at the counter. However, they could all be different widths. Click here to find out a little bit more about yards of fabric, they give some great tips.

**Notice how their lovely words got cut off? Well now you can learn from my mistake. Tell your guests to sign as close to the centre as possible. Only sew a 1/4" so you don't take too much out of the writing, and make sure your larger shapes are sized proportionately.

WEDDING DAY

Once you have your quilt designed, your fabric purchased and cut, breathe easy! Take your lovely squares that you will have signed and your non-bleeding fabric markers to your special day. Instead of a guest book, they will sign your squares. YAY!

 That day was so busy, I can't remember if I have a picture of the squares to be signed all set up. When I find it I will add it into this blog. So here is an example of one of the small squares.

I didn't have my pictures printed off yet so I color coded parts of my blanket that I would start sewing together. This actually made it phenomenally easy to make sure all of my pieces were being put into the right places on the quilt. If you are not adding pictures, you could actually have the entire quilt done before the wedding and then there is no hassle of cutting words off. They can just sign straight onto the quilt.

ADDING PICTURES

When I finally got my printer ink, I printed off my pictures. I swear I was being tested to build patience, because it took me two-three days to get my ink. I sent my husband the picture of the ink to buy, but didn't think to tell him what kind of printer we had. I didn't think it mattered. Well it did. He came home with the right ink, but it was meant for about 11 printers (not including ours) that had a certain capability and the ink didn't fit.

So the next day I was all ready to go to get the correct ink, when I remembered that the giant gate on our land wouldn't work and I was trapped... If I wanted to walk the half an hour drive to Costco from the top of the mountain in Tijeras I could have done that. I didn't want to though. So I had to wait.

Luckily my husband had been locked out from getting in the night before and jumped the fence leaving a car on the outside. So the next day we finally went and got the right ink! 

LET THE PRINTING BEGIN!

If you read my last blog on how to make your own labels, then this will sound familiar. 

I found these lovely awesome printable fabric at a craft store. I found them later on amazon. I think I found 3 packs of 12count for $45. They are normally around $20-$25 for 1 12 count. So I was thrilled! I only needed to use 15 though. If you want to use less pictures, you can just buy the 1 pack and use 12 pictures.

I sized and adjusted my pictures until they were all the same size. I made sure there was enough fabric on the outside to sew them to the other fabric pieces. 

Then I printed them off and followed the instructions on the inside of the packet. Which is basically to print, let dry, peel paper off back of fabric, run under cold water to release excess ink, air dry.

Then once your pictures are all done, you can finish sewing together the rest of your quilt. If you have ink, unlike I did, you can just sew everything together all at once. It is easiest to stitch them into small squares and then sew those all together. You can research quilts more though and see what other people say.

TADA!!! Beautiful wedding pictures combined with wedding guest well wishes and names. 

MAKING THE BINDING

You can make your binding whenever, as it is the last part of your quilt that gets added on, but I made mine after I stitched all my pieces together. Click here to see the step by step video of how to make your binding and how to attach it. 

I believe I only used a yard of fabric for this. I did the large strips 17"x 2.5" and the small strips 6"x 2.5". No idea why, I just thought it looked cool. The 2.5" has a reason though, as this is the width of your binding. I measured out enough to wrap around 85"x85" and added an extra 40" just to be safe because of the corners. This is what a correctly sewn binding looks like laid out flat. 

I was not a fan of angles. I just wanted to sew my binding together straight edge. However when you fold it over, it is bulky. So I huffed and I puffed, and I caved. I did it on the angle. One thing to keep in mind is PATIENCE. I undid my stitches several times because I would lay the angles together the wrong way. Then I would open it up,  and it would look like this. GRRRR!!!! DO NOT STITCH THEM WITH THE ANGLE AND FABRIC LAYING WITH ALL THE LINES MATCHED UP! Learn from my mistake!!!

Make sure to watch her video to see what I am saying. I realized after that I didn't take a picture of how to lay them together properly. But she explains is amazingly. You'll notice however my angle won't be as big as hers, I hate wasting fabric and did mine a little different.

Once you have arrived at the very end of sewing all of your binding material together you fold it in half, and iron away!!!

Then you roll it around itself, or around a large ruler until you need it. 

I did mine a little backwards and sewed the binding on before I stitched in the ditch. So before you get to this step you will need to stitch in the ditch.  I know that for next time though. If you don't know what stitching in the ditch is, this video helps to explain it. 

Click here to watch that video. 

To stitch in the ditch, basically means to sew along/on top of all of your seams. That gives it the nice tight feeling. A lot of people take theirs to be professionally done, and will also have stitch designs placed on their quilt. You lay down your backing, then batting, then your top. Then you are going to want to safety pin the centers of some of your squares to keep it together. You are now ready to STITCH IN THE DITCH!! 

***You'll notice that my binding is already on, whoops! So just make sure to stitch in the ditch before you bind it together.

To add the binding, lay the unfinished edge ( the side that is not folded over) lined up with the unfinished edge of your top. Sew a 1/4" in. Stop a 1/4" from the end to fold your corner and start the next side. Honestly watch the video I linked, I find it way easier to learn by watching someone else do it. Here is is one more time. When your binding is sewn on, fold your binding over to the other side and the seam is invisible! 

Then blind stitch your binding onto your backing. If you do not know how to blind stitch,

click HERE 

to watch a tutorial.

THEN YOU ARE DONE!!! YAY you have a wonderful handmade keepsake that you did all by yourself!!!! It's not perfect, and I'm ok with that! It was my first quilt and I am quite happy with how it turned out!