Connor's First Quilt

I've been so busy since my son was born that I haven't done any crafting in quite some time. Now that he's getting old enough to play a little bit on his own as well as sleep through the night, I realised that it's time I make him his first quilt. I've decided to try a pattern that I had only used once before for my nephew. Below is a rough draft of it but it will help me to have a visual while I'm quilting to remind myself of the placement of each of the blocks.

General Items to Note

• Fabric Requirements
• Rectangles - 0.25m of five (5) or six (6) assorted prints. You will need 22 blocks. (I used 6 patterns)
• Border 1 - 0.3m
• Border 2 - 0.7m
• Posts - 0.3m
• Backing - 1.8m
• All seam allowances are 1/4"
• Press seams as you go, light fabric toward dark fabric

Cutting and Piecing Instructions

1. Cut 22 rectangles from the 5 or 6 pattern prints that measure 5 ½” x 9 ½”
2. For border 1 – cut 4 - 1 ½” x WOF strips, 4 – 1 ½” x 4 ½” pieces, and 4 – 1 ½” x 5 ½” pieces
3. For border 2 – cut 4 – 4 ½” x WOF strips
4. For Posts – cut 4 – 4 ½” squares for each corner
5. Refer to diagram 1 – arrange fabrics in preferred order. Rows 1, 3, and 5 contain 4 whole blocks. Rows 2 and 4 contain 3 whole blocks and 2 half blocks. When cutting the half blocks be sure to allow ¼” seam allowance on cut end. Stitch blocks in vertical rows.
   
6. Measure top and bottom of quilt. Stitch a border 1 and border 2 strip together, cut to your measurement and attach to top of quilt and repeat for the bottom of quilt.
7. Make 4 corner blocks by stitching a 1 ½” x 4 ½” border 1 fabric strip to the bottom of a 4 ½” square. Then stitch a 1 ½” x 5 ½” border 1 fabric strip to the right side of this unit.
   
8. Measure left and right sides of quilt center (do not include the top and bottom boarders in this measurement). Stitch a border 1 and border 2 strip together and cut to your own measurement. Make a strip consisting of a corner block, the strip you just stitched together and another corner block. Attach to left and right sides of quilt making sure to match the seams.
9. Sandwich, quilt, and bind using your preferred methods. I'll explain my method of binding in a later post. Below are some pictures. This one is right after I sandwiched the back, backing, and top and quilted them together. I use the sew in the ditch method.
   
10.  Below are a few pictures of the binding.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

As I was working around my son’s nap schedule, the project took me 5 days or about 10 hours.