Big Zig Baby Quilt

[kaolin]

I've read a lot about quilting, and love seeing everyone's lovely quilts here, but I had never made one myself.  So, for my first quilt, I decided to go with something simple and doable:  a baby quilt.  It's for my friend's baby shower this weekend; I hope she likes it.  The pattern is a scaled down version of "Big Zig" from Denise Schmidt Quilts.  Finished size:  36" x 45".  The quilting of the zig zags is by no means even, but I think it adds to the charm.  And there are no ripples/folds on the back!  (Well, there were a couple, but they were all near the edge, so I ripped them out and redid them.)  Advance apologies for the blurry pics and linty quilt.



Here's a closeup of the binding.  I didn't want to handsew anything, so I did a regular binding, then folded it over and stitched in the ditch to secure the other side:


Here's a look at the backing fabric; it matches the green zigzag on the front.  You can also see the stitches on the binding:


And just for kicks, here's my favorite part.  I love the little quilting stitches peeking out.


Let me know what you all think.

[Eowynt]

 ::)Great job on your first adventure in quilting.  It is a terrific quilt, and a great example how simple can be very attractive. 

[batgirl]

It's lovely! It also reminds me of Charlie Brown's shirt! 

[quilted]

What a great quilt! It sure doesn't look like any body's first  The colors and quilting are just fantastic.

[green r my tear$]

this is one well crafted quilt!! i really respect individuals who quilt!!

[HSG]

It's lovely! It also reminds me of Charlie Brown's shirt! 

DITTO! That is exactly what I thought when I saw it.

[msplow]

very neatly done

[space.case.sara]

i love your quilt! I was wondering if you could describe, in more detail, how you did the binding by machine...the last time I tried, it was a bloody disaster!  Thanks!

[QuiltersBlock]

Cool!! Very nice work. I love that it's not baby-ish at all. Perfect shower gift!

QB

[kaolin]

Everyone, thank you so much on your compliments! 

this is one well crafted quilt!! i really respect individuals who quilt!!

Me, too!  Doing this quilt took a lot of my patience, and I only had to piece 4 rows!  I finally understand it now when people say that they don't like piecing triangles.  After I finished this quilt, I found an easier (and neater) way of piecing the zig-zag rows at the purl bee:  http://www.purlbee.com/zig-zag-quilt/.  To everyone out there who completes bed sized quilts, my hat goes off to you!  This one was only baby-sized, and I thought I was going to go crazy manipulating that thing in my sewing machine.

Cool!! Very nice work. I love that it's not baby-ish at all. Perfect shower gift!

QB

Thanks.  The parents are very hip people and they wear a lot of saturated colors like orange, navy, yellow, red, etc.  I tried to take that into consideration when I picked the colors and the style of the quilt.

i love your quilt! I was wondering if you could describe, in more detail, how you did the binding by machine...the last time I tried, it was a bloody disaster!  Thanks!

I like the way that traditional machine-sew-then-fold-over-and-hand-sew binding looks, so I used these directions:

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/photos/continuous_quiltbinding/index.html

and these directions:

http://www.expertvillage.com/videos/quilting-binding-instructions.htm

but with a couple of changes.  I cut my strips on grain, 4" selvage to selvage.  Then I sewed them all together and pressed the seam allowances open.  Then I pressed the new strip in half lengthwise, which gave me a long 2" strip.  I sewed it to the quilt using my walking foot (my new best quilting friend!) and a 1/2" seam allowance, because 1/4" seemed way too thin and scary for me.  Then I pressed, folded the binding over to the other side, and pressed and pressed and pressed again.  Because the binding was 2" wide to start with, there is enough to cover the original stitching.  This is the point where regular instructions tell you to slip stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, but I hate hand sewing, I'm bad at it, and I needed to finish this quilt by Friday, so instead, I did it by machine.  I used my stitch-in-the-ditch foot (otherwise known as an edge-joining foot and my other new best quilting friend!) and stitched in the ditch from the front, feeling my way underneath to make sure that the stitching caught the binding on the other side.  I went really slow and it all turned out okay.  Thank goodness, because after ripping out and requilting all my ripples, I was ready to be done with it. 

Hope those instructions help!