it's done! i finished my first quilt.

i finally finished it!! this process has been going on since last summer when i was co-oping in huntsville. due to an incredibly busy fall semester, i didn't pick it up until i came back up to north alabama to do my last co-op this january. i was determined to finish it before this semester ended and sure enough - i did! now that i am done i can't wait to start on my next one. i have so many ideas and i have been collecting some beautiful fabrics.

i've never had a really great sewing set up. last summer, i was working on a tiny little sewing table in a tiny little room. this semester, i have been using the above set up, using a barstool height table for ironing and sewing. it's a small table so i can only manage to do one thing at a time on it. i actually really love the height though, so i am standing the entire time i am working. usually, sitting at a desk will give me really annoying back/shoulder pains. i still get a little bit of a sore back while i am sewing and standing, but that's usually because i've been at it for hours. i just enjoy it significantly more than sitting, so i think my future permanent sewing set up will have a standing height table.

sewing on my grandma's old singer from the 60's. it's an industrial machine and i love it. it doesn't do anything other than a straight stitch but that's all i really need.

  

and here it is! all done. don't look super close or you'll see all my mistakes. this quilt is not a work of art and it won't be hung on the wall, it's going to be loved on and brought to picnics and cuddled with.

 

taking pictures of a twin sized quilt by yourself without a tripod or a helper was kinda hard. i'll work on this.

i used the machine binding tutorial from red pepper quilts (found here) and it was super helpful. the binding didn't turn out perfect - the back of the binding varies in width here and there - but i am happy with it. i'll get better with practice!

i used a thrifted white sheet as the backing fabric. i know some quilters will shy away from using vintage sheets for quilts because the needle will actually pierce a hole in the fabric instead of having the fabric shift and move around the needle. i decided to just go for it and see what happens since this is my first quilt and i'm open to making mistakes (and thus, learning from them). it is really soft and i'm happy i used the sheet instead of some rough hard fabric. also i'm poor and this was cheaper. college logic.

i think the grid quilting looks pretty cool on the back of the quilt. it kind of reminds me of a downtown street layout.

well that's it for my first quilt, buddies! can't wait to get started on my next one. i have so many ideas. :)