The bestest home made bed quilt in the world

And now.....the moment you have all been waiting for, the first public viewing of my first ever  completed bed quilt. Cue fanfare. A few facts and figures, the template for each patch was 10cm square, reduced to 7.5cm after the hemming. There are 625 patches, all hand sewn together.

I started by making the four squares for the centre, joining them together with the red border. Then I kept adding more rows, alternating with a plain border, then a patterned. So, I added the plain pink and the plain green, followed by another patterned border. By this time I was getting a bit weary and wanting to see it finished. After checking the size on the bed I decided to add a second patterned border, and finish off with a plain pink binding. I could have gone on a bit longer and added more so that it drapes a bit lower on the bed, but I think this length is fine.

 It looks nice with the rag rug next to it.

I hung it on the wardrobe to get the whole thing in the photo. As I mentioned in the previous post, the back is a duvet cover I bought from the Age UK charity shop for £1. This also gave me the pink binding for the edge. Sandwiched in the centre is an old candy striped flannelette sheet. 

A few close ups. I decided to go over all the plain squares with the machine. That was easy enough for the pink and green stripes, just do a zigzag twice over them. A bit more difficult to do the centre squares, a lot of stopping and starting, and changing direction, and a lot of securing the trailing cottons on the back. I think if I was to do something like this again, I would machine over all the squares from one edge to the other. Never mind, I like the look of this finish so I suppose it was worth the effort.

I already had most of the fabric, pillow cases, curtains, clothing. I spent a couple of quid on two shirts and a skirt and pj bottoms from charity shops and car boot sales.

I took the easy way out for the corners, just squared them off. The pink binding I machined on from the front, but finished with hand stitching it to the back.

The back is actually yellow with pink flowers on it, the colours have not come out well in this photo. You can see the ends of the cotton tied off when I had to stop and start.

 

I am very pleased with it. I shall be keeping it because it is a lot nicer than the bedding I already have. Two of my throws have seen better days and are ready for the rag bag. After 30 years I am sick of seeing them and they are really scruffy. My bedroom will look lovely now.