Weddingbee Blog

I’M BACK! …er, well maybe I’m just back for a hot minute. But! I’m so happy to be posting here again! I’ve missed everyone! Have you done something new with your hair? Have you lost weight? It’s been SO LONG! OK…maybe not. It’s been 2 months. Whatever. Let’s get to the point of this post, mmmmmkay?

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Once upon a time (or really, last summer) I channeled my inner Matt Foley – Motivational Speaker, and posted about how I was going to go out and get the (sewing) world by the tail and wrap it around and put it in my pocket by taking an online sewing class. I’m happy to report that I have not resorted to eating a steady diet of government cheese whilst living in a van down by the river.

In fact, Home Ec (and married life in general!) has gone quite well and I’ve learned a lot (let’s just not talk about how I haven’t exactly finished all of the Home Ec tutorials/classes…that’s another story for another day). I’ve learned enough to sew curtains for some of our windows, two quilted table runners for our dining room table, and a tote bag (with a lining! and handles! and an inner pocket!) to carry my extra “gear” to and from work. I’ve come a long way from being scared to even thread my sewing machine, but I admit that I still have a very long way to go.

Way before all of that Home Ec stuff, though…all the way back when I was a blushing bride to be, I posted about a grand idea I had to make all of the napkins for our wedding reception. You’ll also recall that my mom had to step in and finish that project for me because I was full of ideas but low on time (and confidence!) to finish them myself. And now, just because I love remembering how they looked on our wedding day…a little bit napkin action:

Credit: MThree Studio

So, where is all of this back story going? Well, I’m happy to report that I’m about halfway finished with my biggest post-wedding craft project: our wedding napkin quilt. (Pauses for thunderous applause from the crowd…senses none is coming…moves on.)

I just want to stop here for a second and say that I don’t consider myself a “quilter,” so consider this your disclaimer. You’ve been warned, and it might not be pretty learning from someone like yours truly. But, I’m going to post this as a psuedo-tutorial — simply because it was easier for me to write it that way.

I say “pseudo-tutorial” because I figured out very early on in this process that I needed a quilting tutorial for a complete novice since I had really only had the basics of sewing down: threading the machine, operating the machine in a basic manner, stitch length, tension, how to actually sew in a straight line so it doesn’t look like I’m sewing after 5 martinis. Luckily I found this tutorial by Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter and it. is. fantastic. I’m following it to a tee, with the only difference being that my quilt will end up being bigger since I had a lot of napkins that I wanted to use (her tutorial is for a smart & manageable 16 block quilt…mine is clocking in at a ridiculous and insane for a beginner 49 blocks).

Following the tutorial, I started out by cutting my napkins into blocks according to the following dimensions: 11+” x 13″. I will say that this “+” of fabric on the one end comes in extremely handy later when you’re squaring up all of your quilt blocks once they’re pieced together. Then, I got up close and personal with my self-healing mat, my rotary cutter, and my fabric ruler and I cut the blocks into their smaller “strip” dimensions: 3″, 1 1/2″, 2 1/4″, and 6+”.

Then, start piecing together your blocks. The idea here is that you keep the left-most piece of fabric and the right-most piece of fabric the same, and switch up the two middle “strips” of fabric — that way, once you sew your block together, you have a bit of consistency with your pattern. I took pictures of this process as I was piecing together one block. (Note: I used a 1/4″ seam allowance — what Amy recommends in her tutorial…which is basically just lining up the right hand side of the fabric with the right hand side of the presser foot on your sewing machine — see step 3 below.

In step 1, I have my left-most 3″ strip on the bottom, and the piece that I’m stitching to it (the 1 1/2″ strip) on top. In step 2, I’m now joining the 1 1/2″ strip (now not visible) to the 2 1/4″ strip. In step 3, I’m joining the right-most 6+” strip to the 2 1/4″ strip. Step 4 is a picture of all of the pieces stitched together.

So, that’s all there is to building your quilt blocks! Repeat this process 15 (or if you’re cray-cray like me…48) more times, and your blocks will be finished. Next up? Ironing them. If yours look anything like mine did, they’ll look like this after you’re done piecing them together.

No bueno. Dig out your iron and your ironing board that have been relegated to the back of your spare closet and steam those puppies so that all of the seams are facing one direction like this:

Beautiful. Again, repeat this process with all of your blocks. Now, take your blocks back to your trusty self-healing mat and grab your rotary cutter and fabric ruler — trim those babies down until they measure 11″ square.

At this point, you’re probably sick and tired of working with individual blocks and anxious to see how everything is going to look put together. But, like an oasis in the desert or sweet (quilting) manna from the heavens, the fun part is up next: laying out all of your blocks and figuring out your quilt pattern.

You’ll need a pretty large area to do this — I used my living room floor. I started with whatever block I wanted in the upper-left hand corner of my quilt, and moved left to right, like you would when you’re reading a book. Alternate the pattern on the blocks and soon you’ll have something laid out that resembles this:

As you can (hopefully sort of) see, my blocks repeat every row so that the fabric in the blocks running diagonally from the upper left to the lower right repeat — this is probably easiest to notice on the black fabric blocks. I digress. You can pick any pattern you want, or choose no pattern at all. Whatever trips your trigger.

The next step is sewing all of the blocks together into strips and then sewing the strips together to make your quilt-top….but you’ll have to stay tuned for that because I’m tired (and if we’re keeping things real, it’s because I haven’t finished that part yet).

Are you planning on repurposing any of your wedding decor? Are you making wedding napkins? (Because, if so…you rock. Not that everyone else reading this doesn’t rock, too…you’re all superfantastic!)