The Quilt is Finally Finished!

After several visits to the local quilting store and numerous stops and starts, I finally finished the rail fence quilt.  Here are a few lessons I learned along the way that might be of interest to other “newbie” quilters. 

1.  If you plan to wash your quilt in the future, make sure to pre-wash the fabrics you use. 

2.  If all of your squares are not the same size once you go to sew them together, find the smallest square and cut all the rest of the squares down to that size.  It will make for much cleaner corners once you put the quilt together.  Thanks to my sister-in-law, Rachel, for this tip. 

2. Make sure to follow the pattern’s instructions regarding which way the seams should be pressed, and consider pinning those seams down when sewing the quilt cover together.  I ended up with a lot of seams sewn down the wrong way because I neglected to pay attention to this important instruction.  The result -  a lumpy quilt cover.

3.  Borders are kind of a pain to do, but they really frame the quilt.  Don’t take the easy way out and skip this step unless your quilt pattern specifically calls for it.  Thanks again to Rachel for this tip.

4.  If you plan to tie-off your quilt, consider a thread or yarn appropriate to the fabric you used in making the quilt.  The chunky yarn I used to tie-off this quilt looked great, but it was a wrestling match complete with the use of pliers and several bent needles just to get the yarn through the fabric.  And to think I was considering doing a blanket stitch all the way around the edge… 

4.  When doing the binding, if the strips of binding materials you have are too short to cover one entire side of the quilt, just sew them together.  Cut each piece on a 45 degree angle at the end and then sew them together leaving a little dog-ear on both the bottom and top.  These seams will barely be visible on your binding once finished.  The thanks for this tip goes to the owner of the Prosperity Quilt Shop in Boulder.

5.  Be proud of your finished product despite its inevitable imperfections.  They give a lot of character to your work.     

Here are a couple shots of my debut into the world of quilting: