One day I decided to make a quilt

Back in the day when I was just an attorney, I had time to play on the internet and read interesting things and I read this 3 year old (at the time) blog post. So I decided I would make a quilt. At that time, when not interneting, I also had time to take on random, frivolous, expensive, time-consuming projects. I've been sewing for as long as I can remember and had made a little hand-tied quilt in college (more on that later) but I had never made a blanket at this level. And by "at this level", I mean that can withstand being washed in a washing machine. 

As a lifelong fabric hoarder, I knew that fabric was the key to my success. Of course nothing I already owned would work; I decided that I had to use the practically obsolete Heather Ross Mendocino from the blog post, because I love mermaids, and to use P. Kaufmann Treasure Island backing fabric, because I love pirates. I'm a creative genius. 

Enough chat, here she blows: 

This quilt is actually kind of funny to me because brown & orange are 2 of my least favorite colors

I didn't square up my squares but overall I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. It took me one or two weekends to finish but it took me a couple of weeks to gather up all of my fabrics. Looking at the picture details, I appear to have finished it in early November 2011. Finished size is 61.5x50.5. I bound it with a scrappy binding because I used so many fabrics in the quilt top I couldn't decide what direction I wanted to go with a binding. I really like how it turned out! Since I didn't want to waste a single scrap of my Heather Ross, I put a scrappy strip across the back. The internet has since taught me that I was improv/slab piecing to make that strip. 

Planning my binding

Scrappy back

This was my first time attempting to quilt anything so I wasn't sure what to expect. I sew on a 12 year old Singer 7468 and didn't have a walking foot or a darning foot at the time. Actually, I don't even think I knew what those were. I ended up using orange thread and quilting (mostly) in the ditch along the zigzags. I thought that I would go back and quilt on either side of the ditch as well but I quickly tired of zigging and zagging- I just wanted to finish my quilt and sit under it while I watched Gossip Girl!

Awesome swim ladies, mangled looking crabs

The coral/orange polka dots turned out to be one of my favorites on the quilt
First of many doggie photobombs

Disfigured mermaids

I'm pretty pleased with how well I lined up the plaid *pats self on back*

My favorite part of making this quilt had to be picking the different fabrics and trying to match everything together. Obviously my jump-off was Mendocino but I added 5 more fabrics plus the backing once all was said and done. Mixing and matching is still my favorite part of quilting. 

Looking back on it, my next zig zag quilt will be made using this technique. I love working with HST in general but I don't like how mismatched my fabric patterns turned out. Live and learn! I've come a long way since this quilt and now that my quilt numbers have reached double-digits, I've decided to start sharing my experiences on the internet. Maybe one day I will even inspire someone to make a quilt.