Charity quilts: December 2008

To update the most recent blog entry, I have completed six charity quilts (as can be seen in the picture) since my last count, which was two to three weeks ago. I had hoped to complete more, but I don’t think that six quilts in two to three weeks is too shabby…

The two quilts on top of the stack–the pink-striped one and the purple one–were made from fabric that I purchased at clearance sales. The first one, the pink and brown one, is two coordinating pieces of fleece that I simply stitched together with a 1.5 inch seam and a decorative stitch around the perimeter of the quilt. Because fleece does not ravel, I did not have to worry about concealing or finishing the raw edges. I took one stitch in the middle to secure them. The photo above shows two different corners of the quilt–the front or the quilt top, which is pink striped, and the backing, which is brown.

The second quilt, the purple one, was made from pre-quilted fabric. I made the multi-colored binding that is used on the edge of the quilt. This is not a difficult process; there are several good tutorials on the Internet as to how to make your own binding. To summarize it here, I cut 2.5 inch strips of fabric, and stitched them together into one long strip. I took this strip and pressed it in half lengthwise, so it became a strip that was now doubled and 1.25 inches in width. I opened it up and pressed the raw edges in toward the center fold, so it was a strip of fabric four layers thick that was roughly .6 inches in width, with no raw edges exposed. I then stitched this binding to the quilt. Pretty, n’est-ce pas?

The other four quilts were made of donated fabric. This one was two cuts of fabric; one was a cotton blend blue and purple print, and the other was a pre-quilted grey fabric of a nylon, rip-stop nature. Since the side opposite the gray was unfinished, I sewed the patterned fabric to it. For this quilt, I used the pillowcase method. In essence, I sewed the fabrics right sides together, and left an opening. I then turned the quilt right side out through the opening, and stitched the opening closed.

This quilt was made of pre-quilted fabric. It only needed a binding. So I took donated satin blanket binding and used the process mentioned above to achieve the four-layer binding. I stitched this on.

These four quilts were made from single lengths of fabric. They are therefore known as whole cloth quilts, for fairly obvious reasons. The last two quilts on the bottom of the stack are made from pieces of donated hotel-quality bedspreads, so they are pieced or patchwork quilts.

I think they turned out great!