The Big Girl Bed! Part 1: The FINISHED Quilt!

It is time, past time honestly, for the clever girl to move into a "big girl" bed as opposed to the toddler bed she has been using.  For one, she is simply getting too tall for the toddler bed.  But just as important, there is another baby coming, and he will need the crib!  So I got all DIY about the entire project and decided to design and sew a quilt and bedskirt for her new bed, plus design and build the actual bed.  Yes indeed, sometimes I get a bit nutty with my "I could do that" attitude.

Let's start from the top:  the quilt.  If you have been reading my blog for a bit, you know about this quilt.  It started from a pattern for a twin-sized quilt, but since I wanted to build a full-size bed, I made an extra row of squares.  I also created a border around the entire quilt.  It didn't really need this border for sizing, but I thought it would look more finished this way, and I don't think you can really have a quilt that is too big.  I love that it actually covers the entire mattress.  Perfect.  You can read the initial posts about the quilt here, here, and here. 

While I originally wanted to get this entire project done by Christmas, I quickly realized that I was setting a goal that would cause me way too much stress and was pretty much un-attainable.  So, I decided to relax about it and just get the project done as soon as I could.  Much better! 

I created the back of the quilt and unfortunately failed to take any pictures!  For the quilt back, I used the fabric that I used for the very first square I made, which can again be seen here.  Then I brought the entire thing to my local quilting shop for the actual quilting.  If you happen to live in Houston and enjoy quilting or sewing or other fabric crafts, I highly recommend visiting Tea Time Quilting.  The shop is family owned, and you will likely visit with the mother or one of the two daughters that run the shop while you are there.  They are lovely and super helpful.  One of the daughters did the quilting.  She did a beautiful job.  I seriously got all teary-eyed when I picked it up.

Now it was time for the binding.  I had a little trepidation about doing a quilt binding, as I seem to often hear about people who make these beautiful quilts and then never bother to bind them because it is such a pain.  I could have had my quilt binding created and attached at Tea Time Quilting, but I chose to do it myself, just because that is the sort of person I am.  I found two GREAT tutorials online, which helped a lot.  You can find them at Red Pepper Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.  Whereas my mom always hand-sews the back of the binding to the quilt, I knew I would wash this quilt a zillion times so I followed the instructions for machine sewing the entire thing.  And honestly, it wasn't so bad!  I just followed the tutorial instructions step by step, went slowly, and it worked!  I did a major happy dance when I accomplished this feat.  Not only had I sewed on quilt binding, I had FINISHED the quilt!  Yippee!

The last thing I did was create a tag for the back, which was just more of the yellow fabric where I personalized the quilt for my clever girl.  I call this the "sunshine quilt".  I love this quilt.  I really think it is just a really happy quilt.  The clever girl was keeping an eye on the progress the entire time and loves it.  In fact, when I finally put it on her bed, she said, "Oh, Momma, you did a BEAUTIFUL job!"  That's my girl!

Check back for more about the Big Girl Bed project!

The Quilt Top is finished!!

I am so excited!  I finished sewing together the blocks for the clever girl's quilt top!  You may recall my posts about deciding to make a quilt and sewing the first block.  My goal was to finish sewing all of the blocks by the time my mom came to visit for Halloween, and I accomplished that goal!  Then I realized that if I plan to get this quilt done by Christmas, I really needed to bust a move, so I set to work getting the blocks sewn together.  I just finished this morning.  I was so excited I took a photo right away and sat down to put it on the blog!

My next step is the backing.  I have the fabric for that already so it shouldn't be so bad.  I also need to purchase fabric for the quilt binding.

My First Quilt Block!

I made my first quilt block for the clever girl's quilt!  I even lined up the print!  Yippee!  I am really pleased with it and am ready to tackle some more.  A whole lot more, for that matter.  I have lots of blocks to go!  Let's get this quilt moving....  I intended to get working on the quilt a while back but it just didn't happen.  However now that I have started, I can't wait to sew more! 

I am excited to get all of the squares done and figure out how to arrange them all.  I still have no idea as to how I will go about actually quilting this thing, but I am hoping for a quilting epiphany.  It could happen, right?

For more info about the quilt I am making, click on the link above and it will take you to my first description about this project.

My first quilt!

I have decided to make a quilt for the clever girl for when she transitions into a "big girl" bed.  Seriously, she was ready for this transition a while ago, but I knew I wanted to make a quilt so I've been postponing it.  Luckily, she still fits in her toddler bed so it still works!

Above you see the fabric I chose (and carefully cut) for the quilt.  I am using a pattern that was in the Spring 2012 issue of Stitch magazine, the Shoo Fly Quilt.  It is my understanding that the shoo-fly pattern isn't anything new, but this designer made the pattern ginormous so each block is one square.  I think one fabric might be hiding, but overall the fabric above is what the clever girl's quilt will use.  The yellow squares on the top left will be the background, and then each color strip will make up one shoo-fly square.  The pattern itself is for a twin sized quilt but since I am over-ambitious, I am making this a full-sized quilt.

Nothing like starting big with my first-ever quilt!

Let's not even talk about how I am actually going to QUILT this thing because currently the answer is "I have no idea".  I hope that will just come to me...

Surely it will, because quilting must be in my genes somewhere.  My grandmother quilted, my aunt quilts, my mom quilts, my sister has quilted.... surely I have it in me to quilt as well!  I'm crossing my fingers!

Oh, and by the way.  Just in case making a quilt isn't crazy enough, I am also designing the actual bed frame for the bed.  As in constructing it out of wood.  Yes, I am totally a crazy person.  But hang with me a moment while I explain my insanity a little bit...  We are in the process of tearing down a house to build a new one and the original house has neat old doors.  So I want to make a bed frame using those doors.  I have seen some beds like this on the Internet, so I feel confident that this is something Mr. Clever Mom and I can tackle.  Right?  I am pretty handy with this sort of thing (the only girl in the wood-shop class in junior high for 2 years, though yes that was quite a while ago) and we did design and create the clever girl's play kitchen, so surely we can make a bed that will actually stand!

I know, I am way overly ambitious.  When will we get all of this done?  In what free time???

Ahhhh.....