Spring Herringbone Baby Quilt

Its time for another tutorial! I have found a few new things that I wanted to try out. From the one and only pinterest! Can I just say how much I love pinterest? That thing was sent from heaven! I'm obsessed with organzing, so the fact that I can put everything I love from the internet into tiny organized bozes makes me beyond happy. Organzing relaxes me, if someone paid me to organize things for them, I would be in lala land. When Im hungry and I have an ingredient in the fridge that I need to use. VOILA! Magical recipes pop up with beautiful pictures. I hate thinking up things to make, and I get so focused when I'm making something, so I sometimes forget to eat. So pinterest is my best friend, let me tell you!

So the two things that I found are:

1. Large squares that you can get 4 HST's (half square triangles) from. Which makes for a way quicker cutting/assembling time and with less sewing I feel like. Click the blue link to see their full tutorial

QUICK WAY TO MAKE HST's (HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES)

2. Susie's Magic Binding. I'm still trying to work out the kinks of this one. I love the idea, but I'm not perfect at it yet. Click the blue link to see the full tutorial.

MAGIC BINDING

Let the tutorial begin!

You will need

Sewing machine- mine is a basic Janome DC1050
Walking foot- they suggest this for making quilts, I didn't use one
Thread- I used cream and yellow
Rotary Cutter
Cutting Mat
Scissors
Iron
Ironing Board
Fabric

Backing- 1 yard *** I had to trim the front of my quilt down a little to be the same size as the backing. Its the width that didn't match up quite the same, not the length. So buying a yard and a half won't make much of a difference unless you sew it on. I didn't want to do that though for this one.
Front- 1/2 yard of three colors of your choice and a yard of white. ***If you want to use the colors that I chose. I used Joann Fabrics, Keepsake Calico Print Dots On Dk Pink, Quilters Showcase Fabric Pin Dot Mint and White and for the life of me I can't seem to find the name for the yellow. I looked on their website and can't find it.
Binding- 1/2 yard of the color of your choice, or you can use the remainder of the colors you already have.
Batting- 1 yard *** I just bought the prewashed batting from joanns in a king size so I could use it for multiple projects. I have now with my latest project, just barely had enough to use up all of it. I made 1 85x85in quilt, 3 baby quilts roughly 1yard, and a quilt 48x60 for my brother who is returning from a mission in bolivia.

Seam allowance is 1/4"

First thing I always do when I am making a pattern up, I draw it out. I just did this in the paint application on the computer. I like to have a visual to reference so that I don't mess up.

1. To make your quilt the size that I made mine your first step will be to cut out large

squares. They will be 9.5x9.5" squares. Then in a later step you will sew a white square and a color square

together and divide it into four. This isn't just yet, but you need to know this for the next bit to make sense.

Cut out

4 Pink squares 9.5x9.5"

4 Mint squares 9.5x9.5"

4 Yellow squares 9.5x9.5"

12 White squares 9.5x9.5"

If you want to make your smaller squares to come out a different size there is an equation for that. They also have a little table with the math all done for you back in that link.

Basically:

BIGSQUARE (2 sewn together) x 0.64 = 1SMALL HST ( roughly )

1 SMALL HST / 0.64 = BIGSQUARE (2 sewn together) ( roughly )

For example:

If you know that you want your smaller square to be 4 inches you would do this equation

4/.64=6.25 --> This means you need your larger squares to be 6.25x6.25

If you know that you want your larger square to be 12 inches you would do this equation

12x0.64=7.68

2. Now you are going to sew one white square and a color square, right sides facing each other, together. Sew along each of the four sides of your square.

3. On your cutting

mat, cut your 2 squares that you just sewed together down the middle.

4.Then cut those two halfs down the middle.

5. Then you open them up and you have 4 (roughly 6") HST's. Iron out each square so they sit flat. You can trim each triangle down to 6" easily if you have a ruler that is exactly 6" wide after you iron them.

6. For me it was easiest to lay out my pattern, and then sew from there. I am a visual person, so if you don't need to do this carry on!

7. Once I had it laid out, I folded them in half and sewed one row at a time.

Yellow and yellow, mint and mint, pink and pink, then I sewed that row together. You can honestly do it however is easiest for you. It makes for straighter lines and sharper points when I do it like this.

8.You can sew the front together whichever way you think is easiest. I tend to think its easier to go in rows. So I sew 6 HST's together for one row. Then i do this 7 more times. Make

sure to look at the legend so you know you are sewing

it together properly. Then you will want to make sure after you sew your rows that

you flatten out those seams

with an iron. You will thank

yourself later when you put

in that little extra time to iron.

Then you are going to sew those 8 rows together to finish your front side. Again make sure you iron that seam!

Cut out your backing fabric and batting to the size of your front. Or just cut it so they all match up. Make sure it is all squared up and matches.

9. When you have the front all sewn together you will then baste your quilt. To do this you will lay your backing face down, then your batting, and then your top face up. Pin your quilt with saftey pins to keep it from moving around on you.

10. Then you are going to stitch in the ditch. I just followed along the

colored parts. This makes it stand out when you are done the quilt. It also makes it so that your quilt stays together nicely.

11. Now cut out 1.5" strips for your main color and 1 3/4" for your accent color. I did 11 (18"x.5") strips and 11 (18x1 3/4"). Which gave me 198" to go around my quilt. I normally have about 7" left over that I don't use, but I just do this amount because its the worst when you don't have enough. Here is the link again if you would like to see her instructions on how to do the "susies magic binding". Here is another video tutorial on how to make a binding if you have never made one.

12. You will now sew your main color strips together. Again if you haven't done this before, watch that link I put in number 11. She shows you all the steps in a video of how to make a binding and attach it.

This is how it will look if you follow her instructions. Then you just snip the little pieces of thread in between.

Cut along that line you just sewed ( its a faint yellow in my picture)

I should have used a little bit of a darker thread so you could see it.

Then it will look like this. Straighten it out and iron those seams!

Sew Your main and accent binding together. Right sides facing each other. You will have a little bit of the accent color showing as you can see in this picture.

Then you fold it in half the other way and iron it flat.

You need to make it so that there is a little bit of the accent color exposed on the side.

Your finished binding should look like this.

13. Now you are going to sew the binding to the back of your quilt. The accent color will be facing you. The main color will be face down. Your raw edges will be lined up with the edge of your quilt.

14. Once you have your binding on the back, you will flip your quilt over. Wrap your binding to the front and stitch a straight line where the accent and main color meet. Try your best to follow that line you stitch from the back.

I pinned it to make it a little easier to sew. Most of the time pins make it harder for me. This time it helped. My line was still not as straight on my backside as I would have liked. Practice makes perfect!