Bff Quilt

I love handmade scrap quilts. They are seriously the best and most comforting thing ever. So, I've been working through my scraps lately and cutting them into squares. One of the best things about making handmade stuff out of fabric is that I have a LOT of scraps. Well, some of them are a little big to be considered scraps. But since I'm mostly just focussing on slippers in my shop right now, I figure anything that is too small to make a slipper out of can be justified as a scrap. Needless to say, I came up with a lot of squares.

The patchwork is made of 7 3/4" squares cut in half on the diagonal. The resulting triangles get all mixed up and then artfully matched with other triangles to form squares again. I trim them all down to 7", making sure the seams are exactly at the corners of the squares. Then, lay them all out in a seemingly random (but actually tediously planned) hodge-podge and sew the rows together. I try to make sure that the colors are balanced throughout the quilt, especially the standout colors, like red.

Then, sew the squares into rows. Sew the rows together, and so on. I used a couple sheets for the border and backing (throwing in a few squares from the sheets to tie it all together. All the seams are serged, because I'm crazy like that. About a billion people have already provided great step-by-step instructions on how to make a quilt, so I won't try to reinvent the wheel here. 

Voila! I did a good job, and I'm pretty pleased with myself right now. Job well done. Lots of back-patting.

Since I already have a quilt of my own, I handed this one off to the ol' bff, who (in an uncharacteristic display of emotion) CRIED. Nailed it!

Obviously the best accompaniment for a quilt is a good book. I recommend Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me, because it's hilarious and it looks good with a quilt.