A Patchwork Quilt

As it's cold and snowy outside, and I spent the morning playing in the snow at our local park, practising my expert steering whilst sledging skills, to make sure that I didn't hit too many children, I thought that a good Sunday afternoon activity would be to make a patchwork quilt.

I've been collecting the materials for a while, as my housemate has a lovely Ikea rose floral quilt, in red/white/green, and I'm quite envious of it. Some of the fabric I already had, a bit came from leftovers from making flags for a tent for work, and the rest came from a duvet cover which I bought from a charity shop.

Although I knew the basics of how to make patchwork, I found this very helpful guide (http://www.cherrymenlove.com/crafts-how-tos/2010/03/how-to-make-a-patchwork-quilt.html), which gave me an idea on how big to make my squares, and how big to make it.

It took me a few goes of laying out all the squares (and cutting out a few extra pink ones as it was too white) but I eventually was happy with my layout and started sewing. 

I've sewn all the strips together, and have made my squares 20cm x 20cm, and my quilt 10 squares by 7 squares, which I hope will be a nice size to sit over the end of my bed, or wrap around me when sitting on the sofa. Before joining up the strips, I've pressed all of the seams open, so that it's easy to match up the seams to make perfect squares. 

I match each seam, and sew about 2cm across the top of each seam, and go all the way across with just a small amount of sewing at the top of each seam, to make sure they all perfectly match, before going over the top and sewing the whole length. 

That's as far as I've got for today, as I've got a few bits to alter, and want to get on and read my book Half of A Yellow Sun, as I'm half way through and want to find out what happens.