Mini big brick quilt

This is one of the easiest quilts in the world to make, mistakes are ok and only add to the brick effect. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, the name comes from the uneven alignment of the pieces of fabrics or bricks creating a wall effect and I think in the grey, red and orange mix I made it looks really sweet.
The quilt size I made is big enough for a pram or Moses basket

You will need:

8 fat quarters of fabric
Quilt wadding
Backing and binding fabric

Scissors
Sewing machine

To start divide all of your fat quarters into even pieces, this should give you 6 pieces per fat quarter, and arrange them in the order of your quilt. In order to get the brick effect, don’t worry too much about them being exactly the same size, a couple of mm difference is fine.
I should point out here that this really is the cheats way to make a brick quilt and that there is a proper way of doing it – I’m making a double bed version at the moment

Now, sew together your fat quarters in strips of 4 then join all of these together to make the centre of your quilt, you could make your quilt larger or smaller at this stage.

Attach to the wadding and backing fabric using tacking thread, then sew over some of the squares to create that quilted effect, you can use any design you like here.

Trim the edges, and cut some strips of fabric for the edging – these should be a couple of inches wide- sew down first one edge to the back of the quilt, ensuring you tuck under the raw edge of the fabric, followed by the other edge onto the front of the quilt. The best stitch to use for this is a slip stitch. And that’s it, your done!

Alongside this quilt, I have been very busy trying to get organised for Christmas which is a whole 13 weeks away, apparently, this is causing no end of confusion for my children! But here’s what I’ve been busy making

The cot quilt -finally finished!!

So here, it is, finally finished, my pretty cot quilt!

Making a basic quilt like this is quite an easy way to start quilting, so, if you want to have a bash then here are the instructions-sadly no pics as I forgot!

First, cut 12 20cm x 20cm squares of fabric in your choice, I picked four fabrics, it’s always good to have a creamy coloured fabric to pull it all together
Stitch these together in rows of 3 then join all these together to make a rectangle

If you want to add any appliqué, now is the time, I added some hearts and did a wee bit of embroidery!

Then cut four lengths of fabric to match the edges of your quilt then stitch the long sides on first, followed by the short sides sewing the short sides over the excess of the long sides – hope that makes sense!

Now to choose your inner layer, I used fleece as I had some that needed using up but you can buy special quilt wadding, also choose a backing fabric and cut a piece to match the size of your quilt

Pin all of these pieces together with plenty of pins to stop any crinkles!

If you like sew round the edges to give a sort of border to the centre pieces

Now for the edging! Cut four 5 cm wide strips matching the edges of the quilt from your left o er backing fabric. Now, use a one cm hem and pin it first to one side of the quilt, I hand stitched the edging but machine stitch it if you prefer, once you’ve finished, fold it over to the back and pin under the edging 1cm and stitch it down

Work your way round folding in the corners neatly as you go – trimming if necessary until your finished and have a beautiful quilt!!

The cot quilt

My most recent project, a cute cot quilt in liberty tana lawn which came off eBay for 99p a piece, I know a bargain!! Anyway, as I’m stash busting, I thought I’d make it into a pretty
love themed cot quilt decorated with hearts, as you can see its a work in progress which I should finish this week

It’s very pretty!

Also, my iPad isn’t able to connect to etsy to sell stuff so I have set up a Facebook page called alba makes alas only featuring the pretty pinafore of the previous post which is aged 2-3 and priced £25, anyone interested please get in touch, either through here or fb!

Today was a day of trying to amuse my children, we went to see brave at the cinema which was fab, although my 6 year old was a wee bit scared at times….managed to divert him with haribo though! Anyway, can highly recommend it, a good few laughs for the whole family and a lovely story!

Finally, will pop the cot quilt up on here later on in the week!