Triangle Quilt

It's been awhile hasn't it? It's hard to find the motivation to blog this summer. We've been soaking up precious time with family and friends before we head back to DC next month. 

One of my goals for this summer was to finish this quilt that I started such a long time a go. And I am happy to report that it is finished and waiting to go on James' bed when we get back to our apartment in Alexandria.

This quilt was supposed to be a gift for James for his first birthday (which was in March). I finished the front of it with plenty of time to spare but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do for the back or how to quilt it. So I brought it with me to Utah so I could get my mom's opinion on how to go about getting 'er done.

I mainly used this tutorial to make my quilt. I was going to make a baby quilt like she did but I decided that since I was going to take the time to make a quilt, and since my boy isn't really a baby anymore, I might as well make it big enough to fit the twin bed in his room.

I cut up a yard of each fabric but I had some triangles left over at the end. I lined the triangles up as shown above, using a duvet cover as my guide for the size. I  had to go back and add more triangles to each row and add another couple rows after I had sewn them though. Once the triangles are sewn together you lose quite a few inches in both directions overall.

I placed the triangles very haphazardly. I just did whatever looked right to me at the time. I think the pattern turned out ok though--it looks pretty even without being to orderly. I wanted it to be fun and not too perfect. And it definitely isn't perfect at all. If you look closely there are so many spots where the corners of the triangles don't match up perfectly. I have found that I am definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to sewing. I like to go fast and get finished so if something is a little off I usually won't go back and fix it.

I decided to just do navy blue for the back but I threw in a little row of triangles in between my two pieces of fabric. I wanted it to be a summer quilt so I didn't want to make it too heavy. I used a layer of flannel in between my front and my back. It gives it a little body, but the quilt is nice and light and it was easy to quilt because the layers weren't too thick.

To quilt it I just sewed straight lines horizontally on either side of the line where the triangles meet. I used navy blue thread so it wouldn't stick out on the back of the quilt. I really like how it looks on the front though because the thread contrasts so much with some of the lighter colors.

I bound the quilt with navy blue and white striped fabric that I lucked out and found at Wal-Mart (I know, I know). I ended up having almost nothing left over, so I guess it was the perfect size.  I used about 3/4 yard. I decided to round the corners because I didn't really want to teach myself how to miter a square corner, but I love how the rounded corners look. Sometimes my laziness pays off!

It ended up being a much bigger project than I anticipated--probably because I have never made a quilt before. I had to teach myself a lot of new things, so hopefully if I ever make another one it will be easier and go more quickly. It's really nice to have a tangible product of all my hard work.

Sometimes I feel like even though I know being a mom is about the most important worthwhile job I could have right now, I get a little bit discouraged because there isn't any paycheck or feedback from your superiors or proof that you are doing a good job. You just have to hope that all your hard work is going toward creating a marvelous human being who will be good and kind. And that in spite of your weaknesses and failings, this person will turn out ok. But you can't really see this happening day by day. There's no tangible proof that your hard work is paying off in the short term. So sometimes its nice to create and finish something beautiful and be able to see and touch all your hard work and say "Hey, I did that, go me!"

And sometimes when he is being extra cute I think that same thing about my little guy, "Hey look what I made, go me!"