This year my best friend Lizi is turning a 'special' age (its the one when life begins). We've been friends since school and over the years we've always stayed in touch and we now both live by the sea side - not in the same town but not too far away either.
I didn't just want to buy Lizi a present for her birthday, I wanted to give her something more memorable and unique, so I decided to make her a patchwork quilt with 40 squares (one for each year of her life) in vintage style, of course.
To start I needed to choose the fabrics and colours. I went for blue, greys, and pinky salmon. I didn't want to make it too girly as this isn't Lizi's style - so I chose classic Gingham, mixed with a few plain squares and a bold retro abstract flower pattern.
Stage one was pinning and sewing all the squares together.
It was quite tricky working out how to assemble the squares so that there were no doubles or similar fabrics close to each other.
I just about managed it.
I added squishy thick wadding to pad out the quilt so it would be nice and cosy.
I then needed to find some fabric to back the quilt. At first I thought I would do this in plain cream, but I came across this pale yellow and blue flower fabric. It's actually from a duvet cover I found in a charity shop for £1.50. I love a bargain and Lizi loves a bit of thrifting too so will definitely approve.
Pinning and sewing the backing along with the thick wadding was quite difficult but I managed it without any hiccups.
Finally I needed to quilt the quilt.
This took quite a while and was slow going... but I got there in the end.
Here is the finished article.
There is also a little 'L' for Lizi hidden somewhere on the quilt for a little personal touch.
