It's patchwork! It's bright! It's a quilt!

Hello T3 readers. It’s Hannah writing to you today. How is everyone?! It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post for the Thimble. I’m home for winter vacation and am thoroughly enjoying my time here at the shop. Stop in and say hello! Yes, yes indeed that IS a quilt. Mom, Emma and I love the line of fabrics called “The Woodlands” by Anthology fabrics (available on our Etsy shop, here, for those of you interested!) Inspired by the very chilly weather and the longing for summer warmth and color, I decided to make a small quilt with those cute fabrics.

With that decision made, the rotary cutter and I decided to be on agreeable terms, I saved up some patience, and painstakingly cut out 216 5″x 5″ squares. The logistics went something like this: 1/2″ seam allowances, little (to no) concern over matching corners, a flannel middle, cotton backing, cotton extra wide double fold bias tape, and embroidery floss used to tie the quilt roughly every other square.

I am not a quilter. I’ve never claimed that, nor do I ever plan to. I want to make this clear to everyone: quilting can be fun and finicky-free. Sometimes customers come into the shop who are so concerned that their quilt will be judged if the corners aren’t matched perfectly, if the colors don’t match exactly, and if it’s not a fancy pattern. Ladies (and gents, if you’re reading) take that quilting stigma, crumple it up and throw it away with those precision laser-cut squares. Quilting is a beautiful art form that doesn’t have to center around perfection. Look closely! Do my corners match? Nope. Does my binding twist a little in some areas? Sure does. Is it sized precisely for a twin bed? I dunno. Probably not.

Long story short, if you’ve never tried quilting you really should. It’s fun! It’s a great way to use up fabric and you can make endless color combinations. Don’t get caught up in worrying about the perfection or complexity of it all. Some of my favorite quilts are a jumble of mis-matched fabrics that have been sewn together with no rhyme or reason.

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