Little Girl Quilt

I bought my daughter a quilt at Walmart when she moved into a big girl bed, but the seams came apart when I washed it. She thought it was great because she could stick her hand in there and store all kinds of treasures (cars, candy, Littlest Pet Shop--- you get the idea). I did not think it was so great.

Naively, I thought "I'll just make her a quilt. Surely that will cost less than buying a new one."

Guess what. I was wrong. Buying quilts at Walmart or Target is cheaper. But, do they have the loving, hours upon hours feel of a homemade quilt? No way.

I learned so much from making this quilt. Let me share with you:

1. Quilts take A LOT of time. I am really more of a get-my-project-done-within-a-week sort of girl. This seriously took me a month and a half, and by the time I was finished I was SICK to death of it. But it was a Christmas gift, so I had motivation to keep going instead of just retiring it for a while.

2. You can design your own quilt pattern, however you like. I saw something similar to this a couple months ago at the fabric store. Then I drew it out on graph paper and figured out how much fabric I would need. Turned out I was wrong and I had to go back to buy more fabric 3 different times. I'm learning here.

3. You can machine quilt on a sewing machine with a zigzag stitch. I had to do this because by the time I finished the top, there were no machine quilters that I could hire and still get it done in time for Christmas. You just buy Warm N Natural batting; it's really light and can fit through your presser foot without any trouble.

4. I love my little girl. It makes me happy to tuck her in at night in this cute little quilt.