Daniela’s Quilts

When my husband and I bought our first house, my mother-in-law made us

each a quilt. She spent countless hours on those quilts so that we would know how much she cared. She has become a more central part of our

lives over the past few years, and with that involvement has come many more quilts, both for our babies and for us.

Grandma’s Quilt

I moved to Utah from Canada when I was 15. My grandmother let me take my favorite quilt from her house in my hometown. A new city, school, and friends made the first few months difficult, but having that quilt as a

reminder of her love made the transition a little easier.

*Making a Quilt

A quilt is warm and comforting.

A quilt is soft and cozy.

A quilt is pattern and imperfections.

A quilt is patience, time and love.

In an attempt to follow in the

footsteps of my children’s

grandmother and my own

grandmother, I decided to try my hand at making a quilt of my very

own!

Picking the fabric was my favorite part of the process. So

much flannel, so few prints needed for my

quilt! My kids did not find fabric shopping to be

enjoyable, but if I had been alone, I

might have spent all afternoon in the

store!

My background in hairstyling made me

brave enough to choose the orange

‘pop’ of color. Orange and blue are

opposite on the color wheel- hence,

they compliment each other fabulously!

The First Step

Next, I had to cut the fabric into squares. This step had to

be quite precise. I needed 6.5’’ squares of fabric, and

5.5’’ squares of fleece for the lining.

After I had cut the

fabrics and fleece, I

needed to make them

into ‘sandwiches

’ and lay them out into the

formation for the quilt.

I’ll admit, I’ve been having some trouble

getting all the settings right on my new-ish machine, so every

time I start a project, I get a little nervous that it’ll act up. No

problems on this project, luckily!

First, I sewed each square to the next square in the row sequence, then I

sewed each row to the next row in the row

sequence until I had a complete rectangle!

Time to Sew!

The edges were rough, so I squared them

up with my rotary cutter and mat.

Next, I needed to make little cuts in each

seam so that the flannel fabric

would fray when washed.

The finished product is cozy and my babies love it! Since the ‘inner’ squares of

fleece (meant to make the quilt warmer) did not get sewn to the outer squares, they

shifted when the quilt was washed. Live and learn, I suppose. You

can tell that each square has a little

‘lump’ in it, but I just call it character!

*All Done!

• This project, like almost every creative task I’ve undertaken, was a learning

process. I would do things differently if I did it again, but I am now confident that I could take on bigger quilts, or even different types of quilts in the

future.

• Being able to talk to my grandmother and mother-in-law about the process of sewing and creating has been beneficial

to our relationships. I feel closer to them by learning their craft.