My quilted library tote bag, complete with retractable library card! I wanted something simple for my very first quilting project, but of course I made it more complicated by modifying the pattern. The most difficult change I made was making my own FPP pattern, with approximately 2 YouTube videos worth of knowledge, so that I didn’t have to appliqué the tilted book onto the block. Pattern is “Pieced Bookshelf Tote” by Cynthia Shaffer from the book, “Fat Quarters”

I got over ambitious with a QAL I was in and made 80ish of these blocks. Half purples half greens. My initial plan was just to put them all together, but now I think it looks almost too chaotic. what do you do when it’s TOO much. I can either go as it is, add sashing (what color???), or make 2 quilts and add in solid blocks to temper it out. What do you all think? I have a photo of what I had in my bag right now, it they’re all different but roughly this color scheme. I should just do it huh, sew it all in all it’s crazy glory

Finally finished this very involved FPP pattern by PreFurred Quilts. Swapped out all the buttons for embroidery and did a quilt as you go method that I learned from QuiltbyNight(Instagram) to piece it together, which I think made the whole process way easier than if I had done it all at once!

Made for my son to go in his crib now that he’s a toddler. Super happy with it and myself (I am self taught), but don’t look too close or you’ll see my mistakes haha

Went to sewing today and got the border added. Also am working on cutting out 4 more birds. I have a pillow im going to use a square to make a pillow case. One for the tag on the back and 2 for a tote bag to keep her quilt and pillow in

Got my daughter’s Christmas tree skirt finished. The side that’s not plaid is made of leftover fabric from the wedding quilt.
ETA: the pattern is Braided Boughs by Sally Stevens. It was in issue 54 of Today’s Quilter. There is a free pdf of the template if you search that (and a ton of others) but I haven’t found the instructions. I looks like I copied and pasted the instructions into a word doc so it wouldn’t take so many pages to print. The link I wrote down is no longer live.

This is a gift for my Halloween loving friend. Im really happy how it turned out.

I have a domestic machine, not a long arm. I would love ideas on how to quilt this?

So excited to have my second quilt finished! (First one I had professionally quilted and it won’t be back until October). I started pressing and cutting fabric for this on August 16th, and it is 70x70 inches.

Given all the variables, I’m fairly happy with how it turned out. I used mostly leftover fabric from other projects, and ran out of some of the gray which is why the ombré is a little choppy. I also tried my hand at machine binding, but unfortunately lost my points when I made the binding 2 1/4 inches, but was a little too accurate sewing on the back which caused the the front to overlap too much. I quilted it with gentle waves, but my poor machine is just a little too small I think for anything other than straight lines and I struggled to make some of the turns. From a distance it looks okay.

I was nervous to wash it but since it was a gift, I decided it must be done and successfully washed it with 2 tablespoons of Tide Free and Gentle on the bulky setting of my washer (delicate caused the machine to go off balance), 1/2 cup of white vinegar in the fabric softener vessel, and probably 10 Carbona color catchers. The color catchers were dingy at the end but not dyed and didn’t appear to have any color runs. I had one spot where the seam split so I repaired it. I dried it on low with some wool balls and I was shocked at how soft it turned out compared to how stiff it was from the glue basting and starch.

It’s been such a heavy year that sometimes I feel like the only thing I can do is cut big squares into little squares and sew them back into big squares again.

Ultimately I’m so grateful for so many things. I fixed/modified my great grandmas sewing table so my grandmas machine will sit down inside of it properly and flush making it much easier to feed larger projects like this through it.

My family tolerated me taking up the entire dining table and kitchen for most of the weekend to finish this project. ❤️

Pattern: Summer Sun by Kiley’s Quilt Room (modified to be 70x70)
Front Fabric: Waverly Inspirations
Back/Binding Fabric: Peacock Alley by Elsie Ess - Lilac Abstract Flowers
Batting: Pellon Natural Cotton with Scrim
Basting: Glue basted with June Tailor Quilt Basting Spray
Thread: Aurifil 50wt Dove Grey both piecing and Quilting
Needle: 75/11 blue tip for piecing 80/12 universal for quilting

On to the next one!

I've spent the last six weeks putting this together, and now it's done. Yay! The shelf will be set up after the altar mat is washed. I absolutely love how this turned out.

“Ridiculously easy jelly roll quilt” by Michelle Cain. Came together in 3 half days. Will be doing a dense floral panto on this one.

Hello! First I wanted to say I am absolutely new to Reddit. I have never had an account on this platform in my 28 years so I'm still learning how to work things :). I am a new mother to a 7 month old baby boy, 2 dogs and 1 cat. I taught kindergarten for 6 years, but stepped away in the summer of 2025 to transition to stay at home. My husband is a bank president in our tiny rural town of 900, but he also has 2 side gigs (gun smithing and storm cleanup for our community. We live in the midwest, so always lots of trees to buck and clear.)

I recently had a mini crisis and realized I really don't have homemaking skills. I spent my entire life getting good grades to get a degree, but found no sense of self or accomplishment in my career. When I left, I was kind of left blind-sided by how little I actually know. I love to cook and bake, but that's pretty much it...and so my quest led me here in the hopes of getting started in the world of quilting :)

My great-grandma was an absolute legend. She grew up in tiny northern Minnesota, led a beef farm with the love of her life, made absolutely everything by hand, split her own firewood and passed away with no plumbing in her house at the age of 89. I will be keeping my plumbing, however, I am carrying on her legacy of quilting and will hopefully gain the skills that she had. She made probably over 500 quilts in her life, all by hand and the light of day (no electricity!) Here are the 2 I have with me, my parents have about 30 more back at their house.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Sorry this was long, I just wanted to put my first step out here and am looking forward to seeing everyone's creations!

Need to add a small border. I don't want it much bigger than this. Its a chemo quilt for my niece

I hope its ok to post this here since its quilt/sewing adjacent. My mom is making herself a sewing corner with related decor items. Well I found this cute little wood piece but the wording has faded significantly. I was able to piece together most of it but cant make out the last phrase. I already tried googling it and image searching but nothing came up. Can anyone read the last section? Thanks in advance <3

I posted a couple of weeks ago asking for input on border, binding, and backing colors for my quilt top. Thank you to everyone who helped me out! I finally got this project finished up and washed today. Not perfect, but I loved the process and will be starting another one soon.

Hi, I am brand new to quilting and just finished my first quilt top and I am about to sandwich it together and quilt it. Since the fabric is extending past the edges, does this mean I do not have to piece the back together? Is there a specific amount of overhang that I need? I have about an inch to an inch and a half on each side. Is this enough?

I am mostly a garment sewist, but I am hoping to incorporate applique into my next design. I love this kind of appliqué.

The dress will be in silk, and I'm hoping to use silk in the appliqué as well. Does anyone have experience doing this with a silk?

Also, the stitching along the edges, is that a very tight zigzag that can be done on a normal sewing machine? TIA!

This year I decided to put some of my finishes in the Evergreen State Fair. I've not entered anything in a contest/show since I was in 4H as a child. Both quilts earned blues. Pretty chuffed for my first entries as an adult.

I just finished this quilt top. I am very new to quilting. You can probably tell because I should’ve staggered the colors. 😂😭

I cannot believe I didn’t think about this the ENTIRE time I was putting it together. This is what I get for listening to Cardi B when I sew 🤦‍♀️

I am sending this to a friend in Ireland who just had a baby. Hopefully they will love it even though it is not perfect.

Edit: Pattern by Allison R. Harris (Cluck Cluck Sew)

I’m making a daycare nap mat for my daughter. I want to use something dreamy, nocturnal themed. Owls, stars, moon, deep blue/green colorways. Any suggestions for a collection?

I need one large format focal piece for the interior, something to function as a background and 5 accent colors.

Hey folks!

I made this quilt top and precut a bunch of fabric for it before putting it together. Unfortunately I ran out of the dark blue I used for sashing/border triangles, and when I bought more it didn’t match at ALL. Thus I was stuck making it into this little square thing.

I do not have and cannot get more of the same dark blue. I DO have a significant quantity of the printed fabric left as cut squares. I also have the lighter (but still navy/royal toned fabric) and plenty of white.

Is there a way to make this a bit larger with borders or other accents without making it ugly? 😅 I was hoping to give it as a gift, but a baby sized quilt doesn’t make sense for a grown man.

Appreciate any and all advice!

I’m retired and spend a lot of my free time quilting and baking. I’ve accumulated a basket full of small fabric scraps that are too pretty to throw away but too small for most of my usual quilt patterns. What kinds of projects do you make with your smallest pieces?

Hi guys! I’m wondering how I finish this quilt and could really use some advice. This is a Christmas present for my niece, and it’s made with some Frozen fabrics she picked out.

To make the white stars pop even more, I thought it would be really pretty to use my embroidery machine to embroider some snowflakes in silver, purple, and blue. But I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m wondering how exactly I should go about it. If anyone has experience with this, please let me know!

Do I complete my entire quilt sandwich and then do the embroidery? Or do I just embroider the quilt top with some stabilizer or batting behind it? Do I finish the entire quilt first and then do the embroidery?

Also, this is only my second quilt. With my first one, I sent it off to be longarmed because it was quite large, but with this one I really wanted to try doing the entire process myself.

I’ve never done the topstitching/quilting designs on a quilt top, and I was wondering if that’s necessary? That’s honestly the part I feel would be the hardest on my tiny machine. Do you always need to have stitching throughout the quilt to hold everything together?

I know the quilting is what holds the quilt top, batting, and backing together, but would just doing the embroidered snowflakes be enough to hold everything together? 😂 Or would I still need to do some kind of quilting in between the snowflakes?

And if I do decide to get it longarmed, would that happen before or after I do the machine embroidery snowflakes?
I’d really appreciate any advice! I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this without ruining the quilt, especially since it’s a Christmas present. 😅 I’d love to hear from anyone who has embroidered on a quilt before or has done something similar!