Quilt using Sizzix Die Squares

I am so excited today. I finished a throw for our niece and it came out very beautiful. This is my first project using my Sizzix Bigshot die cutting machine. This is my first patchwork quilt as well! 

This is how it looks from the front.

Here is a close-up shot.

 

The flip side looks like this.

As I have used fleece as backing material, I have not used any batting for this quilt. All the blue and white squares were part of an unused T-shirt. I cut the squares using Sizzix Bigshot machine with Scallop Square Die. Click below for full tutorial...

The finished size of the quilt is 48" X 32". Materials used:

• Knitted T-Shirts one in white and the other in blue
• One Fleece throw of size greater than  48" X 32"
• About half a yard of pink fabric
• About quarter yard of yellow fabric
• Some fabric scraps for patchwork

Using my Sizzix bigshot and Scallop square die, I cut 30 squares each from my blue and white T-shirts

The T-Shirts has some lettering in them. I cut each of those letters and appliqued them onto each of the squares.

I did not have the letter 'D' on the T-shirt, but I wanted it on my quilt; so I cut a fabric scrap in that shape and appliqued it to a scallop square.

I also added 3-D forms to some of the squares like a frock, 

or an umbrella

or a butterfly...

I did not embellish all of the squares, because I wanted a balance of blank squares and appliqued squares. I joined 6 squares together to form a row and then joined two rows together. I used white and blue squares alternately. I joined wrong sides together so that the scallop edge will show up on the quilt.

If we consider 6X2 squares as a block, we need 5 such blocks. I used a theme for arranging these 5 blocks. The first square is each block spells the name (A-D-I-T-I) of my niece. 

I joined the pink strip on either side of this block.

This got all the blocks together with pink strips in between them.

Now, I attached the pink strips on either end (Top and bottom ends in the above picture) I attached the two yellow strips as well. I did not take a picture at this step. But please observe the below finished quilt for better understanding.

I placed the quilt top onto the fleece backing and pinned it up in place. I stitched in the ditch (in between scalloped edges) so that the stitch would not show up on the blue/white squares.

In the pink areas of the fabric, I used curvy stitch (stitch no - 22 on my Brother sewing machine) to add fullness to the quilt. This also covers up any unevenness or puckering of the fabric.

 

On the yellow strips, I used a wider stitch length of the curvy stitch. This curvy stitch gives an impression of free motion quilting, but it so simple to use; it feels as though I am doing a straight stitch but it adds so much beauty to the quilt.

I trimmed off the excess of the backing fabric (fleece). I cut bias strips of the yellow fabric. I used 2.25" bias strip for 48" quilt-edges and 3" bias strip for the 32" quilt-edges. I am not very good at getting the corners right. So, what I do is to use varying widths for adjacent edges of the quilt so that I get a right angle at the corner of my quilt.

That gets us to the end of this tutorial. Phew! So many photos and such a lot blog post!!! But I am so excited with this quilt of mine that I can't help showing off! ;-)