Stamp Collection Quilt


Here is my latest quilt! This one was made for a fabulous teacher! It seems like every year I make a teacher quilt that includes turquoise, aqua or teal. I guess lots of teachers like those colors! Luckily, those are some of my favorite colors too, so I don't mind!

I got all excited about this one because I thought using black and white fabrics with a few pops of the teal color could be fun. It turned out pretty much how I imagined it...I have lots of black and white fabrics in my stash and tons of scraps, so I wanted the pieces to be small enough that I could use up some of the scraps. 

I designed the quilt in Inkscape, adding different sized rectangles and squares until I had a section that was about 20". Then I flipped, rotated or repeated the section before changing the size/shape of some of the pieces to fit and interlock with the other sections.

Once I had the design on my computer screen, I just clicked on each piece, mentally added seam allowances, cut the piece and added it to my quilt layout. It actually went together pretty well, considering that the sashing wasn't exactly the right size on my computerized design. I ran into a few places where I was off by 1/4" or so, but I only had to re-cut 2-3 pieces so it wasn't a big deal. 

I decided on fabric placement as I went, so it got a little crazy in my quilting room while I was working. I ended up with everything spread out all over the floor because it was just easier (and I don't have enough table space for this kind of operation).

This quilt needed several partial seams to make it work. This means I had to sew part of one seam, finish one or more other seams and then go back to finish the initial seam. It was actually kind of fun to figure out the order I needed to sew the pieces in - kind of like a puzzle but with fabric!


I backed it in a matching teal Kona solid that I found at Hobby Lobby. And then forgot to take a picture of the back! This is an absolute travesty because the quilting design looked so cool on that solid backing. The pantograph I used is called Zen Flowers by Anne Bright Designs. It has a bunch of fun, cute flowers.


This one got a fun label since it was for a teacher. I design these in Inkscape (design program) and print them on Spoonflower.com. Then, I add some fabric embellishments before stitching it to the back of the quilt.


While I was making the quilt, I got so excited that I was using up so many scraps. Unfortunately by the end, I realized that I had made a whole bunch more scraps! So I decided to make a scrappy binding to mitigate the number I would be adding back to my scrap bag! I love a good scrappy binding!


I did not have plans to make a pattern for this one, but so many people asked, I couldn't say no! 
So now there is a pattern for this quilt so you can make your own Stamp Collection quilt!



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