Checkered Quilt of Flowers! – Awesome Beginner Quilt Idea!

My second quilt ever! The Checkered quilt of flowers! Ohhhh, looking back at my old creations makes me smile. I have learned a bit since then about quilting, but I thought this is a great beginner quilt to share with you. It’s super easy to cut and sew together and you can personalize it many different ways. You can choose a block theme, such as I did with flowers, or you could do different coloured patterns. This is the story of how this checkered quilt of flowers came to be…

One day I was just rolling on the ground in my huge pile of fabrics (because that’s what I love to do) and I noticed that I had a lot of floral fabrics… I don’t think I’m an overly flowery girl, so I had to use these floral fabrics up in a creative way. Then a brilliant idea came to me! I would make a floral themed quilt!

So far in my quilting experience (one quilt down) I enjoyed working with squares, so I stuck to what I knew. I decided on a checkered quilt pattern of different floral patterned fabrics. Then decided to create a white background to break up all the bright colors in the floral fabrics. I enjoy lighter coloured quilts so I thought the white would lighten up all the bright floral patterns.

METHOD TO MAKE A CHECKERED QUILT

Step 1: Cut a whole bunch of patterned fabric into squares. The squares can be any size you like. I used 4 inch by 4 inch squares for this floral checkered quilt.

Step 2: Cut a whole bunch of white squares the same size that you chose for the patterned fabrics. (you fabric doesn’t have to be white, they can be any colour you desire).

Step 3: Sew strips of patterned and non patterned squares together. these strips should all be the same length, but half should end in a patterned fabric and half should end in a solid fabric.

Step 4: Sew these strips of squares together! And there you have the top of a checkered quilt!! ( now you just need to make a quilt sandwich, quilts it, and bind it!) I have a super easy binding tutorial here.

I decided to bind my checkered quilt of flowers with a sky blue binding.

For the back of the quilt I had a bit of floral fabric left over so I created twelve solid floral blocks and broke them up with plenty of white fabric.

I have to say that this is not my favorite quilt that I have made. I don’t think it reflects me or my style very well. I think my style has evolved since then. If I could do this quilt over I would not have used so many bright colors. I would put some more muted flower prints in it, and I would change the white background to a white fabric with a bit of a pattern in it, to give the whole quilt more texture. What do you think?

Well this quilt of flowers is in my collection now but it is rarely used. It lives in a pile of unfinished quilts in my craft room. I would love to get a glass front case to put all of my quilts (like this one,  or this one, or my favorite this one). Just imagine the last one full of my sewing creations!! That glass cabinet is my jam! If anyone has one that they want to part with, I’m willing to make trades!!! For a quilt perhaps?? haha. Hmmmm, I wonder if quilt bloggers often sell their creations and for how much can they be sold for? If anyone has some advice on this I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my creations. If you like to follow along with my creative life please subscribe to this blog for all my new updates, as subscribing really helps support my blog. Thank you so much. I hope that this post has inspired you to create something beautiful. Until next time, just love and enjoy creating!!

XO JCL

P.S. Here is a bit of Corpus Porpoise Love!

P.P.S. Here are some links to products used in this post. Super awesome Brother sewing machine, and the quilt batting that I use for all my quilts. Check them out!