Perfect (not!)

I thought I would share some of the step by step pictures from making my first quilt!! I had started it a few weeks ago but then got to the point where I wasn't sure what to do. Yesterday I had the day off because of Presidents Day and decided to tackle it again!

After cutting up all of the squares I laid them out so that none of the rows would repeat any pattern. I didn't think the colors would look good together (they were just scraps) but I think they turned out great! I took a picture of this step just in case they got shuffled while being moved around.



Here it is all sewn together!



It definitely is not perfect! Any novice quilters out there with tips on how to keep this from happening??



This is where I got stuck! I knew I needed to square off the quilt but wasn't exactly sure how to without going out and buying expensive tools. I'm sure that if you measured it still wouldn't be square but I'm ok with it!



This border turned out fantastic! You can't really tell but it has a great light pattern on it that really compliments all the different patterns on the quilt. It's also not perfect.



Time to practice the actual "quilting" part. I am using this as a practice before every step. Practice for a practice quilt!



This is a technique I found somewhere online that is supposed to show you how to pin all three of your layers together without causing any bubbles. Every time I did this my edges were not lining up. I gave up and just laid them all flat and then started pinning from the middle out. It worked just as well for me.



Time to actually quilt it! I have to say that I had nightmares about this part for weeks before I had the guts to actually do it. I was so nervous that this would mess up all of my hard work. The practice eased my nerves and I just went for it!



Once again, my lines are definitely not straight but I was very pleased with how it turned out!! I think that it actually looks like a real quilt! I ran out of thread last night so I wasn't able to do the binding but I am excited to finish that last step this week!



I used different sites from all over the web plus many videos from youtube to try and figure this all out. Anyone who has quilted before and has any tips or tricks I would love to hear them! I promise to post the finished product soon!



P.S. Still house hunting :(