My first ever quilt: Jeff's Packer Blanket

Last month when Jeff was in Valdez for a week, I spent two and a half days making this:

aaaand I just realized that Jeff is holding the blanket side-ways...  oh well!
This picture is taken in our yard, to the East of the house.  Jeff is standing in the walkway (dug into the snow)
that leads to the fuel tank so when they come out to fill up they don't have to wade through a few feet of snow.

Yep, it took me a whole month to go and take photos!  It's well-used by now; Jeff has slept under it each night since I gave it to him.  It's layer #4, and he claims he's still cold.  Well, I guess I've got my work cut out for me if I need to make enough blankets to keep him warm!

taken at the edge of our "driveway", on top of 5 months worth of piled up snow!

This is actually the first ever thing I've made!  Everything else has been things like fixing jeans, or starting a project that was never finished.  I don't have a lot of sewing experience; my high school Home Ec class consisted of making a sweatshirt.

So when I saw this Packer flannel I knew that I wanted to make Jeff a blanket!

(Okay, blanket or quilt?  I didn't do any piecing, but I did sew 3 layers - top, batting, bottom - together.  I look at it and my brain says "blanket" but the dictionary says "quilt")

I have a beginner sewing machine, which means there is not a whole lot of room for stuffing a quilt through it.  It was, ahem, a pain in the ass.

this was the easy part - adding the binding.
This is pre-wash; can you tell the difference in the fabric from the other photos?

And as I was sewing this thing, I thought to myself "Never again!"

But then, as I was putting on the binding (black blanket binding), I started to get really excited, and really proud of myself.

And when it was finally done, I knew that it wouldn't be the last!  I don't have a great place to work on quilty stuff, but I know what I want to work on next, and I have a pretty solid idea in my head of what I'm going to make, I just need to cut!

A little more info:

• The flannel is from Joann Fabrics, and man did it fade and pill the one time I washed it.  It also had to have shrunk at least 6 inches in each direction.
• It now measures about 5 feet square.
• I used 4 yards each of the top and back fabrics.  For the front, I cut that into two 2-yard pieces.  Then, one of those was cut again.  I then took those narrow pieces and, matching up the pattern, I sewed them to the outside of the wide piece.  You can see if you look closely, but obviously not visible if you're not looking for it.
• I used high-loft polyester batting.
• I'm scared to try actual binding, which is why I used blanket binding.  It did allow me to use a decorative stitch, which I LOVE, and just might use on the next quilt too...

linked to 

Show and Tell Tuesday

Lily's Quilts

Sew Fresh Quilts' Let's Bee Social

My Quilt Infatuation