My dad wondered if I could make a quilt for him that was super cozy - especially because he loves throwing open the bedroom windows during chilly Wisconsin winter nights. This was a fun project to do from beginning to end. And now that it’s done and delivered, I understand it’s just what Dad had hoped! So pleased!!!

Here is how this quilt came together. The project started by doing some research on available fabrics. I’d never sewn a quilt with anything but quilting cotton, so I was happy to find Woolies - a cotton flannel fabric (this by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studios). It is a soft, sturdy fabric that’s quite easy to sew and quilt. It was perfect for this quilt!

Instead of cutting LOTS of 4” squares by hand, I decided to pull out my Sizzix - a die-cutting machine. Using this machine to cut fabric assured that all of the oodles of 4” squares that were incorporated into this quilt were perfectly square - making all the difference when joining pieces - straight lines and exact measurements make all the difference in the success of how the quilt comes together. For the larger squares used in the quilt, I cut those using my rotary cutter.

I don’t have any pictures of the process of laying out the colors, but I moved around the 4” and 8” squares (usually on my sewing room floor) until I was satisfied with the layout. The only rule I had for the design was to alternate an 8” square with a 4-4” square block. Once I had the blocks in the spots where I liked them best, I simply sewed the blocks into rows, and then sewed rows to each other to complete the quilt top.

For the back of the quilt, I used two larger pieces of one of the fabrics I had used in the blocks on the front and then stitched a strip of scraps to place between those to larger pieces.

I used a wool batting between the quilt top and back. I decided to simply quilt the quilt using a diagonal straight stitch (corner to corner) through the blocks.

Finally, I used the same fabric as the back fabric for the binding and attached it using a wiggling top stitch.

Because I had a fair amount of fabric remaining, I decided to whip of a couple of pillow cases to complement the quilt.

And last bit is a quilt label done by hand and stitched to back corner of the quilt.