A Quilt Cover

I’ve been obsessed with quilting lately, like can’t stop dreaming up geometric stories to tell through textiles obsessed! So when I received my blank canvas cell phone case for one of the Makeful challenges, I knew I had to try quilting up a cover!

To start I measured the case and got the dimensions and drew them out on graph paper.

My patterning process for quilting so far has been to sketch out my designs on the paper and then move to illustrator and trace out the pattern pieces and add on a quarter inch seam allowance. After, I print out the pattern pieces, and cut them out, and from there I’m ready to move to the fabrics and sewing.

I love using illustrator because it allows me to play with colors and easily fiddle around with the shapes and layout.

But for my quilted case, I wanted to just try free handing straight from the drawing, something I probably won’t try again. It was super fun to just sit down with my fabrics and start experimenting in front of the machine – almost like sketching with textiles – but I think I ultimately enjoy more having the direction of a printed pattern. The quilted stripes in my design are not a uniform width apart, which I was going for, but if I made this again I would keep a more consistently spaced distance. But one cool thing about free styling was that initially I didn’t have a nose on my design, something I felt I needed to add after I sewed it all up, so I just added it in.

I’m not 100% sure my quilted case was entirely successful either… even with some intense pressing, it was still a little too thick for the case, I mean it fit, but it was just not as flush as a piece of paper would have been. Regardless, I love the way the fabric and seams looks all pressed out under the case. Kind of a magical texture.

I feel like this project may have been a bit of a happy fail for me. I considered redoing the case again, and perfecting it for the challenge because I most certainly made mistakes. But for me it’s through mistakes that I learn. It’s through all these experiments, and mix ups and mess ups and through making a charming and funny quilted cell phone case that I discover exciting new adventures on my crafting journey! So please enjoy!
#makefulchallenge #bemakeful