Quilted Duvet Cover Part 1 of 2

My first Tutorial!  Yay!  I am so excited!  The Quilted Duvet Cover is a project that I am currently working on and I thought it would be great to do a tutorial for it.

I have been wanting to make my parents a quilt for a long time, but my parents recently bought a Down Comforter to keep them warm during the freezing Idaho winters.  My mom kept making comments that she couldn't find a duvet cover that she liked and when she finally bought one, she still didn't like it all that much.  That got me thinking... and that is how I came up with this idea.

Just so you all know, this is all 100% designed by me.  Of course you can use whatever patten you like, but I am providing the E Designs Quilted Duvet Pattern for you all to use if you want to.  The measurements I am going to be using are Queen size 92X92.

When I first start a quilt, I gather as much remnant fabric as I can.  I usually get mine from Joann Fabric.  My parents like earthy tones, so I kept that in mind while choosing my fabric.  Make sure you wash, dry and then iron all of your fabric before you start cutting otherwise your fabric might shrink on you and ruin the quilt.

SOME OF MY FABRIC

You will need 12 to 15 remnants ranging from 1/2 yard to 1 yard, you will also need to buy 3 yards of a fabric of your choice to use as the border. After all of the washing, drying and ironing is done, it is time to cut out all of the squares.  The quilt is compiled of 4 different squares.

Square 1

Square 2

Square 3

Square 4

Once we put all of the squares together, the front of the Quilted Duvet Cover with will look something like this:

You will need (in inches):

36      10 3/4 X 4 1/4  
27      10 3/4 X 7 1/2
9        4 1/4 X 14

36      2 5/8 X 7 1/2
45      4 1/4 X 7 1/2
18      8 1/2 X 8 1/2      Cut each of these diagonally as shown above in Square 2 and Square 3
9        7 1/2 X 7 1/2
27      7 1/2 X 2 1/5

The easiest way to cut these pieces out is to cut out a pattern from card stock (which can also be found at Joann Fabric)

After I cut them out I like to write both the amount of pieces (in that size) needed as well as the measurement of the pattern.

Use the card stock pattern as well as a rotary cutter and self healing matt to cut out all of your fabric pieces.

This is the end of Part 1.  Stay Tuned!  Part 2 will be coming next week!

Ikea Cover Bag

I got the idea for this bag from Made.  Made is the most amazing site ever.  I love the ideas that Dana shares on her blog.  I have been wanting to make one of these bags for a while.  When Indra's birthday came around, I knew that now was the perfect time!  Indra always spends the weekend with her boyfriend Ron in Santa Cruz.  So... I thought this would be a good idea to provide her with a weekend bag. 
I love to reuse fabric and find it to be a lot cheaper to buy thinks like furniture and pillow covers, sheets, and used clothing to sew with.  One of my favorite places to go is Ikea's "As Is" section.  Several months ago, I got a huge bag of pillow and cushion covers for $3 as well as a complete white couch cover for $20. 
For this project, I picked out a black and white pillow cover with a zipper as the body of the bag.  I then used part of the couch cover to make the handles and the tie at the top.  This adorable weekend bag took only 3 hours to complete.  I am going to have to keep this in mind the next time I need a gift quick! :)

Here is how it turned out: