Nigella Rail Fence

Wow, I can't believe how long this quilt sat in my "in progress" bag and how quickly it got finished once I really worked on it. I started this quilt (my very first!) way way back in January 2008. Yes LAST year.

I'm a rather haphazard sewer and I was definitely careless with having my pieces be the exact size and then again with having an even seam allowance. So my squares ended up all different sizes. Of course when I attempted to put them together it wasn't working at all and none of the seams were lining up. (I must have thought it would just work out magically!) So very frustrated with my "good for beginners" rail fence quilt I put it aside.

Fast forward a year and half and some much-improved skills and appreciation for a 1/4" seam allowance and I felt confident enough to tackle this mess. I first had to trim down all the squares to an even size. Very unfortunately for me, the pattern of the prints meant I had to trim down every single side of every square. Not the most fun.



But this time putting the squares together was a snap! Amazingly, when you do things right and take some care it does actually work out. Not magically -- but it feels like magic when it all comes together perfectly. I added on my border and binding and my lovely mum was wonderful to finish it up by doing the hand-stitching of the binding to the backing on her visit. Thanks mom!



The fabrics are all Amy Butler Nigella, a light home dec weight. The quilt pattern is a basic railfence with a few squares of a single fussy cut flower tossed in. It's backed in a furry fabric I got ages ago and no batting.



Yes this turned into a baby modeling session, but I just love taking pictures of little Ben!