noelle o designs

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tutorial: cowboy boot quilt, part 2

Giddy up, let’s get this quilt finished up and get on with Valentine’s Day!
fabric combosI picked out all the fabrics I wanted to use, and worked up a layout following the large print for the top of the boot, small print for the toe of the boot suggestions in the instructions in Part 1.

pieces for quiltI cut out all of the pieces and created an assembly line for the sewing machine and right next to the iron for piecing the blocks.

cowboy bootsAll the squares are finished and it really didn’t take that long. It’s kind of like painting a room- there’s a lot of prep work so when you finally get to that last- actually painting- step it’s almost like a reward.

cowboy boot blocks.jpgI added the short sashes of 2″ wide strips to the bottom of all the blocks.

20130213-230333.jpgThen sew the blocks into three row and prepare the long sash strips to connect the block rows.

20130213-230348.jpgSew the outer sashes to the connected blocks.

20130213-230400.jpgThe center of the quilt is complete. My new life motto is “done is better than perfect”, this is beginning to apply to every aspect of my life and I can live with that. Because, really, who but yourself is going to notice that the seams don’t line up perfectly?

Now, for the borders…

fabric selection.jpgI puzzled about which fabric or fabrics to add for the border. In the end, I choose two colors. One is a 1 1/2″ width and the outer border is 2 1/2″ width- a little variety in widths always looks good.


Now, instead of taking pictures as I worked on the border, I made a Vine video (because you can’t do both at the same time on the same device- if you ask me, Vine needs to work on this). It’s extremely short, 6 seconds, but you get the picture.

small boots quilt.jpgDone! Well, ready to be quilted and then bound…

Phew!

9 Comments

  1. kalamitykelli

    February 14, 2013 at 1:17 pm

    I just love it all! You have the patience of Job to cut out all those little squares, then pin, then sew, then iron………..whew! I’m tired and my mind has already wandered just thinking about it! 🙂

  2. NoelleOlpin

    February 14, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    It sounds so complicated but really any grade schooler who can cut out a shape could do it. It’s just a matter of ‘is it your kind of fun?’

  3. TextileRanger

    February 14, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    SO cute! What a good use of all those Western fabrics. I like the boots facing in different directions. Also, the tutorial is so nice and clear.

  4. lindsaybscheele

    February 14, 2013 at 6:45 pm

    This is too cute! I want to make this for my little boy!!

    1. NoelleOlpin

      February 14, 2013 at 7:09 pm

      You should do it- not hard at all!

      1. lindsaybscheele

        February 14, 2013 at 7:10 pm

        I really think I need to! Great tutorial! Thanks!

  5. Terri W

    May 4, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    I started this quilt in 1995. It was my first attempt at quilting. I made the blocks but then got sidetracked and went onto many other projects. I came across the blocks the other day but had lost the directions somewhere along the way. I was so thrilled to search Cowboy Boot Quilt and find your blog with the instructions for the exact pattern. Thank you! I’ll be following your blog now too.

    1. NoelleOlpin

      May 6, 2013 at 8:02 am

      So glad to hear about about someone else making this quilt and so glad to provide the missing pattern! 17 years is indeed a long time to hang on to a magazine but I’ve somehow managed it. Hooray for cowboy boots!

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