World Map Quilt || Home Sewn Series

Have you guys seen the home sewn series happening over at Living With Punks? It’s a great little series all about sewing for the home.  Well I made a quilt. Not just any quilt but a quilt for my map loving geography obsessed son. So I made a quilt of the world.  (check out the rest of the series)

Normally I make things that can be done in a day, or in one sitting, so this project was a bit of a leap for me. Also I had to hear “is my quilt done yet?” from Jude everyday for a few weeks, since he is also used to me doing something in an hour I guess. So this is not a quick project but it’s a great project to have and work on from time to time, I would sew a few of the quilting lines from time to time, and eventually it was done.

I have never made a quilting pattern before, or used one, (not a quilter) but I did put together the pattern I used to make this quilt.

Get the pattern HERE
You will need:

• 1/4 yard for Antartica (pieced together due to length)
• 1/4 yard for Australia
• 1/2 yard for Asia
• 3/8 yard for Africa
• 1/2 yard for North America
• 1/4 yard for Europe
• 3/8 yard for South America
• 2 yards for front (ocean)
• 2 yards batting (60″X40″)
• 1 1/2 yards fusible interfacing
• 2 yards backing

Start by printing out the pattern (I know it’s a lot of paper but not a ton of ink) cut the edges and tape it together. It’s the full size of the quilt. (think lap blanket) Trace the outlines of the continents on to the fusible interfacing. Fusible side facing up.

Press the interfacing on to the wrong side of the fabric of your choice. Then follow the line and cut out the continents.

I used a cream cotton that was fairly see through so I could place it right over the paper and see the continents through it.

Then place all the continents all cut out on the cotton front piece following the outlines for placement. I used several safety pins to secure the pieces in place. ** Also tip I used disappearing ink to trace around some of the tricky parts so I would make sure it was sewn in the right place.

Then to secure all the pieces in place I simply stitched around the edge. You can do a satin stitch if you don’t want any of the raw edge but with the interfacing and then the quilting on top the raw edges stay pretty secured.

Then layer top piece with batting, and the back. I used safety pins to secure all three layers together, pull the layers tightly to get them all as smooth and straight as possible.

Then it’s time to “quilt” it. I used a wavy stitch line to sew lines across the quilt, making sure everything is as smooth as possible.  If you are a perfectionist, then good luck 🙂 There were little wrinkles popping up every now and then and I just stitched right over it, by the time it’s done you hardly notice.

Once you are done quilting trim up the sides to make sure everything is all squared up. I bound my quilt by wrapping the back around to the front. (I am sure that’s wrong??)

So I double folded the sides up and pinned around the edge.

When I got the corners I just folded the top down and then the side over. I stitched a few rows of lines through the border to secure.

Then the quilt is done. I will say at first when I was doing the lines across the quilt I was so bored, like really bored. Then it became peaceful and relaxing.

I love the new quilt for our home which is the perfect blanket for cuddling up with. It’s basically the size of a lap blanket since that’s as big as I wanted to go. It would make a perfect crib size quilt.

So there you have it, the whole world on a quilt.

Also note, the pattern is fairly detailed, when I was cutting the pieces out I cut some islands, and blended some into a chain piece since they are so small, but you can feel free to be as detailed as you want.