and so it begins...my first quilt.

Um okay, so technically I made my "first" quilt in my ninth grade sewing class.  I was the very last student in the class to finish, and that was even with the teacher telling me what to do at every step.  Kinda embarrassing.

Lately I've been wanting to try another quilt, but all the blocks and piecing seem a little daunting to me.  And I have a toddler, so other than naptime I didn't see a way to get a lot of it done with him running around. 

My husband and I recently upgraded to a queen-sized mattress, and since I couldn't find a comforter set for it that I liked (except one that is apparently "back ordered" at JCPenney's website and not available at this time...grrrr), I googled "queen quilt tutorial" on a whim.  And discovered that there was a way to make a nice, modern quilt for our bed without it taking a year to complete (as well as taking an additional year off my life due to stress).

So I've decided to do this tutorial since it involves using big panels of fabric rather than a lot of little pieces.  Awesome.  Here are the fabrics I'm going to use!

Our bedroom already has a green and brown theme going, so I wanted to stick with that.  Just enough prettiness while mixing in some masculine tones for the hubby.  Remember these valances I made to hang up in there?  Well I had the hardest time finding that fabric again.  Probably because I got it on clearance to begin with.  I thought about going in a different direction for the quilt and then just making new window treatments later on (because really, it's smarter to do it that way anyway), but I really liked the damask pattern on the valances and wanted something similar for the quilt. 

So after searching a few stores, I finally decided to try Ebay, and lo and behold there was something very similar to the fabric I had used for the valances.  Not an exact replica, but close enough to coordinate and not be too "match-y."  I usually don't buy fabric online, but the price wasn't too bad so I went for it.  So that bottom fabric is for the main panel.

I knew I wanted to use solid dark brown for the bigger panels off to the side (see that fabric in the middle?), but I had a heck of a time finding any kind of green fabric for the skinnier panels.  Turns out it's very hard to match that shade of green.  But finally I found it at Hobby Lobby, and it's that last fabric in the picture.

I also have the batting already too since it was on sale this week, and as for the back of the quilt, my sister clued me in on how to save time, money, and your sanity.  Use a flat sheet.  Wow, why didn't I think of that?  So I'm just going to get a brown queen-sized flat sheet at Target or something and use that for the back.  As for the binding, still thinking on that one.  That's where my mom comes in.  :o)  Guess I should get started before she visits again....