Captain America shield quilt

I have made it a tradition to make each of my brothers and sisters a quilt for their thirteenth birthday.  I am on the third (and last!) brother at this point.  When I asked him what color he wanted for his quilt, he said that he wanted it all red.  I flinched at this idea.  I mean, have you ever seen a red quilt?  ;)  The color would be a bit too much, never mind the fact that it would take forever to find fabric the same shade of red. ;)
So I decided that I would give my aunt a call.  She helped me think of other ways to express my brother's personality, but without the fiery color scheme.


This is what I came up with.

I drew two designs with Captain America (my brother's favorite superhero/Avenger) in mind. The one on the bottom is the design I went with.  If you use your imagination, it looks like the Cap's famous shield.

Fast forward a week or so.  This is what I had this morning.  My grandma told me about a specific kind of quilting about a year ago. The idea is to sew medium-size blocks separately. The quilt top is not sewn together until later. 

 I sewed the quilt top in four blocks.  I then cut the batting to fit the block.  The backing was cut slightly larger ( you'll see why this is important in a minute). Here is a picture of the layers. 

After the pieces are cut and pinned together, they can be machine quilted.  

I try as best I can to make sure the pieces are all even, but it doesn't always turn out perfectly.  :S  

 Another important thing to remember is to not machine quilt from edge to edge.  You must leave about an inch at the beginning and the end, as you can see here:

 When you have all the pieces quilted, you can begin to sew them together.  Lay the blocks with the tops facing each other.  Sew the batting and quilt tops together, but leave the backing alone.  When you have sewn them, it should look like this. 

 Trim the excess batting.

Lay the attached blocks with the top facing down. 

 Fold one edge over the other and pin it down.  This is why you left one inch all the way around each block not sewn.  Trim the fabric if the seam becomes too bulky for your machine.  After all, you don't want to break a needle! ;)

Here are the two halves coming together, a momentous occasion. ;)
Sorry the picture is sideways, by the way. 

And here is the completed quilt!  I am so glad that I am done with it.  I made several mistakes, including not buying enough red fabric (and going back to Hancock Fabrics twice) and even sewing two blocks together the wrong way!  

Despite these problems, I did manage to finish it in about ten days! My brother is really happy with it, and I think it will be around for a long time.  ;)