kojotutorial: anthropologie inspired knotted bedding part 1 (making the knotted squares)

Our quilt won the SYTYC finale! Wow! I kind of can't believe it. Thank you for voting... And actually, thanks to Missy for hosting. I've been wanting to make this knotted quilt for awhile, but making it to the SYTYC finale was the motivation I'd needed to actually sit down and put it together.

Y'all have been too funny about this bedding- thanks for all of your emails and comments and kind words. It sounds like you're all ready to make your own as well- want to get started on that?

I should issue a warning up front that this endeavor is definitely time consuming... not difficult, per se, but time consuming for sure. That being said, today's tutorial is for the how to make the pile of knotted squares that will make up your 'quilt.'

To make the squares for the knotted 'quilt,' you'll need:
-18"x18" squares of jersey (I used 56 of these for my king sized quilt)... I got the jersey from two flat king sized sheets and a pile of white t-shirts.
-a 6" plate
-a fabric pen
-needle and embroidery thread that coordinates with your jerse

*A tip before you start. Make the knotted squares assembly line style. Do all of your cutting, then all of your tracing, then all of your gathering, etc. It'll make this move a little more quickly.

1. Cut out your 18"x18" jersey squares. I used two flat t-shirt sheets and a stack of white t-shirts for my jersey. I cut out a sample square, labeled it as such with my fabric pen and then used it as a template to cut around for all of my other squares. One note- with all of the gathering that comes later, the 18"x18" can be approximate- don't worry about making perfectly uniform squares.

2. Center your 6" plate in the middle of your square. Trace with a fabric pen. Repeat (and repeat and repeat).

3. Using embroidery thread, stitch inside the perimeter of your traced circle. Use very long stitches.

 4. Pull your thread taut, resulting in a little pooch of fabric. Don't remove your needle or tie off your thread yet.

5. This next part is a bit tricky to explain, but I tried to get good pictures. You might even find a better way (if so, let me know!) to make the knots.

This is what I did- I pulled the pooch of fabric to a point, Then, I poked down through the top center until the point was back down through the pulled-taut circle of thread.

Then I twisted the whole poked-down mess until it looked knot-like.

Then I secured the fabric with a stitch through the poked down point.

I continued to run the needle back and forth through the 'knot' until it seemed secure (usually three or four stitches through the middle of the 'knot').

6. Repeat and repeat and repeat. Fifty six times if you're making a king sized quilt like I was.

Stay tuned for part 2- assembling your 'quilt.'

ps- I know that many of you out there are actual, legit quilters. I'm sorry if calling this bedding a 'quilt' is offensive to you. It's rows of squares, and I used a bunch of quilting techniques when I was assembling it (which, since I've never made a quilt before, I found tutorials for online- haha!). But I am definitely not a quilter and am probably butchering both the vocab and the techniques. Go easy on me, ok? :)

ppss- This feels a little full-circle-ish, but I'm entering the quilt in Mommy by day... Crafter by night's So You Think You Can Sew auditions. Fingers crossed that I make it into the Top 12!