I wanted a fairly simple block design as 80 of them would be needed and I knew I wouldn't have enough patience to make 80 complicated blocks. I had a snoop around pinterest and decided to make a value quilt which was very straightforward. Although I did get pretty bored after the 68th block. For the 4 corners of the quilt I wanted 4 of my favourite animals to make it a bit more personal. I choose a moose, elephant, dinosaur and penguin.
I found it very confusing to determine the size of everything. A twin quilt seemed to be the size needed for a single bed. Quilters seam allowances seem to be 1/4" so I made my blocks 9 1/2" and their finished measurement was 8 1/2". So I did 10 rows of 8 blocks.
After sewing all of the blocks together to make the quilt top I pieced the leftover fabric for the bottom. I then quilted from the centre to the edges in little diamonds, 1/4" from the seamline and halfway through the block. It was at this point that I learnt why quilters use safety pins to keep all of the layers in place. I also found out why there are specific sewing machines for quilters.
When everything was quilted I made the binding (all 308" of it) and sewed it to the bottom first, so I could be more accurate when attaching it to the top. Next time I'd probably do it by hand as my hands did slip a bit every now and then...