QUILTING

I finally finished my daughter’s quilt. I don’t know why I use the term “finally” because it took me less than a month to put it together, which was half the time it took to put together my son’s t-shirt quilt.

When I asked her what she wanted as far as colors for her quilt she said “everything.” Instead… I picked four colors from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts Quilters Showcase. It took me hours to commit to the colors and patterns, and I must admit I was a little afraid when I asked them to cut 1/4" yard from 16 bolts of fabric. I pondered using four different patterns for the white fabric but I felt sure 17 bolts was probably the limit of what they were willing to cut.

When I brought home the fabric even my husband was pleased with the colors.

There are 120 blocks on this quilt, 10 across and 12 down.  Each one measures approximately 7” x 7” (17.78cm x 17.78cm) so the finished quilt is 70” x 84” (1.778m x 2.1336m). This is perfect for her twin size bed. The blocks started out at 8” (20.32cm) and but the two side seams and a diagonal seam brought them down to their finished size.

This was A LOT of sewing to get to the end of a project. The garment and craft sewing I am used to come to their payoff (AKA the end) much faster. I had to work on other projects in the meantime so that I would not completely lose interest in sewing.

By the way, as I get older and less able to see clearly, I will stop obsessing over the mismatched points of the chevron.

I spray basted the quilting layers together using Odif 505 Spray. I bought it at AllStitch Embroidery Supplies online, but with shipping it was double what I would have paid at Jo-Ann’s (regularly $11.99 for 8.5oz and found in the quilting section) with a 50% off coupon. From the Bernina Lovers group on Facebook, I learned an easier way to spray baste the quilt sandwich. I lay down the batting first and then lay the top on top of it. I roll back half of the top to the middle. I spray across the width of the batting and up about a foot at a time, then spread the top back down with my hands smoothing from the middle to the outside edges. Once done with that half I do the same with the other half. Then I turn it over and repeat with the backing. This has made basting very easy and quick without pins, thread, or wrinkles.

I am not a fan of a lot of stitching on top. I think some of it is pretty, but can be a distraction. And since I am used to VERY heavy hand-tied quilts with lots of batting that smothered every limb, lots of decorative machine quilting makes quilts feel like toast to me. So I did a simple machine outline quilting in the white areas along the chevron. I stitched-in-the-ditch at first to see what it would look like, but I found it unimpressive. The outline quilting really made the pattern stand out.

I am going to give you my reasons first and then tell you what I did…

1. Because I am not necessarily subscribed to any one way of quilting or quilting traditions;
2. my daughter does not care one way or another if I hand- or machine-stitched; and
3. because aside from making the fabric and thread I “made” this quilt

I chose to machine bind the quilt.

*gasp*

I did the machine binding slightly differently because I am weird about stitching showing or not showing, being crooked, not being parallel, margins, etc. I machine stitched the bias tape to the front as usual. (I used this tutorial from Connecting Threads for my corners—see “What do I do when I get to the corner?”—using the 45° angle instruction) Next, I turned the bias tape to the back and clipped it in place using these awesome craft clips from Embroidex. Then I topstitched 2mm away into the bias from my previous stitching line. I didn’t want a line of stitching into the top of the quilt, I also didn’t mind the line of stitching in the bias on the top, and I felt I could ignore any variation in the margin of the stitching through the bias on the back because I just wouldn’t see it. If I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.

I have to say that some of my decisions were met with a lot of worry on my part about how they might be received by others, especially those with more experience or skill. But practicality won out. Just like anesthesia for having a baby doesn’t mean I didn’t have a baby, using a machine for binding doesn’t mean it isn’t hand made.

At the beginning of this post I mentioned a t-shirt quilt I made for my son. It was my first quilt ever and it was a doozy. Instead of making each block of equal size, I thought, naively, it would be fun to just cut out the most significant part of the design. This made for a TON of work constantly measuring to make pieces fit together and seams match up. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I LOVE the way this quilt turned out. It is just as busy as I wanted it to be.

This quilt had a two-fold purpose. My son is a hoarder of t-shirts. Well, that is not exactly being honest. He doesn’t like letting go of childhood things including t-shirts, toys, papers, books, etc. In order to get rid of the abundance of t-shirts that he had, I offered to make him a quilt. He loved the idea.

My son is also ADHD. During the process of making the top of the quilt I read about

weighted blankets used for ADHD, autism, etc. as a calming device. I decided to make the quilt heavy so that he could use it when he needed to feel comforted or calm. Instead of using plastic pellets normally used in weighted blankets, I used an extra layer of 1/8” (3.175mm) batting and a layer of 12 oz denim. The quilt is so heavy it just hugs you. I had a hard time giving it to him for Christmas.

Lemons from lemonade… Do you see the second-to-last column where all the designs are cut off? That was done after I accidentally cut off the design of the first blocks that were to make up that column.

That quilt took me two months and I did hand stitch the binding on the back. I just barely stopped peeling callouses from my fingers.




















PRODUCTS MENTIONED IN THIS BLOG POST
If you purchase from Amazon using the links I have posted I get a very small commission. I only link to these products because I use them and like them and I have no problem getting a tiny commission if I am doing some of their marketing.

As I mentioned before, I can get Odif 505 Basting Spray at Jo-Anne's with a 50% off coupon for $5.99. You can also find it at Michael's and Walmart according to the manufacturer's website.