Yay! I Finally Finished a Quilt! Can I Get a Parade, Please?

Drumroll, please...

Amish Baby 54-40 Or Fight, 50" x 50", with Minky Backing and Satin Blanket Binding

IT IS FINISHED!!!  Arm slings, thumb splints, frozen shoulder, surgery, and uncooperative satin blanket binding could not defeat me.  My Amish Baby 54-40 Or Fight quilt is finished, and I like it!  I even ended up loving the double row of zigzagging on the satin binding (a functional necessity since I did not manage to perfectly align the inner edge of the binding in a couple of places on the first pass).  I think it looks decorative, almost like another skinny border coming off the edge of the quilt.  Yeah, on second thought, I MEANT to do that.

Detail of Free-Motion Quilting and Double Zigzagged Satin Binding

Freshly washed upon completion to remove quilt markings, water soluble basting thread, starch etc., the quilt is everything I hoped it would be.  With 80/20 cotton/poly batting and Minky plush backing, it has a terrific weight, body and drape that are perfect for a comforting baby blanket to drag around, hide under, and love.  The cotton fabrics of the quilt top have a pleasing soft, bumpy texture from extensive quilting that shrunk up slightly in the wash.  The back of the quilt is unbelievably soft, furry Minky fleece.  And the satin binding is silky smooth, ready to rub a brand-new little nose with.

Snuggly, Cuddly, Baby Friendly Textures Ready for Gifting

This is why, even though I grumble and gripe about it every time, I keep coming back to the Minky and the satin binding when I make baby quilts.

So, to recap:  This is the first quilt I've made that I designed in my EQ7 software from start to finish, and I absolutely love it.  Here's the computer design I created back in late December of last year:

My EQ7 Design for Amish Baby 54-40 Or Fight

From conception to completion, this baby quilt took me four months to complete.  The intended recipient waited so long past his due date, it was almost like he was refusing to be born until his quilt was finished!  (He was expected near the end of March, but was finally born on April 19th).  It's not like I worked on the quilt nonstop on a daily basis, but still -- this is why, when my husband asks whether I'm going to make a baby quilt for some work colleague's wife whose wedding we went to several years ago, the answer is NO. 

I'm especially pleased with how I did the quilting on this one, pushing myself beyond my comfort zone and trying out some new things for the first time on a "real quilt."  And you know what?  I didn't ruin it!  I'll have to remember that the next time I'm afraid to "ruin" a quilt top by trying a new quilting design!

And now, back to my paper pieced pineapple log cabin blocks.  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts, Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday).

New Titanium Shoulder Jewelry and The Saga of the Satin Binding



Satin Binding In Progress!

Hello, Internet!  I'm three days post-surgery and my arm is out of the sling for the first time today.  I did take the prescription pain meds this morning but they should have worn off by now, and so far I'm doing okay.  Let's hope it's onwards and upwards from here on out!

14 Screws Later: My New Titanium Shoulder Jewelry

I started binding my Amish Baby 54-40 or Fight baby quilt yesterday.  You'll remember that I stitched a placement line for the inside edge of the satin binding with water soluble basting thread.  That turned out to be a great idea.  The idea of how I was going to use temporary fabric glue stick to position the satin binding on the front and back side of the quilt didn't work out. 

The glue stick adhered okay to the cotton fabric of the quilt top, but did not want to stick to the plush Minky backing fabric at all.  Also I am cramming a little more quilt into the binding to give it sort of a padded effect, and the glue stick just doesn't hold strong enough for that.  So instead, I'm using extra-fine, long silk pins in a three step process, one side of the quilt at a time.  First I pin the satin binding just barely covering my placement line on the front of the quilt:

Pinning the Top Edge Only to Basted Placement Line

Then I pin the opposite edge of the satin binding on the back side of the quilt, again just covering the line of basting stitches:

Pinning the Back Edge of Satin Binding to Basted Placement Line

Finally, I place pins on the front of the quilt going through all three layers, perpendicular to the edge of the satin binding.  I remove the parallel lines of pins from the top and bottom of the satin binding as I'm going along:

Perpendicular Pins Added Through All Three Layers

Only the Perpendicular Pins Remain for Stitching

I actually missed a few pins from the underside of the quilt when I stitched the first side of the satin binding down, and they caused my presser foot to get stuck.  I also had to be careful to slide the pin heads out of the way just before my presser foot came to them (as you see me doing in the above photo).  I'm using my walking foot on my Bernina 750QE with Triple Zigzag Stitch #7.  I'm using a size 80/12 Microtex needle and Mettler Poly Sheen 50 weight thread, and I did not need to make any adjustments to the default settings of stitch #7 in order to get good results.

First Corner Miter, Back Side

In the past when I've bound baby quilts with satin binding, I think I pinned it in place all the way around the quilt, miters and all, but this time I'm doing it one side at a time.  Since I've got so much quilt crammed tightly into my satin binding for that padded edge effect, I just couldn't control the miter until I had one side of the binding stitched all the way to the edge.  So I started the binding in the middle of one of the sides, went all the way to the corner, folded in the miter and pinned the next side of the quilt binding.  Then I was able to start stitching from the outer point of the mitered corner and continue down the entire side of the quilt in one pass.  Another benefit of stitching it this way is that I won't have any hand stitching to do to secure the mitered corners, and I can't do any hand stitching with a broken left thumb!

Rounding the First Corner

I'm trying to take it easy, but so far nothing is hurting my arm or shoulder so I'm going to see if I can't get another side of my satin binding pinned and stitched down today.  Enjoy your weekend and happy stitching!

Of Fractured Bones and Other Annoying Quilting Delays... And PROGRESS!!

Greetings from the Land of Humpty-Dumpty, in which Rebecca goes for a bike ride, has a great fall, and is still waiting for all the King's horses and all the King's men to put her bones back together again.    This happened exactly three weeks ago today, and in addition to the broken and displaced right clavicle bone that has disabled my right arm, I also broke my left thumb and smacked my head hard enough to crack my bike helmet and give myself a mild concussion.  So I have not been sewing for the past couple of weeks.  Or brushing my own teeth, dressing or showering myself...  But not sewing stinks the most, especially when my cousin's baby is coming any day and the quilt is SO CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED!  (Also, it is a surprise, so if you know my cousin, DON'T SPOIL IT).

The Unhappiness That Is My Collar Bone

I'm getting my collar bone screwed back together again surgically on Wednesday, but over the past week I've been sneaking up to my sewing room to work on my Amish Baby 54-40 or Fight quilt.  With one arm in a sling and a thumb splint on the other hand, I'm not making great strides or anything -- I can get in about 15-20 minutes before the shoulder pain is unbearable, but every little bit gets me closer to the finish line!  A little bit of sewing is better than NO sewing.

In this post, I wanted to document some of the things that have worked for me in the final stages of this project so I can refer back to it in the future and save myself some trial-and-error:

Marking Stars for Free Motion Quilting

To mark the stars for free-motion quilting on the blue fabric squares, Don Linn's hooped tulle and Sharpie method wouldn't work because I couldn't see the faint black line against the blue fabric.  So I cut out an exact template of the star shape from a junk mail postcard, cutting just INSIDE the marked line, and used a Clover white marking pen to carefully trace the stars onto the blue squares.  The white pen works great on dark fabrics.

"Wave Stitch" Controls Fullness in Unquilted Border Perimeter

Once I had completed that last bit of quilting, I still had 2" of my teal border unquilted because that's the width of the satin binding that I'm planning to use.  I saw that the quilting stitches had drawn up the body of the quilt so that there was a faint ripple to the unquilted outer edge, and I did NOT want a ripply-edged quilt looking like I don't know how to measure for borders properly.  I considered stippling the border to flatten it out, but decided that I wanted to retain some of the loft and puffiness inside the satin binding.  So I scrolled through the decorative stitches programmed into my Bernina 750QE sewing machine and selected one that looks kind of like a wave stitch, and stitched that around the perimeter of the quilt just inside the raw edge using my walking foot.  It did the trick of shrinking the outer edge just enough without flattening out the loft that I wanted to keep.  Also, I think it makes kind of a fun quilting stitch, don't you?  I'll have to remember that one for another quilt -- it would be a great alternative to just straight line quilting.
My next trick when I am doing a Minky-backed quilt with satin binding is to enlist my serger to trim and clean up the edges of the quilt before binding.  That wave stitch also enabled me to remove the remaining safety pins from the quilt before they went anywhere near the serger blades... 


Two Thread, Left Needle Serger Overlock Before Binding

Why didn't I just trim the excess batting and backing fabric and get on with binding my quilt?  Well, Minky is an unruly pain in the butt whose edges like to curl up and shed all over the place.  I didn't want to deal with that when I was trying to attach the slippery satin binding.  A serged edge is much, MUCH more stable and easier to work with.  Moreover, when you see a well-loved tattered blanket, the satin binding usually shreds and disintegrates long before the rest of the blanket, and it is easy enough to give new life to a cherished blankie by replacing the satin binding.  My overcast quilt edges will be protected from fraying when the satin binding wears out, and will make it easier for whoever gets the job of replacing the satin binding.

One big, HUGE thing to remember as you're setting up your serger is that MINKY STRETCHES, but ONLY IN ONE DIRECTION.  It's important to test your stitch settings across both the lengthwise AND the crosswise grains before you start in on your quilt.  Otherwise the stitch that looked great on your sample might get wavy on the two sides of the quilt where the Minky wants to stretch on you. 

Test Your Stitch Settings on the Lengthwise AND Crosswise Grains!

On my Bernina 1300MDC serger I got a nice, wave free edge with differential feed set to 1.5, stitch length 3.5, cutting width 2.0, and the tension settings recommended in my user manual.  I used a size 80/12 Universal needle and YLI Elite serger thread.
Here's one more serger trick that I always forget when I'm trimming away the excess batting and backing fabrics as I overcast the edge of the quilt.  Just before reaching the corner, I cut away a couple of inched of the excess fabrics on the side I'm about to stitch with a scissor.  Then I can serge right to the edge of the corner, sink my needle just off the edge and raise it to the highest position, pull the work backwards to clear the stitch finger, and then turn the quilt to begin stitching the next side of the quilt right at the corner where I left off.  I always mess up the first corner before I remember the scissor trick.  If you forget, you try to turn the corner but the bulk of the untrimmed batting and backing is in your way so you can't get the quilt back under the presser foot far enough.

Approaching the Corner, Next Side Scissor Cut 2-3"

So the whole time I'm quilting my blue stars, stabilizing and overcasting these quilt borders, I'm stewing about the satin binding.  I have made a number of these Minky backed, satin binding baby quilts in the past, and the only reason I subject myself to the hassle of it all is that babies LOVE satin binding.  If you give a baby a blanket with satin binding, he will reward you by rubbing the satin binding on his nose while sucking his thumb and making sweet little baby gurgling noises.  So it has to be satin binding.  But it is nearly impossible to get the inside edge of that satin binding lined up perfectly on the front AND back side of the quilt.  Anywhere the edges are NOT perfectly aligned when you stitch the zigzag from the front of the quilt, you will get something that looks like this:

Stitched Right Side Up, so the Front Looks Good...

...But the Back Is Not So Hot!

Very annoying!!  So I had an idea of what I could do to get better results this time.  I decided to stitch a placement line for the inside edge of the satin binding using YLI Water Soluble Basting Thread in both the needle and the bobbin.  I'm going to use that stitching line to either glue baste or pin (haven't decided which) the satin binding in place prior to stitching.  In hindsight, I should have stitched that line before I quilted my curlique olives in the border, since I drew a chalk line there anyway to make sure my quilting design remained outside of the area to be covered by satin binding.

Water Soluble Thread Placement Line for Satin Binding

Water soluble thread is very cool because it just dissolves and washes away when your project is rinsed or laundered, but it is more fragile than ordinary sewing thread and it requires special care.  It is very important to store water soluble thread in the airtight ziplock bags it comes in, and handle it with very dry hands so you don't get it sticky.  It's probably also a good idea to store your bobbin thread right in the baggie with the spool of water soluble thread, clearly labeled.  It would be very sad to get caught in the rain in a dress you accidentally constructed using water soluble thread... 

Settings for Water Soluble Thread

I sew successfully with YLI Wash-Away Water Soluble Thread on my Bernina 750QE sewing machine using Straight Stitch #1, but I increased the stitch length to 3.50 and reduced the tension all the way down to 1.0.  I also reduced the speed considerably when winding the bobbin, and because I'm working on a 3-layer quilt, I used my walking foot.

I've decided on a triple-stitched zigzag stitch to secure the satin binding to my quilt.  I'll be using Mettler Poly Sheen thread for that, for reasons of strength, matching the color and the sheen of the satin binding, and because both the satin binding and the Minky backing fabrics are polyester.  I'm using a brand new size 80/12 Microtex Sharp needle to stitch the satin binding without any snagging or pulls (which are also possible pitfalls of pinning, which is why I'm considering gluing the binding in place).

Broken Thumb with Splint

But none of this is happening right now, because my thumb is sore and my shoulder hurts from all of this typing!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  I'm linking up with Esther's WIPs on Wednesday linky and Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Basted Badly, and Basted Again. On To the Quilting!



Basted... And Basted Again

Several hundred safety pins later, my thumbs are sore, but my quilt is FINALLY basted and ready for quilting!

The internet is rife with tutorials instructing quilters to crawl around a hardwood floor on their hands and knees to accomplish the basting procedure, but I don't do hands and knees.  I prefer to baste my quilts on a standing height worktable, without inflicting any agony on my hands and knees, and I've done this successfully in the past -- but not on tables that were pushed up against the wall like this one is.  I opted to move the worktable back up against the wall when I remodeled my studio in order to economize space.  Since my worktable base consists of kitchen cabinetry and wooden cubby units and my butcher block work surface weighs over 700 pounds, it's not like I could just scoot the whole thing out a few feet from the wall temporarily, either.  I thought I remembered that I had somehow managed to baste a similarly sized kiddo quilt with Minky backing on this new worktable two years ago, but I could not for the life of me remember how I managed to do that. 

So I decided to wing it.  I spray basted with 505 and then I pinned like a madwoman.  And then I flipped the quilt over after a couple of hours of pinning and discovered THIS:

Backing Side Up, The Wrinkle Of Doom

Ugh, right?!  I had worked with the top 2/3 of the quilt that fit on the table first, then spun it around to do the other side, but that slippery Minky formed a crease all the way across the quilt where it had been hanging over the side of the table.  If I left it that way I would have horrible pleats and puckers all over the back every time my line of quilting stitches crossed over the Minky Mountain Range on the back of my quilt.  So today I had to take all of the pins out of the bottom third of the quilt, pull that Minky taut, and repin.  I think it's good now, but note to self here -- next time I baste a quilt, I need to have Bernie get the folding utility table out of storage.  We can set it up in  the middle of my studio temporarily and raise the legs to a comfortable height with pieces of PVC pipe.  That way I can tape or clamp the backing in place to the table edges on all sides, do my pinning from the center out, and when I'm working on the outside edges the weight of the pinned areas of the quilt will help to keep the backing taut and wrinkle free.  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that's how I basted the last quilt I completed, the raffle quilt for the kids' school.  It's probably how I did the Dresden plate Minky quilt, too, and I'll bet I'm hallucinating this whole idea that I managed to do it on the new work table.

(In case you're interested in the CORRECT way to baste your quilt on a table surface rather than the floor, there are excellent instructions in the book Quilts! Quilts! Quilts! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes). 


Essential Basting Supplies: Curved Safety Pins, Kwik Klip Pin Closer, and Pinot Grigio

Meanwhile, I'm just excited that the basting is behind me and I get to start quilting tomorrow!  I am not 100% sure how I'm going to quilt this one, but I do know that I'm going to start by stitching in the ditch along all of the non-black patches and along the borders.  I haven't decided whether I'm going to do that with black thread or with monofilament nylon "invisible" thread.  My new Westalee ruler foot and quilting rulers finally showed up a few days ago, so I'll probably want to test out some ruler work on this quilt.  Stay posted!

I'm linking up with WIPs on Wednesday at Esther's blog.  Have a great week.

Rebecca Was Afraid of Borders. Now, She's Afraid of Basting

Borders Attached, And I'm Still Alive!

It's absolutely ridiculous, but it took me almost two weeks to get the borders on this baby quilt because I psyched myself out about my imperfect piecing and the dangers of borders coming out ripply or wavy or whatever if I didn't measure correctly or if my math was off or if didn't pin the borders properly or if I fit the borders to the quilt top rather than fitting the quilt top to the borders -- wait, or are you supposed to do it the other way around?  Can you imagine if this had been a complicated pieced border instead of plain old strips of solid fabric?  I'd have been in agony for at least a month.  Anyway, I sewed the last border strip on last night and IT IS JUST FINE and now I feel foolish for wasting so much time and energy worrying about them.  After all, I do have a seam ripper, right?  Didn't even need to use it.  This quilt would be finished already if I wasn't such a dork.

Next subject of stress and indecision is which of the three Minky cuddle fleece backing fabrics to use with this quilt.  Since it's for a baby gift, I think the black and white giraffe print is adorable, but this is a polyester fleece fabric after all, and I'm worried that there is too much white in the background that is going to turn dingy and gray almost immediately:


Giraffe Minky Cuddle Fleece, Backing Choice #1

See how cute they are now?  But the quilt top is predominantly black, a baby quilt gets washed a bazillion times, and the white polyester fleece is bound to get horribly dingy and gray very fast.  They won't be able to wash the quilt even in color safe bleach without fading the quilt top colors.  So I'm leaning toward the zebra print instead, which has far less white in it:

Zebra Minky Cuddle Fleece, Backing Choice #2

I do have my satin binding picked out already -- a royal blue that I found online here in a 25-yard roll. 

Satin Binding By the Yard

I've only used Wright's prepackaged 2" satin binding in the past, but since each package is only 4.75 yards I always had to do two joining seams with that stuff.

So, now it's time to layer and baste this bad boy so I can get it quilted -- or, I should say, now it's time to PROCRASTINATE layering and basting.  I hate layering and basting, and I need to clear off a suitable surface in my studio or bring in another table to do it properly.  Meanwhile, I'm headed off to my LQS in hopes that I can rectify the fabric shortage issues with my FrankenWhiggish Rose project.  I did not realize how much more fabric waste there is with applique than with pieced blocks!  I have been continuing to play with the design for that quilt in EQ7, by the way, and my current favorite looks something like this:

New and Improved FrankenWhiggish, 86" x 86"

If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that every time I tweak the design it gets more complicated, and the quilt gets bigger.  At 86" x 86", it's kind of big for a throw quilt to live on my sofa, don't you think?  Anyway, if I don't get myself out the door and on the road, I won't make it to the fabric store at all today.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  Happy Stitching and Happy Monday!

Slow Stitching Design Monday: FrankenWhiggish Rose and Amish Baby Updates

I haven't linked up with Slow Stitching Sunday in awhile because I felt like I was spinning my wheels and had no progress to report.  However, somehow I managed to get all 36 yellow petals stitched to the 36 coral petals, so yesterday I starched and pressed my brown fabric, traced off 36 petals, and pinned the first four units together so they are ready to stitch on the go.

I noticed a big improvement from the first yellow petal to the last, and I think that repeating the same applique shape over and over this way is going to be better in the long run  for acquiring and improving skills than if I were to complete one block at a time in its entirety.  The yellow petals gave me a lot of practice with slight outer curves and outside points, and now with the coral petals (the fabric is not so hyper bright in real life!) I'll have the slight outer curve and outside points again, along with a tighter outer curve and inside points to work on.  Also, once I get the rhythm of it down, I don't have to think about what I'm doing very much; it just becomes about developing and reinforcing the muscle memory -- very relaxing. 

I did stitch the first block in its entirety, though, to make sure I liked the fabric and shape combinations I put together.  The reason I call this the FrankenWhiggish Rose is that I hobbled several different applique patterns together Frankenstein style in order to create an applique project that incorporated all of the basic shapes and challenges I would need to learn before I could tackle more advanced needle turn applique projects: Inside and outside curves, inside and outside points/corners, skinny bias stems, circles, reverse applique, stuffed berries, and broderie perse for the ring of little rosebuds around the center of the block:



Completed Test Block for FrankenWhiggish Rose

This is for my FrankenWhiggish Rose quilt, which may or may not end up looking anything like this design:

My Current Plan for FrankenWhiggish Rose, Subject to Change

After completing the test block, I imported a photo of the finished block so I could use it to design the quilt in EQ7 software.  Unfortunately, after cutting out all of the dark brown petals, I see that I do not have enough of that fabric left to do 36 reverse appliqued tulips, plus the skinny sashing lattice and the border blocks.  Yikes!  Fortunately I have the manufacturer and pattern information from the selvedge, but I wasn't able to locate it online.  Hopefully the LQS where I purchased the fabric a few months ago will have more left on the bolt.  I do NOT want to change this design!



Amish Baby 54-40 Or Fight

Meanwhile, the Amish Baby 54-40 or Fight quilt is getting its borders sewn on today.  UPS should be delivering the black batting I ordered sometime today.  I also need to make a decision about which Minky Cuddle backing I'm going to use:

Minky Cuddle Zebra Print

Minky Cuddle Dalmatian Print

Minky Cuddle Zebra Print

I've decided that this is a "infant brain stimulating quilt," so I'll be using a high contrast black and white plush fabric for the backing.  I'm leaning towards the cute little zebras, as long as the black batting doesn't threaten to show through the white Minky background.  If show through is going to be an issue, I'll go with the Dalmatian or zebra fabric instead.  Although another consideration with the white plush backing fabric is how dirty and grungy it will get over time.  The baby's mom isn't going to be able to wash a predominantly black quilt with even a color safe bleach product, and I have used pale pink Minky backing for a baby quilt in the past and was dismayed by how it took on a decidedly icky gray cast over time (that would be the Zombie quilt for Princess Petunia).  Hmmm...

Well, I have a sick kid home with me today, spewing flu virus all over the house.  I think I will wrap him up in blankets in the studio and we can watch some classic cartoons while I work on quilt borders.  Hopefully I can take care of Lars and help him feel better without catching the flu myself, because I don't have time to be sick this week!  I'm linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts and Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  I'm also linking up with Esther's WIPs on Wednesday.

Happy Monday and Happy Stitching!

Behold, the Beloved Minky Quilt! "Because It Is Fluffy and It Has Memories"

The Zombie Quilt



Have you ever had the opportunity to see one of your quilts after it has been loved literally to death?  Have you ever given a baby quilt to a newborn and then, years later, been astounded to see a six-year-old child dragging around the rotting, dingy, appalling remains of your handiwork, fiercely insisting that it is the best and only quilt for her "because it is fluffy and it has memories?" The zombie quilt pictured above (it is a zombie because it is clearly dead, yet it still walks around scaring people) was made for my niece when she was born in 2008.  Her name is Princess Petunia, but her parents insist on calling her Sarah...  When I gave the quilt to the newborn princess, it looked like this:

Newly Made Baby Quilt, in 2008

This is the first baby quilt I ever made with Minky backing, and it's the only quilt I ever tied instead of quilting.  I gathered a wide satin ribbon with the ruffler foot on my sewing machine and then sewed it into the edge seam of the quilt.  Soft cotton fabrics on the top of the quilt with little nubby embroidery floss knots, silky satin ribbon along the edges, and snuggly Minky backing on the reverse.  This quilt went together fairly quickly, and somewhat halfheartedly, since my sister had been telling everyone how much she hated pink and I knew there was a good chance this quilt would get shoved into a dark closet and never see the light of day.  My sister's family lives far away and I don't get to see them often, so I wasn't able to watch the gradual decline and disintegration of this quilt over the years.  I'm told that the Princess calls it her "covers" and demands its presence at every nap and at bed time, wears it as a cape, and drags it around after her, Linus-style.

I last saw the pink Minky quilt about a year ago.  It was in pretty bad shape then, so I made Petunia a new, Big Girl quilt with Dresden plates, Minky backing, and satin binding edges to take its place:

Replacement Quilt Made in 2013, Deemed Unworthy by the Princess

A lot more work went into the Dresden plate quilt.  No dice.  My sister tells me that the Dresden plate quilt is only used when the raggedy used-to-be-pink quilt is in the laundry.  It's only the Understudy Quilt.  Ah, well -- I tried!

You might think it would be depressing to see one of your quilts in shreds, with gaping holes where some of the patches have disintegrated and the batting is falling out, but I think this is the best possible fate for a baby quilt.  It may look gross, but as the Princess says, it's still fluffy and it has memories!

Memories, indeed.  Here's a parting shot of the zombie quilt, wrapped around Princess Petunia as Anders was opening his birthday presents:


Lars, Anders, Princess Petunia with Zombie Quilt, and James

Happy 11th birthday, Anders!  And the Zombie Quilt lives on...

My Son, the Quilter: Stitching In the Ditch with Monofilament Nylon on the Bernina 750 QE

Anders Quilting on the Bernina 750 QE

Anders finally started quilting his first quilt on Sunday afternoon!  He has officially graduated from Piecer to Quilter.  Although he pieced his first quilt top on Judy, my 1951 Singer Featherweight, I set him up with Nina the Bernina 750 QE for the actual quilting for several reasons:

1. Mine is sunk in a cabinet, which really helps minimize the drag of a heavy quilt.  Even before we layered his top with batting and backing, Anders was having increasing difficulty controlling his quilt top as it got bigger and bigger and began hanging off the edges of the diminutive machine bed on the Featherweight.

2. I have a walking foot for Nina, but I don't own one that fits the Featherweight.

3. Nina the 750 QE has a cool stitch in her quilting menu that automatically secures a line of stitching with several tiny stitching at the beginning and again at the end.  On most machines, the quilter has to remember to manually adjust the stitch length every time he or she begins or ends a line of quilting, and especially for a child who is just learning, it really helps for that to happen automatically.

You'll notice that Anders selected lime green Minky dot fabric for the backing of his first quilt, which can present some additional challenges.  I spray-basted the thin cotton batting to the Minky first, then spray basted his quilt top to the batting, smoothing out all three layers until they were ripple-free.  Then, for added insurance against shifty Minky misbehavior, I pin-basted the quilt as well, about 2-3" apart.  His quilt top is pretty stable because I had been starching each seam throughout the construction process.  I marked a 1 1/2" grid across the surface of his quilt with chalk pencils, aligning the grid with the seam lines on his blocks, so that all he has to do is straight lines for this one.  Hopefully the lines don't rub off before he finishes quilting them!

Since Anders' fabrics are such busy prints anyway, and since he is bound to have some "oopses" on his first project, I chose SewArt monofilament nylon "invisible" thread for the needle with Mettler 50/3 cotton thread in the bobbin, color matched to the Minky backing.  I wrote a post awhile back with tips for monofilament nylon thread that you can find here).  This was my first time using monofilament nylon on the 750 QE and she handled it beautifully.  With cotton thread in the bobbin, I got lovely balanced tension for this project by dropping the needle tension down to 2.0 (invisible nylon thread stretches, so you always need to lower your top tension for this specialty thread).  Normally I like to use a size 60 sharp needle with monofilament thread for the tiniest holes and least visible stitches, but I put in a 75 Quilting needle for Anders.  He gets his quilt hung up on the edge of the cabinet occasionally and is still getting the hang of letting the quilt move freely through the machine with the feed dogs doing the work.  Those skinny size 60 needles break more easily if the quilter is tugging at all, so I thought the 75 would be a bit safer.

Bernina Walking Foot #50 with 3 Soles

Anders is quilting with a special "ditch quilting" sole fitted to the Bernina #50 Walking Foot.  My walking foot originally came with two interchangeable soles, one of them closed-toe and the other one open-toe for greater visibility.  The new Bernina walking feet come with this third sole that has a metal guide blade in the center to facilitate quilting stitches that land right next to the patchwork seams, on the low side of the seam allowance.  I was able to purchase the ditch quilting sole for my walking foot separately from my Bernina dealer.  It worked really well for Anders since he was able to watch that metal guide and make sure it was following the chalk lines when he wasn't next to a seam. 

Anders managed to get the vertical lines quilted on the right half of his quilt before he was done for the day.  Since he only quilts with me every other Sunday afternoon, it will probably be another couple of months before he finishes this project.  I am SO glad I simplified what I had originally planned for him to make!

Princess Petunia Likes her Dresden Plates!

My Niece with her New Quilt

My sister finally sent pictures of the little princess with her new "covers!"  I don't know whether she'll give up the raggedy, disintegrating baby quilt, but at least she likes the new Dresden plate quilt that I made for her.  Who could resist that big, happy smile?  You can find posts about the process for this quilt here.

It also fits the toddler bed well, although I didn't plan it that way, and the colors look great in her bedroom.

So, next project on the horizon?  Well, I have a few things in the works.  I agreed to make a costume for Augustus Gloop in our school's upcoming performance of Willy Wonka Jr.  I'll be working on that this week while the kids are out of school for Spring Break.  Then, I'm dying to get started on this "Jingle" Christmas themed applique Block of the Month using Erin Russek's patterns and instructions for needle-turn applique: 



"Jingle" BOM by Erin Russek of One Piece At a Time, 76" x 76"

I've always admired hand appliqued quilts, but have never attempted one myself before.  Erin's designs are so beautiful, and her tutorials are so thorough, that I have decided this is the right time and the right project to take the plunge.  Somehow, the BOM (Block of the Month) format is less intimidating, too, because when you see a whole quilt full of applique it looks intimidating.  But, one little block?  Surely I can do one little block...  and then hopefully another little block...  You can find Erin's free block pattern downloads and instructions each month on her blog, One Piece at a Time, here.  The 37" square "Miss Kringle" poinsettia, pomegranate and tulip center medallion pattern is available as a PDF download from Erin's Pattern Spot store here for just $10.00, and the project is rated for beginners so you have no excuse not to give it a try!

 

I wanted to keep with the Christmas theme and color scheme of this quilt, especially since I don't know what most of the blocks will look like ahead of time, but I had more difficulty than anticipated sourcing Christmas fabrics at my LQS in March.  Over the weekend, I was delighted to find the perfect fabrics ON SALE from an online quilt shop, Quiltable Fabrics.  This green swirly fabric is going to be used for my large setting triangles and border:

 

Winter Wonderland Scrolls in Green from Windham Fabrics

 

And this FABULOUS poinsettia print is going to be for my smaller setting triangles around each block:

 

Winter Magic Poinsettia in Scarlett from Hoffman Fabrics

 

I also got this gold berry print to use for some of the yellow applique and block pieces:

 

Holiday Splendor Berries in Gold from Hoffman Fabrics

 

I just hope these fabrics work well together in person; sometimes the computer monitor can be a bit off.  Anyway, my plan is to cut or reserve enough fabric for the setting triangles and borders, and then start with the four applique and pieced blocks that have been released so far.  I've already purchased and printed out the center medallion pattern, but I'm going to start small and work my way up to that one.  I should receive the fabrics for Jingle by the end of this week, which gives me added incentive to get that costume sewn up quickly!

 

I also have a Storm at Sea quilt in purples, blues and grays that I'm planning to start once I'm caught up on the Jingle BOM.  I purchased all of the fabrics for that one months ago, and then got sidetracked on other projects.  Stay tuned!