Workbasket Post: The Scrappy Patchwork Quilt (Part 2)
April 15, 2020
Hey y'all!
If you missed part 1, it is HERE!
When I last left you, I was in the middle of creating the "Crossing Blocks" which would be in the corners of the Ohio Stars.
I decided to finish all the blocks first before assembling them in their motifs. If anything, it was to get this picture:
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| All Laid Out! March 31, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
Now came the tedious task of "squaring" everything up. This is when all the uneven edges are cut down to increase the tidiness.
Now, this absolutely requires a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. Scissors are not nearly narrow enough to do the precise cutting that is required and trying to straighten things out by eye is about impossible. Trust me, I've tried.
This also required more ironing. Wheeeee. Long theological discussions on YouTube are such a blessing in these times.
I tackled it one Ohio Star after another, since they were supposed to be on the edges so to speak. The stripe for the middle would then be next.
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| Ohio Stars were stitched first April 1, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
As I'm constructing these things, I notice that I had to do some more piecing. I mean, it was either that or lose over a half an inch of two other blocks and I couldn't afford that.
As I kept constructing this thing, I kept falling more and more in love with it :).
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| Stars and Stripe Assembled! April 2, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
So you may notice that the stripe in this picture looks different from the previous pictures. Again, Catherine made yet another math error. As I was sewing some the squares together, I noticed that I had forgotten to calculate in the seam allowances. With a little extra taking, I was able to squeeze in one more block at the bottom.
Which caused another agonizing redesign with some of the discarded blocks. Of course, nearly all the blocks were the wrong pattern - I needed an "O" block and most of all the other blocks were "X" blocks. Go figure right?
Checking through my stash, I found one "X" block with fabric already used in earlier squares, which I could easily convert to an "O" block. After that was done, I changed out one of the "X" blocks for a different colored one to help keep the pattern better.
Once these colored block were assembled, it was time to determine the sashing that would go in between them. I had two choices of fabric: a cream fabric with tiny light salmon dots, or the blue and white willow fabric that I had used for the quilt blocks earlier.
Upon examination though, I found that the latter fabric was just too busy. With all that vibrant color, the quilt needed some stark contrast with the plainer cream. So using the back fabric as my guide, I cut the sashing strips to size and set to work.
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| Quilt Top Complete!! April 3, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
Right after I finished the top, I dug out some polyester batting that my mom had stashed in the basement. Normally, I hate using synthetic fibers such as polyester in my sewing. But, natural battings are three times the price of regular and the craft stores are closed anyway. Besides, when is my mother ever going to use batting?
I experimented with one, two and three layers of batting. I finally decided on two to give me some thickness but not be duvet-thick, if that makes sense.
Now, the hard part....the quilting process.
First was the design. I went back and forth between doing a cross-hatch or an Orange Leaf pattern. But something about the beauty of the squares told me that I should not quilt over them. Second was the backing fabric itself:
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| Remember how I said it was weird? Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
In the end, I decided to just outline the sashing, so that it sort of resembled a sort of Jacob's Ladder on the back. I eliminated hand quilting almost immediately because of the timing concerns. So that left me with my machine, which I was okay with.
I then pinned the quilt sandwich together with safety pins. This was a trick that I was taught by my sewing instructor when you didn't have the really long pins that you were supposed to use for these things.
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| She be pinned and ready to go! April 7, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
Quilting this thing turned out to be a CHALLENGE. First, the feed dogs were having a devil of a time working that pilled fleece through. If I hadn't had to follow the quilt top, I would have flipped it over to work on it.
Second....somehow or other, the back fabric kept puckering. So much so that it would require me to take out some whole seams, which was frustrating). So, after doing almost half of the seams, I had to repin it in order for the back to lay flat once again. Once that was accomplished, things got easier.
Third - two layers of batting was actually really thick! Which didn't help the feed dogs any. Trying to pull that quilt through was a workout for sure...
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| All Quilted! April 8, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
The last step (besides trimming off the excess overlay) was to get some binding and finish off those raw edges. Upon consultation with Lia, I decided to go with a really light blue binding. But, of course, I had no binding in stock, and would have to buy some.
Which was much more of a difficulty than normal because as I mentioned...the craft stores are still closed. And Amazon has a high volume of traffic due to this whole mess, so I didn't bother looking into it.
But Walmart saved the day! Our Walmart still has a craft section, in spite of the fact that many Walmarts were getting rid of theirs. And in that half empty shelve of binding, there was indeed a full spot of light blue binding :)
Can't get much more providential than that, no?
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| Sewing the binding on April 11, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
By this time, it is Holy Week - Good Friday to be exact. Pinning and sewing the binding should have probably taken a day at most, but due to problems, I didn't finish the binding until late afternoon on Holy Saturday. Just in time before Lent ended!
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| All finished! April 11, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn |
I could do nothing but stare at the beauty of it for several minutes. Even though the quilt has a lot of "character" as my dear friend Grace Avender says (i.e. mistakes), I'm really really happy at how it turned out!! Not only does it get a long-term project done, it makes use of fabric that was just lying around in my cabinet.
Now that I've babbled on enough, I'd love to hear from you! What sort of projects have you been up to during this quarantine?
Old-fashionably yours,
Catherine
3 comments
Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI feel kind of inspired to dig out my old quilt and start working on it :)
I don't think I've ever seen someone put binding on a quilt! That's a cool trick!
(We normally sew right sides together, flip the entire thing inside out, and then add the batting.)
Catherine, this looks fantastic!! The colors are delightful, the blue was an excellent choice. Bravo! :)
ReplyDeleteYour quilt looks awesome!! I can definitely attest to the difficulties of sewing with minky fabric. I often use it in baby quilts and it can cause some issues with stretching and puckering.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, your color pairings look amazing! All of that frustration paid off in the end! It looks beautiful!