Iron basting

When I am working on a smaller quilt my preferred method of pin basting is to do it at the ironing board.

Eddy likes to help

My Ironing station.

Backing and the batting.

The top.

Smooth everything and give it a good press.

I like to slide my little mat underneath to make pinning easier.

I love this tool for closing the pins.

After I pin what has been pressed, I slide it over, smooth
the backing.

Then the batting and the top and press again.  

The last section.  Make sure to take the mat out after you pin
each section, you do not want to iron with it underneath the quilt.

I like to use a larger stitch length for machine quilting,.

I keep a sample piece handy to test the stitch and tensions.

My hokey set up to boost up the quilt.

Rolled up and ready to go.

My favorite, wiggle quilting.

Both directions finished.

The finished baby quilt!

I found that this method works best for me.  Pressing the layers seems to make them stick together a bit better.  I found that my sewing room was so crowded with the big ironing board in there and I mostly just used it to press a few seams.  So I took the big board out and set up a small ironing mat on my table.  I put the big board in the linen closet.  So when I need to iron yardage or big stuff, I just pull it out of the closet and set it up in the hallway.  It makes much better use of my sewing studio.

For simple quilts I like to use variations of my wiggle quilting.  You can do gentle curves with a walking foot and going edge to edge, no threads to tuck in!

The baby quilt was finished in time for the arrival of our newest grandson, Scott!  He is so sweet!

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.  Check out what everyone else is doing at Nina-Marie's blog!

The Baby Quilt

Fabric selection

Making 9 patches

Cool Lion print

The quilt top

EQ7 drawing

Our son and his wife are expecting their second child.  Another boy.  He is scheduled to arrive on Monday. When they were expecting the first "Most Beautiful Baby Boy in the World" I had the baby quilt finished even before we found out it was going to be a boy.  This time I am pushing the deadline.  I don't know why I haven't gotten this project going sooner.  I didn't have a real good vision for it.  But really, it is just a drag around, use it up kind of quilt so it really shouldn't be such a big deal.  

A month or so ago I was in the small little quilt shop in town.  I found a really cute flannel print with giraffes.  I bought a yard.  I figured it would be perfect for the backing and a yard x width of fabric is just the size for a newborn.  Well, that piece of fabric sat around my sewing space since.  I couldn't decide what to do with the front of the quilt.  On Tuesday I had some errands to do and stopped at Kent's (the grocery store) and across the parking lot is the quilt shop.  I headed in there, mainly for ideas.  I am looking around the flannels and then I saw the lion print.  Oh, that would be so cute!  So I bought 3/4 yard of that one, another 3/4 yard of the giraffes and then a 3/4 yard cut of another cute giraffe print.  I found a nice rusty brown for the binding and bought 1/2 yard.  Ok.  I am set.  

Or am I?  What do I do with these fabrics?  Cut a bunch of 6 inch squares and toss them all together? Fussy cut the lions and the add logs of giraffes?  Ok, how about my favorite the 9 patch.  I calculated that if I cut binding strips 2" I would need 5 of them and then I would have enough of the binding fabric left to use in some of the blocks.  I decided to make it the middle square.  With the 2 giraffe fabrics as the corners and sides I make strip sets, cut, sew them back together and have 11 blocks. I could have had 12, but one of the fabrics (the binding) was a good 2-1/2" shorter than the others. I had decided to just cut the lions into 9-1/2" squares.  The print would have been hard to fussy cut.  But because I only had 3/4 of a yard (27") minus shrinkage and straightening the edge, I could only get 8 lion squares out of that piece of fabric.  

I laid out the blocks and it just wasn't quite there.  I decided I needed to add some more plain squares.  I had enough of the second giraffe print to cut out four 9-1/2" squares.  I played with the layout some more and put 3 of the giraffes in the center and all the lions to the outside alternated with the 9 patches.  It is a bit off center, but if I tried to make it one row wider the backing would no longer fit.  As it was, I used the last bit of lion sewn to the original yard of giraffes plus the extra of the 3/4 yard to make the backing large enough.  Whew.  Tomorrow I will pin baste and get it quilted, and work on the binding in the evening.  Now hopefully my DIL doesn't go into labor before Sunday and I will be set.

I really liked the layout of the blocks, but I wanted to see how they would look with the extra row so I drew it up in EQ.  

That is how I work.  I sort of have an idea, buy some fabric or raid the stash, start cutting and sewing and then try to figure out the math.  Usually I have to change plan because I don't have enough of something to make it work the way I thought it would go.  

My Off the Wall post for this week, check out what everyone else is doing at Nina-Marie's blog.

Inspiration in Moab

Sunrise

Weed

Cactus

Redrock

Castle Valley Winery

More redrock

A memorial for Lyzz

Offerings

More offerings

Angel earring, found at our campsite.

You can feel the love

Carved rock offerings

VW fence

Bike wheel fence

Bug gate

Sculptures

Wreath made from plastic bottles and cd's

I love this guy!

We went to Moab for the weekend.  I found a lot of inspiration there.  Beautiful red rock, weeds, memorials, VW parts shop, and the coolest junk shop you ever saw!

Rusty Nails

Wet PFD, vinegar and rusty nails and clips.

I spread out the nails and clips on the plastic.
Then covered it with the wet fabric. And then poured
some vinegar over the surface.

After one day.

I soaked the piece in salted water.

Hanging to dry.

The whole piece.

A friend of mine was inspired by a recent Quilting Daily post about a surface design Round Robin.  So she conned, er invited a bunch of us to participate.  I decided to start my piece with some rust dyeing.  I had done a trial of that a couple of summers ago.  Of course, I can't find the instructions that I used nor did google bring up the one that I used.  So after reading several other tutorials, I decided to try the vinegar method.  The previous time it used kosher salt.  I first wet thoroughly a half yard of PFD.  I spread out a piece of plastic (a used plastic birthday tablecloth from the dollar store).  I scattered a bunch of rusty nails and clips over the plastic.  I then layered the fabric over the rusty items, pressing down to make sure that it was touching as much as possible.  I doused the fabric with white vinegar.  I used the plastic tablecloth to cover up the fabric.  I didn't want it to dry out too fast.  I put some rocks on the corners, I had it outside so that the sun could keep it nice and warm.

I checked it that evening and it had dried out a bit, so I spritzed it with water and covered it up again.  The next day I checked it and it was still wet.  Later in the afternoon I decided it was dark enough.  I threw all the nails and clips into the bucket for the next time.  I rinsed out the fabric and then I put it to soak in a small bucket of salted water.  I did not measure the water or the salt.   I let it soak for several hours.  Then I rinsed it again and let it soak overnight in plain water.  Very little color was in the water in the morning.  The hanging to dry photo has a better view of the real color.

So now I will press it, put my initials in the corner and mail it off to the next person.  Our group likes to do the "no peeky" rule in round robins.  So I won't be able to show what I will do to everyone else's piece.

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.  Check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.

Board quilt top is finished!

I recently posted about a set of blocks that I made for a group quilt.  The quilt top is finished!  Becky did a wonderful job coordinating the project.  I can even see where my blocks are in the quilt! The pattern is from Karen Combs book, "Celtic Pieced Illusions". She kindly gave us permission to use this pattern for the auction quilt.  I did not take a close up of the black print, but it has all kinds of dog "stuff" like bones, collars and leashes.  Along with the quilt, Becky bought some Clifford books and a stuffed Clifford to go with the quilt. She is taking another position on the Holiday Quilt Auction Board.  I will miss seeing her, she is a sweet lady.

And some flowers from Thanksgiving Point where the meeting was held.  Lovely gardens.  The weather has been perfect the last week.