Quick Hunters Star Throw - Part 3

Sandwiching Quilt

You will need a backing fabric of at least 88 by 64 inches, but a bit larger would be better.

1. Place pressed backing right side down on a flat surface large enough to lay flat; tape in place at sides, then corners.
2. Lay batting on top of backing and smooth wrinkles; tape in place at sides, then corners. (If using slippery batting, spray baste to baking and top.)

Quilt as Desired

To this day, nothing is so difficult for me in making a quilt than trying to figure out how to quilt it. I can do a pretty good meander, echo and stitch in the ditch, but that's getting boring.

Several years ago I read a book about expanding your quilting repertoire (I wish I could remember the name of the book now), and the best advice I got from it was to practice, practice, practice. The author suggested having a stack of 8 inch square quilt sandwiches all done up and waiting to be quilted. She used them to practice new quilting patterns and to warm up before working on that heirloom quilt.

It's great advice and in the book she also had ideas on uses for all your quilt blocks. I figured that I could possibly have too many potholders and table quilts, but I needed lots of practice, so I came up with making book covers too.

So get those small quilt sandwiches together and start practicing with the basics like echoing, stitch in the ditch, meandering, loops, grids, etc. and make sure that everyone you know has plenty of pot holders :)

Happy Quilting!

Quilt Sandwich

Getting a quilt ready to be quilted is a very important step in how it will look when it's all finished. The first thing to do is to lay backing fabric with right side down and tape sides, top and bottom taunt. There is very little stretch on the straight of grain.

Next, tape the corners taunt also. When doing so, be careful not to overly stretch on the bias.

Lay the batting on top of the backing and smooth out any wrinkles. Make sure batting is mostly on backing rather than hanging off on any one side. (Optional) tape in place also. Some batting is slippery and can cause puckers when quilting. To keep batting from slipping, spray baste batting to backing and quilt top.

Lay quilt top right side up on batting/backing and make sure batting and backing stick out on all sides of quilt top.

When smoothing top out, square blocks and borders, pushing excess toward middle. This will help quilt lay and hang better and hide any imperfections in block or border size. Quilting will take up excess fabric.

Pin baste all layers together about 4 inches apart or the width of your fist. Start by pinning centers in both directions.

Finish pin basting the rest of the quarters.

Gently remove tape and now your quilt is ready to be quilted.

Happy Quilting!

Sampler Quilt 2011 - Finishing

Quilt Sandwich

1. Backing & backing should measure at least 60 inches by 75 inches.
2. Place pressed backing right side down on a flat surface large enough to lay flat; tape in place at sides, then corners.
3. (Optional) Lay batting on top of backing and smooth wrinkles; tape in place at sides, then corners. (If using slippery batting, spray baste to baking and top.)
4. Put pressed quilt on top right side up.
5. Smooth borders and blocks square, pushing excess toward middle. Quilting will take up slack and quilt will hang better.
6. Pin baste 3 to 4 inches apart in quarters down length and width. Finish pin basting each quarter 3 to 4 inches apart.
7. Quilt as desired.

Binding

1. Lay 2 binding strips right sides together and sew short edge with a ¼ inch seam. 
2. Repeat with remaining strips to make a continuous strip. 
3. Fold and press strip lengthwise in half wrong sides together. 
4. Place binding strip on quilt top lining up raw edges and begin sewing leaving a 5 inch tail using a ¼ inch seam. 
5. Stop ¼ inch before corner with needle down and pivot work as if to sew next side and reverse sew off quilt top. 
6. Fold binding back creating a 45 degree fold, then fold forward matching fold to previously sewn side. 
7. Continue sewing binding and repeat #5 and #6 for each for each corner. 
8. Stop sewing at least 5 inches from beginning. 
9. Trim ends to overlap about ½ inch. 
10. Unfold binding ends, match right sides together and sew short raw edges with a ¼ inch seam. 
11. Refold binding and finish sewing to quilt. 
12. Trim backing and batting close to quilt top edges.
13. Wrap binding around quilt edge to the back side and hand sew using a blind stitch.

Things I learned about quilting

Quilters are probably always learning of new ways to do things, at least new to them and here are some things I've learned that have helped me tons...


Sandwiching and quilting: A guest on Alex Anderson's Simply Quilts (whose name escapes me now) showed how to sandwich a quilt smoothing the seams, borders and blocks square, pushing excess to middle. The quilting will take up the slack and your quilt will be square, and hang better.