WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Free Motion/Straight Line Quilting

Okay!  It's time to talk about quilting our quilts.  Free motion quilting is my favorite.  Once you get the hang of it, you can do so many fun things!  There are a surprising amount of cool things you can do with straight line quilting, too.

Like my last post, this one is going to be pretty much full of me linking to other awesome quilters who have already done the work of demonstrating how to quilt.  My handout has some basic instructions, but you should check out some of these tutorials for sure.

However, I do have one thing I want to say before we start.   I strongly recommend you practice with a small practice piece before you tackle your full quilt.  Make a couple of small practice sandwiches using fabric your not particularly attached to and practice practice practice.  You'll feel better if you work out all the kinks on a small, disposable piece rather than on the quilt you've spent hours and hours making.  ;)

Okay.  Let's quilt.

Start here.  This is one of the places I first learned to free motion quilt.  Her instructions are very good and they start from the VERY beginning.  YES!

A Few Scraps - She even has a few books available!

Free motion Quilting with a home machine:

Craftsy

A few blog posts with tips for succeeding at Free Motion Quilting:

Craftsy

Sew Mama Sew

Once you've gotten the hang of free motion quilting and are ready to try a few new designs, you have GOT to check out this site!  Leah has HUNDREDS of free videos demonstrating quilting designs.  She's amazing.  I hear she even has a couple classes available for beginners and non-beginners alike.  ;)

Leah Day:  Free Motion Quilting Project

Alright.  If straight line quilting is more up your alley, I have rounded up a few links that you may like as well.

Start here for some great beginner ideas for straight line quilting:

Pile O Fabric

Then go here for some more straight line quilting stuff, along with troubleshooting for when things go wrong.  Isn't Alisa great for including that information?

Pile O Fabric

And here are a few posts with some inspiration/tips for straight line quilting:

Canoe Ridge Creations

Sew4Home/Heather Jones

And here are the handouts:
WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Basting
WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Straight Line and Free Motion Quiltingn (COMING SOON)

Happy quilting!

WHW RS Sample Quilt Class: Basting

Hi friends!

We're almost there!  It's time for basting and quilting.  This is the part where we create a quilt sandwich with our quilt top/batting/backing, temporarily attach them, and the stitch them together using free motion or straight line quilting on our home sewing machine.  Wahoo!  I love the quilting stage.  :)

First off, I created step by step instructions for my students, but I highly recommend you check out a few of the links I'm providing in this post.  Basting and quilting are best learned through demonstration (or photo/video tutorials) followed by lots and lots of practice.  Be patient if it doesn't look amazing on your first try.  Keep going and you'll get better and better, I promise.  :)

NOW.  Before we can quilt our quilts, we need to baste them (meaning we need to temporarily hold them together so that they can withstand lots of smooshing and shoving during the quilting stage). 

There are basically two methods for basting: Pin basting and Spray basting.  I personally prefer spray basting.  It's more expensive, but its easier and faster for me.  Plus it involves way less crawling around on the floor and I seem to get fewer puckers when I spray baste.  On the other hand, I used pins for years when I was first starting out and wasn't ready to make the investment in spray baste.  Both methods are great.  For the record.  I buy my spray baste HERE.  I can usually get 3-4 Queen sized quilts (or 6ish lap quilts or 12ish baby quilts) from one large can.

Here are some excellent links for quilt basting tutorials:

This is one of the best tutorials I have found for pin basting:

Crazy Mom Quilts

These video tutorials for basting, quilting, and binding are also excellent:

Happy Quilting

This is where I learned the tip to iron my quilts arter they have been spray basted.  I took her crafsty class, Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine and it was LIFE. CHANGING.  Worth every penny.

Obsessive Quilter

A few tips for basting (including a few alternate methods):

Craftsy

Spray basting How-To:

Craftsy

And lastly, if you're interested, here's a thread basting technique that may work for you (I've never tried it):  Sharon Shamber Thread Basting

Here is my handout:  COMING SOON...

Stay tuned for quilting instructions!

WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Sashing and Backing

Alrighty then.  The next thing we need to do for quilt class is assemble all our blocks together!

Wahoo! Because the blocks are all so different and we don't want them to get all muddled together, I highly recommend assembling then with sashing (the thin strips of fabric between the blocks, creating a sort of frame around each block).

Here are my finished quilt tops!  Regular blocks in the 12" size on the left, alternate blocks in the 9" size on the right.  I had just enough fabric left over to create the checkerboard borders for the alternate quilt, bringing it up to the same size as the regular quilt.  I'm planning to make a double-sided quilt!

At our quilt class last week, rather than give exact measurements for our particular quilt, I explained how to calculate and prepare sashing strips for ANY quilt. There is even an alternate method for creating sashing. the instructions I made are attached at the end of this pout.
I also found some great resources for you all if, in case you need more inspiration or guidance for assembling your quilt with sashing:

This is an awesome article about sashing:

Craftsy

And a great follow-up on borders:

Craftsy

This is a great blog post for new quilters about sashing and borders, with lots of helpful links:

Sew Fresh Quilts

Check out Jenny Doan's Video here for ideas:  Missouri Star Quilt Company: Quilt Sashing Ideas

A few more pictures of pretty quilts with sashing:

A Quilting Life

A Little Bit Biased

Of course, you don't have to assemble your blocks with sashing. You don't even have to assemble them in a traditional grid - do a Google images (or Pinterest) search for "modern sampler quilt layouts" and you'll see what I mean.

Once your quilt is assembled and you know exactly what size it ends up, it's time to prepare your backing and batting so that you are ready for the quilting process.

Again, I prepared a (pretty extensive) handout explaining all your options here and attached it at the end of this post.

Basically, you need a piece of batting that is at least 2"larger than your quilt top all the way around, and a backing that is at least 4" larger than your quilt top all the way around.

I found some awesome links for you with some ideas for preparing your backing, particularly if you want to piece it to save money.  Check them out:

Holly has a some great tips for creating pieced backs here:

Bits of Everything

Here's a great example of a pieced back made from leftover fabric:

Quilt Story/Nancy Noodle

One idea we never covered is to create a big border to go around your yardage to make your backing bigger:

Cabbage Quilts

 And here's one more post with some ideas for you:

Victoriana Quilt Designs

ONE MORE NOTE - In the handout, I show you an alternate method of creating sashing by sewing sashing pieces onto two sides of your blocks, then assembling the blocks together as if there were no sashing.  Another option similar to this one would be to sew a skinny border around all four sides of every block, then assemble the blocks together.  :)

And here are the handouts
WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Sashing and Backing

Quarter 4 Finish-Along List

Last quarter, I finished 3 of my 12 goals for the Finish-Along.  But THIS quarter is going to be super productive because, hey, Christmas is coming!  RIGHT?!?!  To be fair, most of the things on my list last quarter were pretty long term and I would have been surprised to get to many more of them.

SO.  I'm creating another big huge list this quarter with the hope that some of them can get crossed off the list.  Here we go:

1. Swoon Sixteen.  I'm about half way through piecing the blocks - this is my back burner project at the moment...

2. Kaleidoscope.  I just finished piecing the top!  I can't wait until I can carve out some time to finish this one.

3.  Moda All-Star Row quilt.  Needs basting/quilting/binding.  Someday...
4.  I might pull out this table runner and finish it up.

5.  Growth Chart for Noah.  It's looking like this will be a Christmas present after all, now that his birthday is past... (it was supposed to be for Christmas last year).

6.  Baby quilt (or puff quilt) using either one of my charm packs (Wishes, Noteworthy, Summerfest!, Hello Friend, Bump to Baby, or Just my Type - okay, I'm addicted to charm packs...  I know there are a few I haven't listed here.)

7.   Eight Rummy mats (gotta be ready for the Christmas rush in my shop) - I've even got about 12 of them cut and started. 

8.  New samples of at least 6 of my quiet books for the shop.  I've been using a new brand of (higher quality) felt and I need to remake some of my books and update the photography for my shop.

9.  More bibs.  :)  These are great for whenever I need a quick fix and I have a few layer cakes set aside for some cute bibs. (Dream and a Wish by Riley Blake and Suprise by Riley Blake - I even have a cute Christmas layer cake somewhere)

10.  Apron for myself.  This one is very low on the list because I never seem to find the time for it, but dang it - I'm NOT taking it off!

11. Quilt Class sampler #1.  Quilt class is almost done!  We've assembled our blocks, all we have left to do is learn how to quilt and bind them.  :)  Here is my 12" block sampler:

12.  Quilt Class sampler #2.  And her is my 9" alternate block sampler, waiting to be pieced together using my alternate sashing method...

13.  And lastly, I want to stick this on the list because I'm afraid I'll forget about it if I don't.  I bought this fabric with the intention of making another Diamonds in the Deep quilt.  It's going to look AWESOME in ombre.  Don't you think?

Linking up!

Puff Quilts: From Bump to Baby and Hello Bear

I made a few more puff quilts.  :)  The first is for my sister-in-law who just welcomed her first child and specifically requested a puff quilt in these colors.  Fabric is "From Bump to Baby" for Riley Blake. :)  The minky borders are a little fiddly to work with, but way cuter than plain fabric borders!

And then a few months later we held a baby shower for a dear friend who is having a baby soon, after a long battle with infertility.  She's decorating her nursery using these adorable colors with a woodland theme, so of course I had to procure some "Hello Bear" fabric for her puff quilt:

And since one of these quilts was on my Quarter 3 Finish-Along list (the other was a little more spur of the moment), I get to link up here:

Do.Good Stitches: Diamond Kites

Back in April, I was in charge of our Bee Quilt for Do.Good Stitches.  I am now in a new group (our old group had to be dissolved, which was super sad), so I've been getting to know the skill levels and styles of my new bee mates.  Hopefully this block wasn't too crazy for them. :)

I made up this pattern using half rectangle triangles and asked for blocks in bright jewel tones.  

Doesn't it look cool all put together?

For the quilting, I went with random straight lines all over the whole thing.

For fun, I threw in a bunch of straight lines done in glow in the dark thread.  :)  It's pretty much not possible to photograph glow in the dark thread, so here's a picture of the back.  If you squint, you can sort of get an idea of what it looked like in the dark.  :)

The binding was done using a couple funky large prints that I haven't been able to match with anything until now. 

 Quilt stats:

Started: April 2016

Finished: August 2016

Fabrics: A variety of bright jewel tones with low volume background

Batting: Pellon 100% Cotton

Finished size: Approximately 58" x 47"

Recipient: My Very Own Blanket (an organization that provides quilts for foster children)

Methods used: HRT piecing, straight line quilting

Binding: Hand Stitched to the Back

Just under the wire, I'm linking this up with the Quarter 3 Finish-Along.  This was project #1 on my finish-along list.