It's been entirely too long since I began this quilt, but the top is finally finished!! I followed along with Rachel of p.s. i quilt's postage stamp quilt along and finally have a quilt top to show for it.
I had played around with making this quilt smaller than the suggested result, because I wanted to have some left over blocks to make a pieced back. In the end, I do have about 15 extra strips, which will be enough to add a little extra into the quilt back, and I am glad that I went with the larger size. The top measures 60 1/2 x 80 1/2 inches, yes that is 1200 tiny little 2 inch squares!! I'm pretty sure this is the largest quilt I've put together as of yet, and I'm a little nervous how my little machine will handle quilting it. I really don't want to pay to have it long arm quilted, and, well the quilting is my favorite part, so I don't want to give it up!
Here are a few close ups of some of the blocks (please ignore the errant strings that I have yet to pluck off). To make this quilt, I used a jelly roll of It's a Hoot by MoMo for Moda and a jelly roll of Bella Solids in Snow.
I really do think that these prints lended themselves very nicely to the smaller 2" blocks in this quilt, and even the little squares of the larger all over prints caught a few cute little glimpses of little birdies and cool shapes.
This quilt top has been folded up and stashed away, and will stay like that for a little while. I'm still deciding on how I want to quilt it, I really want to straight line quilt 1/4 inch from each seam, but my last session of straight line quilting has me paranoid of puckers! I think it is my basting that is off...what are your tips for sucessfully basting your quilts??
The quilt top looks wonderful Jess! Have you tried spray basting? It pretty much rocks my world. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my...it looks so crisp and fresh...perfect corners too...very nice job Jessica..lovely quilt...
ReplyDeleteEeek! This is one of my favorite fabrics--I love it!
ReplyDeleteI love that fabric for this quilt. The colors are so fun and bright. You did a great job. Can't wait to see it done!
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with puckers! I can't spray baste tho because I have no place to lay out the quilt where it wont get covered in dog hair and also be ventilated so I don't die of inhaling the fumes (it said I could on the bottle! lol)
ReplyDelete... but I digress, the point of my comment was to say that I LOVE this quilt!
I have this jelly roll and I agree, it looks beautiful in smaller snippets like this. Would love to make one of these quilts but those are A LOT of seams to match up, hrmm... scary :)
It's gorgeous! I absolutely love the bright colors with the white.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fun having larger prints cut up into smaller pieces - it's more likely that no two are exactly alike!
I adore this quilt! It looks so wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWhen I have a large quilt to baste, I take it to my LQS and use their classroom table to lay it out and do it. I pin baste, too.
If you can baste on a tile floor or something else that's heat resistant, I've had really good luck with fusible batting.
Beautiful!!! Great job! I REALLY want to make one of these.
ReplyDeleteI use packing tape to tape my quilt back to the floor, but I'll spend forever pulling one side tighter and retaping, then pulling another side tighter and retaping, etc. I just keep pulling sections taught and retaping until it looks right. I may not be doing it efficiently or "right," but it works for me. : ) I've also noticed that I get puckers if I'm using my walking foot and I push the quilt through the machine too fast (faster than the walking foot is going). So watch for that as well.
Love your quilt top! Mine is still on the design wall waiting to be sewn together.
ReplyDeleteWow, I just love it, Jess!!! Great job!! As for basting, I'm a super big fan of spray baste right now, but I agree with Lee about moving the quilt faster than your machine's going, that can also cause problems. I can't wait to see this one all put together :)
ReplyDeleteIt came out beautifully! I'm going to straight line mine, but across the diagonal on the whites. At least I think that's what I'm doing. I spray baste also! Use the purple can from Joann's. It has changed my life! :) For something this big, you need a basting helper to grab the other end and help get everything smooth. And then I recommend sewing around the edges right away so everything is held in place.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm totally in love with Its a Hoot at the mo and this is so pretty and fresh. I do a good bit of straight line quilting and you really have to let the machine pull it through with the walking front, all I do is support the weight of the quilt so it doesn't drag (which affects my stitch length terribly) and guide it gently, I find if I am moving it myself (rather than letting machine move it) then I get the puckers. I have a quilting extension table which really helps.
ReplyDeleteTry this :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwV8tUkhxUM
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is amazing! Somewhere recently on the blogs I saw folks swear by a certain kind of basting spray (I've always pinned) - It sounded foolproof, but alas, I can't find it again. Great quilt, tho!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteI've seen a few of these on different blogs but yours is really wonderful, your fabric choices are wonderful!
I never spray baste -- for environmental/health reasons!
I also use packing tape, to tape the quilt to my wood floor before pinning. And usually I have someone help me pull it really tight prior to taping it down. This works great without (too many) puckers!
Good luck!
One word...gorgeous...(as always)...great work
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