Welcome to week 4 of the scrap basket quilt along! I think it's a good thing I'm hosting a quilt along this month, or I don't know if I'd be doing much quilting at all! :)
Today we will be talking about assembling quilt tops and I'll share a few quilting ideas, too.
Take the 99 blocks you made last week and arrange them into rows 9 across by 11 down.
Alternate the direction of the blocks to form a rail fence layout. I take photos as I go along....just to keep tabs on how things are progressing.
At one point as I was arranging blocks I realized that my blocks looked quite similar to the state of Minnesota....
...so I added one more block to the top to finish it off. It made my kids (and me) chuckle. My husband said I should sew it up just like this! Ha! Maybe next time...
This was my initial layout. Nearly all the gray diamond fabrics were in the top half of the quilt, so I did a little bit of shuffling. I try not to mess with the layout TOO much, because you can get in over your head and end up rearranging ALL day long. I've done that once or twice!
This is my final layout. Sometimes a few simple tweaks help a lot!
In each row, I pressed my seams in the direction of least resistance. (See arrows above.) You could press the seams in rows 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. to the right and press the seams in rows 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. to the left. It doesn't really matter how you press, as long as the seams that are meeting nest.
When I sew the rows together, I like to work from the bottom up. I press the horizontal seams toward the top. I've found that this is the easiest way to manage the bulk of the quilt as it grows in size.
This quilt top came together quickly! Once all the rows are together, press the quilt top well. Take a photo (or twelve) if you like! :)
To quilt, I'd recommend a simple wavy line grid. No marking required, just eyeball the quilting line in the center of the patchwork. This can be done with a walking foot OR you can free motion quilt the lines. (I prefer to FMQ...less puckering where the lines of quilting intersect.)
The wavy grid produces a nice texture and it is just the right amount of quilting. Again, it goes QUICK! Gotta love that!
On the
rockets and robots quilt I did an all over stipple. Or you could do loop-de-loops, which would be quick and fun, too! I used colored threads on both the quilts...these quilts will be going to kids, so the way I see it, the more color the better! Don't be afraid to branch out with different thread colors. It's fun!
Alright! That's all I've got for today! Next week I will have a little link up party so you can show your progress-or your finished quilt! Thanks to all of you who are joining me to make quilts for charity. I really appreciate it!
Happy Monday to you!
21 comments:
This was a my first pattern I learned when I went to a calss. You got the colors just right.
This is so nice. Great fabric selection!
what did you end up doing for the back? just curious because I haven't decided what I will choose yet...
I am currently putting the two halves together. I went with a 8 x 10 setting and will border to make size. I think I have a plushy backing that is large enough - and I find the serpentine quilting works well with that.
I really like your wavy line quilting grid. It is very effective. Great quilts!
Hi I am amazed at all the beautiful quilts you create - I love scraps and the designs you do are just marvellous. From a fan in Australia
Monica xx :)
Lovely fabrics! As always, love reading your blog. The way I remember which way to press the seams, left or right, is as I'm right handed, left handed seems odd to me....thus every odd numbered row gets pressed to the left, every even numbered row gets pressed to the right. And I have always pressed the horizontal seams down. Next time I will try pressing them up to see if I notice a difference. So fun to read how others approach things!
I'm still working on my squares, I'm about a third of the way through. I love the wavy lines quilting and plan to do that on the quilt I'm making, too.
I'm not usually a fan of green but this is really lovely! and my Hubby says apparently it is Xbox colours! lol
Frankie
www.knitwits-owls.blogspot.co.uk
Interesante entrada!! Gracias por compartir la información.
Un saludo.
This is a lovely quilt, a take on the simple rail fence. Your quilting is perfect for this quilt I think. The fabrics are very well coordinated, not really a scrap quilt- but I love it. Would look great as a wall art too. Cheers and have a great summer.
Loved following along on this one. I especially like what the diamond fabric added to the overall quilt. Gives it sparkle.
Very fun quilt!! I'm still strip piecing, but I'll get there! Love the suggestion of wavy line quilting.
Looks great! I think this would be a fun one to put together and then use to improve my free motion machine quilting!
Amanda, you inspired me to get busy! Love the way yours turned out, so I ran downstairs to rummage through my stash and now I'm at the sewing stage--finally! It took longer to pick out the fabrics & cut them than to sew the blocks, but I'm liking it alot. However, my husband not so much as he hasn't had my full attention for the last 36 hours--oh well, I will be done soon & can cook for him then--HA HA!
I am not familiar with how you hang your pieces on the wall...what is it and how do you use it? Right now, I just lay mine on the floor but I love your set up. Can you tell I am new at this :) ?
What a great quilt! Thanks for sharing all the steps!
this has turned out beautifully, colour range works so well and can see a child or adult loving it
Great looking quilts! The grey and green combination is particularly lovely.
Nice to see cool inspiration for quick charity quilts - everyone is a winner!
This looks great!! And I like the alternative to meandering quilting. I'm running behind on my projects, so I probably won't make the target date for finishing my version, but it will get done eventually. I didn't have the kind of scraps I wanted, so I went to our local quilt shop's sidewalk sale and bought some fun fabric would work for a boy or girl.
How fast the time flies! I haven't forgotten about this project. We have the fabrics picked out and are going to make it a family project to contribute a quilt. Now we need to get moving.
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