Pin Basting Tutorial

Yesterday I pin basted my newest quilt... a summer one that bright and cheery in blues, lime, turquoise and aqua. When I teach machine quilting, I talk about how to pin baste at home on the kitchen floor and thought maybe I should do a tutorial. Pin basting on tables in easier on the back but this method works for me so I stick with it.

 First you need to clear a large space on the floor. You can do this on carpet also but put something over the carpet (large piece of cardboard, etc) so that the pins don't hook onto the carpet loops.

 Once the floor is cleared I tape the backing of the quilt to the floor using packing tape. Make sure the backing is well pressed and pull it smooth. Don't pull it so tight that it springs back when realeased later... just tight enough to make it smooth. This is place RIGHT side down.

Here's a picture of the corner that's taped. I turn one edge of the tape under so that it's easy to pull off later.

 Now you can spread the batting over the backing, again smoothing it out without stretching too much.... just get out the lumps. 

 The top goes on next, RIGHT side UP. Center the quilt top on the backing (you might have to keep peeking) so that the seam in the back is straight. If you have a striped backing, make sure the top is running straight with that also. Smooth out any lumps and make sure borders look nice and straight BECAUSE what you see is pretty much what you get. If it's pinned crooked, it will be quilted crooked.

 Now it's time to start pinning. If you have a wood floor like I do, you might want to slide a large poster board sheet under the backing to protect the floor as you pin... or use your largest cutting mat.
Here's my pile of pins (above). I don't close them when done... just pop them into my pin container and then dump them out when I start pinning again. See that wooden tool? I wouldn't do this without it.

It helps close the pins so that you don't have bleeding fingertips. A spoon or a crochet hook can be used also but I like this the best. Available at quilt shops (Hearts to Holly has it... ask for the "antique" basting tool.. inside joke:) It runs under $10 and is WELL worth it.

Pin A LOT! Put in enough pins so that you can't lay your hand down without touching a couple.. probably every 4" or so. Make sure to pin right to the edge and the CORNERS. You don't want the backing flipping away from the top and batting while you're quilting. It'll get stitched folded over and you'll be ripping out stitches... no fun. This is experience talking!

 Seems like a lot of pinning but it's worth it. I used over 500 pins with this quilt (76 x 84)

 Once it's all pinned, I trim away some of the excess leaving about an inch of batting a backing hanging over. You don't need more than that. The quilt shrinks up as you quilt but it shrinks evenly.. all three layers together. Remove the tape and you work around the edges trimming with scissors.

 Roll it up from both ends to meet in the middle. It's now packaged perfectly for your sewing machine.

Next I'll do a tutorial on machine quilting using your domestic machine. Mine is an older Pfaff and I'm able to quilt most of my quilts at home. This one above is about the largest I do. I use a thin cotton batting to keep it flatter... easier to work with. PLUS cotton sticks to the cotton backing and quilt top so that I don't have shifting and puckering as I quilt.

Hand quilting another quilter's UFO

Yes, I know. I haven't been on here in a LONG time. Sometimes quilting just has to take a backseat to life. Last few days have been spent downstate with mom so I've been able to do a little hand work.

My sister found this quilt top at an estate sale. It was pieced, layered and partially hand quilted by a lady in her 90's. Maryann said it was the one she was working on before she passed away. 

 Waiting at U of M for mom to have her procedure is always long and boring so I brought this along. When I came downstate I brought my template. This is one of my favorite designs for hand quilting edges of quilts. I marked it with a regular pencil (it'll come out in the wash easily).

Just before we were called in to see her post op, I finished the last of the hand quilting. :) It's a baby sized quilt... maybe Mary can donate it to the church auction or save it for her daughter (never know... she might decided to have children). All it needs is the binding and to find it a home.

At home right now there are a few projects on my sewing table. One is a modern (quick and easy) summer quilt in some beautiful aquas, blues and yellows with plenty of white thrown in. The final border is going on and then it'll be ready for me to machine quilt.

The other project (I'm just starting this one) is a sample for the shop. It's from Benartex. .

It's called sailing away and uses the Cabana II line. This is a new line at Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop. You can see the fabric line and get the free pattern here:

Benartex Cabana II Sailing Away

BUT of course, Sue at Hearts to Holly will have kits. I think this will be a great quilt for the guys in the family. It's not too large... perfect to pack on the boat this summer. Or to hang in a den.

Febuary Finish: Marmalade Spools Quilt

 Yesterday I finished up a project that has been ongoing for a couple of months... a little longer than I planned. This is the "Spools" quilt pattern using Moda's Marmalade. Love the pattern, love the fabric.

This will be a shop sample at Hearts to Holly in Charlevoix. Owner Sue might be offering kits of this one. This will be my SEWING ROOM quilt someday. 

Button, buttons and more buttons

 

 

Someone mentioned loving buttons on facebook the other day. There are probably LOADS of button savers out there.

My grandmother started me out as a child with my love of collecting these beauties. She would give us her button tin to play with... a good way to keep us busy and quiet. I still have her tin of buttons plus my own and now jars and jars of buttons.

The box on the left belonged to grandmas also. She kept her card buttons in this box. This was the SERIOUS button box. We'd dig through this one for our blouses, pjs, jumpers... whatever. The button tin was the ODD buttons.. the ones she would take off old clothing before cutting up the clothes for utility quilts....the single buttons and a few other odds & ends. She also had a button hook, some thimbles, googly eyes... just fun odd things. Lots of good memories in that tin!

This quilt is one of those utility quilts (or camping quilts) that she made from the cut up clothing. It's falling apart but I'm not going to fix it. I want it to be just like she made it. If you look in the lower right hand corner, you can see a peek of the old blanket she used as "batting". She didn't waste a thing.

"Found" quilt top

My sister found this quilt top at an estate sale in a bag of fabric... she didn't realize it was in there. It's between a lap and a twin. I added the border, quilted it for her and am now binding it. She doesn't know I'm doing that (well, she didn't but if she reads this she will). Going to surprise her with it when I get back downstate in a few days.

Al and I are up north for a few days ...he needs to catch up on some work and I needed to pack Xmas away and clean. We'll be heading back down to be with Mom soon. She's in a nursing home and is pretty stable but still on a vent. We'd love to get her back home.

Aunt Grace's Garden Party for mom

This is the Aunt Grace's Garden Party Block of the Month quilt I did a while back as a shop sample and class. I'm giving it to mom as a Christmas present. She saw it when I was just about done with the top and loved the colors. 

Lately I've been neglecting this blog but mom has been pretty sick and I'm staying downstate with dad so that I can be with mom at the hospital. She was just moved to a rehab nursing home. Now it's time to head home for a few days to celebrate Christmas with Al and our girls (and my new son-in-law). Mom is stable now after a very scary week. She's a super strong lady... been through so much and just keeps going and fighting. I have complete confidence that she will get past this set back. My brothers from CA are in to stay and visit for a bit... that's cheering up both mom and dad.

Hope all of you out there have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas projects, pillowcases and more

This is a Christmas quilt that I just started working on... it's been in my TO DO box for quite a while.

         

 

In 2008 I did a swap with some online friends and received the cornerstones which are foundation pieced ornaments. The in 2009 I participated in a stocking swap and finally in 2010, I won a drawing we did on a forum which gave me the red and green pieced blocks.

 

This year I decided to put all of them together in one quilt. The greens are different from each other and so are the reds plus there are white backgrounds, cream backgounds and some that are an in-between color.

 

 

Sashing it with a red dot keeps the blocks separated enough that this color difference doesn't seem to matter, and to incorporate the ornaments, I either had to put a bunch together to make a block or make my sashing wide enough to use the for cornerstones... I decided on the latter or course.

 

The more I work on this, the more I like it. If it gets done this year or next doesn't matter to me... I just want to get it going. This will be a very special quilt for me... has the dates, signatures and location of many quilters that I've swapped with over the years... lots of memories, you know?

 

 

Now this is what I'm MOSTLY working on... the Marmalade Spools quilt... I love playing with this one. The colors are bright and cheerful.

 

I picked up this aqua polka dot at the quilt shop today. After checking the pattern to see the finished size of this quilt I thought it could use a border going around it to bring it up to a twin size. So that's what the dot is for... I'll probably use the aqua floral for the back...maybe...

 

 

And finally, this cute snowman fabric below is for a pillowcase. Instead of the regular size, I'm making it king sized. I just use a full yard for the main part instead of the usual 3/4 of a yard. It's for a twin bed that has a king size pillow on it. Isn't it cute?

Worth it's weight in GOLD :)

We were chatting this morning on Facebook about the time we put into our quilts and crafts and it brought to mind this tablecloth I bought a while back at a Goodwill. I paid about $4 for it. It's a full sized cloth, fits my table perfectly, but I don't use it ...EVER. There is a TON of work into it and I know I could never replace it if it should get stained.

What really gets me is that someone took this treasure and donated it. After all the work that was put into it! I'm not sure if a family member made it or if it was brought back from Japan during the war, or what BUT someone put hours and hours into it.

I took a couple of close-ups so you could see the work. There are designs all ove this cloth, plus there's a matching card table sized cloth with it.

Check out the bridge... it's all done as pulled stitches (not sure what this type of stitching is called). And under the bridge there are some lines of pulled stitches. Then the cloth wasn't just hemmed, it has more stitching all the way around, pulled stitches again. Just amazing.

Christmas Block Frenzy

We do a "Block Frenzy" at Hearts to Holly... it's a drawing every month and a half. You make a 12" finished size block using the selected fabric line and for every block you make, your name goes into the pot.. make any block you like. If your name is pulled you win all the blocks.

Well, on Saturday Cassidy won the Santa blocks. I made her one extra... I didn't have mine done in time for the draw but finished it today. Congrats, Cassidy!

Two finished quilts this week

This week saw TWO finishes! The quilt above is for Al's friend that lives in Colorado. Al says he'll go nuts for it. His whole log cabin is decorated with moose, bear and wildlife pictures and statues. This is a large lap or a small twin.

And this is a baby quilt that I made as a sample for Hearts to Holly Quilt shop. They have this cute flannel in Take Five kits.... it's all pre-cut pieces so all you have to do is start stitching. It went together very quickly. I used Fig Tree minky on the back... a very soft and pretty cream. This should be nice for a future grandchild.

Christmas Ornament Mug Rug

This is my newest pattern and its FREE (don't you just love that word).... A Christmas Ornament Mug Rug Instructions.

 

And here's the template you'll need..

 

Ornament Template 

These are quilt as you go... no binding and no handsewing :)

I'm going to be posting a tutorial online later today. They're super easy. They're wonderful to decorate with also. My bathroom shower curtian looks so much more festive with this that I'm going to make a few more to hang on it.

Get a ribbon and string one on a door handle, tuck a magnet into the top, topstitch around the gold top piece to keep the magnet in place and then hang on the fridge. 

They're also good to add onto a present... write a nice message on the back... AND if you have an embroidery machine, how about stitching Merry Christmas on the front piece before adding it in!

I added a metal loop to mine but if you get a little bit of gold elastic or cording, you could catch it in the top seam and have the same look :) Enjoy!!