I’ve been feeling rather guilty about the burgundy and cream cobblestone quilt that I’m making for my niece. With Christmas sewing to finish for gifts, then a holiday away, I haven’t touched it for quite a while. But, I’m pleased to say, I have been working away steadily over the last few days. The cobblestones were all sewn together, and I just needed to add a plain burgundy border to it. It doesn’t seem such a big job, does it, but it took me ages. Then I thought to myself, perhaps now would be a good time to make the binding. It would be terrible to be cutting the binding strips up when the quilt is completed to find I had run out of fabric! So that was a job well done, all stitched, and pressed in half. Of course, I did measure the binding to make sure I had more than enough.
Plenty of binding preparedThe next job was to assemble my excess blocks to use as part of the backing. The backing takes a horrendous amount of fabric, doesn’t it? This strip goes down the middle so I have yet to stitch the rest of the backing fabric around the pieced blocks. But I’m getting there, one step at a time.
Extra cobblestone blocks are going in the backingIt is a good feeling when things are coming together. Wonder how I’ll feel when I’m down on my knees for hours pinning all the layers together? That is not my favourite part of quilt making.
3 comments:
Oooh for basting you need tables! Is there a community center, a library, or a church where you could go to pin-baste? Maybe you could make a few phone calls and find a place that would let you push several tables together to make it happen. Then, take a friend along so you can get it sandwiched double-quick. It's a great way to share time with a bud, and if SHE has a quilt to sandwich too, it's double the fun.
Are you lovin' retirement by now?
My least favorite part of the whole process is the crawling around on the floor. I do have a fairly big table, depending on the quilt, that works. The quilt as you go method works even better, if only I could remind myself of that when I'm putting huge tops together!
I found it impossible to get down on my knees and pin baste so years ago I got Peter to get me two large boards from a Hardware Store which could be placed side by side - but not too large that I couldn't move them on my own. I then opened out the Dining Room table with an old tablecloth on it and placed the boards on top. For large quilts I would need to pin a section and then move the quilt and pin the rest but it worked for me. I also used large bulldog clips to help secure the backing to the boards while I basted. Happy stitching!
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