Monday, June 25, 2007

Colorful quilt















Today one of my coworkers came into my office and asked if I wanted this round tablecloth/quilt that she didn't want any more. Uh yeah! It's beautiful. I love all the colorful fabric. Now I need to think of something fun to do with it.

5 comments:

shellydinger said...

I absolutely adore scrappy lookin' quilts! So homey.

Leslie said...

Is it round? Quilt it with a light thermal batting that resists heat or a cotton batting that will not melt). Quilt it in a meander (like a puzzle)... or you can get fancy and do cross hatching, but I think a meander would be better. Then use it as a table cloth. I'm serious. It's very cute. If you are hesitant about eating over it, then put a little plastic square over it and then put a cloth over the plastic. But USE it. So much stuff we save because it's "too good" and then we die and it gets thrown away or given to DI or sold at a garge sale for 50¢.

If you know someone who knows how to quilt on a domestic machine, you can quilt the meander with a darning foot. You don't need a walking foot. Most machines come with a darning foot. Back it with a a good cotton fabric that you'd enjoy using as a table cloth too... then you have two new table clothes.

Clamp the backing fabric wrong side up on a table. (An old church table with at least 1" black paper binder clamps work great. Even if the top is round, your backing can be a rectangle. Trim it after it's quilted.)

Lay the batting over the backing. Clamp it taut. Lay the quilt top over the batting. Reclamp again. Now with 1.25" safety pins, pin the layers together (They now make a tool that makes the closing of the pins easier). When you put your hand down with fingers spread apart, your hand should touch 5 pins. After that seciton is pinned, then you can move the quilt up or down unitl it's all been stabilized iwth safety pins.

Roll the quilt into a cylinder (hold it in a roll with bicycle leg clamps if needed) and begin at one side and move it thru your machine from the top to the bottom. Then unroll and re-roll until you've quilted the entire quilt.

There are more gadgets to help you move the quilt thru the throat of the machine (cotton gloves with rubber dots on them to stick to the quilt.) Move the quilt with your hands held out flat and use your fingertips.

For smaller projects this is a do-able way to quilt a quilt. You can use a cotton or cotton covered thread, too. a long time ago they only used monofilament. Remove the pins after the project is done, unless you need to remove a pin while quilting. Stitch around the edge of the quilt a little less than 1/4". This will make it easier to bind. Trim the backing to match the top.

Bind the quilt. Cut bias about 2-1/4" wide. Fold it in half lengthwise and press. Stitch the raw edges to the raw edges of the quilt. If you don't want to cut bias, Moda sells bias to match some fabric lines and since it's a scrappy quilt, you could find some fun binding choices. You can machine stitich it together on the right side and then turn it and hand finish on the back, OR stitich it on the back side and turn it to the front and machine topstitich the right side down.

If you use a cotton or cotton/blend batting, when you wash the finished quilt, it will pucker and look old fashioned.

Have fun!

Sandman said...

Maybe you could make a "coat of many colors!

Anonymous said...

DANG...she was just giving it away? SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

African Kelli said...

Are you kidding me? What a lucky day! That is just beautiful.