Day 10: Labor of Love

I have been largely focusing on the mechanics of making this quilt in my blog entries, which was not my intention. I meant this blog to be about the journey this quilt takes me through mentally and emotionally. It's not that I am not thinking about the person this quilt is intended for or that I am not feeling the love I have for this person... or I want them to feel through the warmth of this quilt. Honestly, I am feeling so much that I don't quiet know how to express it. A part of me feels like making this quilt is symbolic of saying goodbye. While I know that's really not necessary yet, I feel this sense of loss. Piecing and pressing a quilt is very time consuming and gives you LOTS of time to think and reflect. That has been the hardest part.... I am remembering secret hamburger recipes and woodworking projects and I am crying. Word to the wise: Don't cry on your quilts while pressing, tears leave a mark. I don't want to have to hang on to these memories just yet, I just want to make more. Whoever said, "it's a labor of love" most definitely was talking about quilting. It is a laborious process that exhaust you mentally, physically and sometimes emotionally. But not only is it hard work, it is a expression of the love you have for the quilt recipient. You do all this work to show someone how much you love them and hope that they feel that love every time they wrap themselves in your gift. But it is more than just that... it is a sacrifice of oneself to another, someone special. All to say, "I love you."

Day 9 &10: The Five B's plus 1

You may be wondering what the five B's of quilting are.... I will give you a hint: They are all things you have to do to finish a quilt.

1. Borders

The borders for this quilt were quiet a challenge because I have never successfully pieced a border before. Based on recommendations from my quilting forum, I have decided that it is best to piece a straight border (aka. butted borders) rather than on a diagonal (also called mitered borders). Not only will it save time but it will save fabric since I am concerned that I didn't buy enough.

I decided to change my initial border design from (1) 6" purple border around the "LSU" block design and then (1) 6" yellow border followed by a yellow binding. I have instead decided to do the 6" yellow border around the 6" blocks followed by a 6" purple border and then the yellow binding. My thought is that I want the binding to frame the quilt rather than just be a part of the quilt. I think it will make the quilt more striking.

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to take a picture of the quilt after I completed both borders. I was in such a hurry to get the quilt top done because we decided to leave for AirVenture 2010 early that I didn't get any photos. It kinda messed up my timeline but I am determined to get the quilt to the binding point for the trip.

2. Backing

As I mentioned previously, I decided to make the backing of purple flannel. After washing and drying it... there was little shrinkage or fading. I found myself with a little wiggle room, which was awesome! The 6 yards of fabric were very cumbersome and I was unable to pressed it as a whole piece so I decided to cut it to size before pressing. I ended up cutting the fabric cut in half, into (2) 3 yard pieces and pressed them separately (a big no-no as pressing can stretch the fabric and make the pieces uneven). I joining them along the long side and pressed the seams open to minimize bulk. After preparing the backing, I laid it out on the living room floor as the bottom of my quilt sandwich.

3. Batting

Due to time and my personal preference, I decided not to soak the batting. Soaking the batting helps it shrink so it won't shrink up in the quilt after it's been quilted. I have always liked that quilts get a little lumpy (I find this comfy) after washing and therefore, seldomly soak my batting. I laid it out right on top of the backing and let it rest for a bit while I prepared the binding. It is not a good idea to tug out wrinkles as batting stretches and pulls very easily, so I just smoothed it out a bit by lightly running my hands toward the ends to flatten the batting. I took no pictures of the batting as its pretty simple.

4. Basting

Basting is the process where you attach your layers of quilt sandwich together in preparation for machine quilting. At this point, I have two of my layers laid out on top of one another; the backing (right side down) and the batting. I am a fan of basting spray; it is a water soluble spray glue that is used to keep the layers from shifting while pinning. I folded up the batting about halfway and sprayed basting spray 6-8 inches at a time while folding down batting onto the freshly sprayed areas until the whole thing had been treated. I then laid the quilt top (right side up) on top of the batting and smoothed out any wrinkles. Again I folded up the quilt top and sprayed the batting with the basting spray and attached the quilt top the same way I did to the batting. Lastly when I had completed the whole quilt, I pinned each 6 inch blocks and every 6 inches on the border strips with quilters safety pins. Now the quilt was ready to quilt.

It's hard to get a picture of yourself basting as there is no one to man the camera, so sadly there are none :(

The Plus (aka. quilting)

Quilting is by far the hardest part (at least for me) of making a quilt. To quilt a quilt, you have to sew threw the three layers of the quilt thereby joining them permanently and creating a design on the back of the quilt. Almost all of my UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) are at this stage for various reasons such as, I can't decide how to quilt it (design) or I am scared that I won't do a good job and mess up the quilt top.

For this quilt, I decided to do some very limited quilting to keep it easy and quick. I quilted in the ditch (on the seams) around each 6 inch block and on the border. The quilt is a odd shape/ size and was very difficult to quilt as each side was bulky and didn't fit neatly under my sewing machine arm. I had to roll each side and only quilt the seams within the roll, pull it out and reroll it to continue (see photo).

4. Binding

Binding is a fairly easy process and I generally cut at 2" strip for my binding but decided to go with a 3" strip this time. I often feel like there isn't enough to wrap around to the back on the thicker spots so I am hoping this 3" strip will work better. I was able to get it cut, folded and pressed by early evening on Day 10. Just before we packed up to head out for AirVenture 2010, I sewed the binding on. I was able to get the quilt folded into a pillow case for travel and I plan to hand stitch the binding onto the backing. I call it hand sticking because that is generally what I do more than hand stitching.