Week 5 Project

Ladies and Gentlemen….  It is done!!  I am so happy.  After several years of sitting in a bag in the corner of the Blessings Room, our quilt is back in commission.  This is going to be a long blog because I made lots of mistakes and learned a few things and of course I took pictures of everything.
 

Here is a review of what the quilt looked like.

I called Pressing Matters, a local quilt shop in Holland, on Monday and talked to the owner who was absolutely lovely.  I made an appointment to come in on Tuesday for some advice.  She told me that while she wouldn’t be available on Tuesday to look at my quilt, she was confident that her staff would be able to help me.  I visited on Tuesday afternoon and both ladies who were working were very kind and interested in helping me. 

I showed them my quilt and then got some really good advice and suggestions.  Both admired it, saying that it was a very nice quilt and actually in pretty good shape for being almost 20 years old with the exceptions of where we had damaged it of course.  I was very impressed with their knowledge and helpfulness.  I would highly recommend Pressing Matters to anyone who is in need of sewing help.

 We looked at fabrics there but I wanted to run the suggestions past Sir T before purchasing fabric.  I was also curious about their long arm quilting machine which can sew different patterns to attach the front and back of the quilt together with a layer of batting sandwiched between.  I am very appreciative of the help I received from the staff of Pressing Matters.  Here is a link to their website.  https://www.pressingmattersquiltshop.com/

I came home excited to have a good plan that made sense to me and I thought very doable.  It is a huge relief to me to have a plan, it removes the daunting from an endeavor, no matter how intimidating, when a step by step plan is in place.  Then all you have to do is apply time, some practical skills and work.  I shared the plan with Sir T and he thought I should check my stash of fabric before heading off to the store for supplies.  Smart man I have.

My shelf of fabric…  yup, that blue bin on the right is full of projects I want to do yet…
let’s see if I can empty it by the end of the year.

As you can see, I have a healthy selection of blue fabric.  I just needed the right colors and material.  The quilt is made of cotton so I needed a cotton fabric to match it.  I found a dark blue 100% cotton for the main strip and a light blue 98% cotton, 2% spandex blend for the binding.  I hope that the difference in the materials will not be a problem when I wash the quilt.  Now that the supplies have been found, onto fixing the quilt!

After several fabric choice deliberations and combinations, this is what we settled on.

Step 1: Remove the damaged area.  Since the fabric was torn two strips in from the edge, the suggestion was to remove it all the way back to the blue flowered fabric.  The binding was actually worn all the way around and it was explained to me that this was because the batting didn’t go all the way to the edge.  The quilt would be slightly smaller but would be sturdier if I enclosed the edges of the quilt with the binding at the edge of the batting.

Removing the damaged fabric

All the damaged fabric has been removed and it is now ready for reconstruction

Step 2: Make the strips.  I wanted the next strip to be the dark blue.  In order to make the binding wrap around the edge of the batting, this inside strip would need to be a little over 2 inches wide.  I made 3 inch strips so there could be generous seam allowances.  One issue with cutting long strips of fabric is that you want to make sure you line up with the grain.  Otherwise you can make “crooked” strips that can be slightly on the bias.  Most of the time when you purchase fabric, it is not cut straight so you have to find the grain.  To find the grain, I made a small cut in the selvage (the bound area at the edge of the fabric) and tore a strip from the fabric.  The fabric will always tear along the grain which will give me a straight line to start my measuring.  I needed four strips: two of them were 70 inches long, the other two were 77 inches long.

I really like my rotary cutter; it is fast and makes nice straight cuts. 

Step 3: Sew the strips onto the quilt.  Normally one would sew all the quilt pieces together before the addition of the batting and back.  Since I needed to attach the strip to a “finished” quilt, I wanted to try to stitch in the ditch to preserve the most width of the flower fabric.  This would also line up my new seam on the underside with the original seam to make it look tidier.  I measured carefully and pinned my strip to the quilt.  I used dark blue thread on the top and an off white in the bobbin to match the back. 

I lined up the fabric strip with a nice seam allowance from the “ditch”. 
I just needed to sew exactly 3/8th of an inch in from the edge.

My “ditch” wandered too much and while most of it looked perfect, I had several areas that did this.  UNDO!
 I think the seam ripper is used as much as the sewing machine.

Step 3 (try it again with feeling):  I believe that I had two issues that caused my problem.   First, I couldn’t follow the ditch because it was covered up by the strip.  The solution to this problem was the decision that it would be ok to have two seams running generally parallel on the underside as it would make for a MUCH easier time to sew the strip on.  After ripping out the NOT “stuck in a rut” seam, I lined up the edge of the blue with the seam allowance of the strip that I had cut off, which was generally a quarter inch wide, mostly. 

I don’t have a big ironing board… I don’t have room for one.

Problem two was that my ditch wandered because I didn’t iron the quilt before pinning it. Solution number two … I started to iron… a LOT.  Remembering a recent blog I read entitled, 10 Reasons Why Your Homemade Clothes Look Homemade, one of the reasons suggested was that people don’t iron enough.  The definition of enough according to the blog was after every seam you sew. 

This quilt is kinda poofy.  I don’t know how much it got ironed as it was made and I also don’t think my sister-in-law had the pleasure of a space big enough to lay it out flat as she sewed.  This sucker is big and heavy and definitely tested one’s ability to guide fabric through the machine while keeping things flat and stable.  The occasional falling off the table also added to the excitement of yanking the fabric crooked while going through the machine. 

Don’t fall off, gather, rearrange and push, but not too much… don’t fall off.

Success!  Yes, iron some more.

Step 4:  Create the binding strip.  The lady at the store told me how to make the binding strip for the edge.   The binding strip has to be long enough to go around the entire quilt so you need to sew multiple strips of fabric together.  She suggested that you make the seams on the diagonal like you would for bias tape which will prevent bulky sections.  Once you have the correct length of binding strip, fold it in half with good side out and iron it.  Lay the binding strip on the top of the quilt matching the open edges of the strip to the outside edge of the last strip and sew the seam.  Then flip the folded edge of the binding around to the back of the quilt enclosing the unfinished edges and batting inside.  Then you can whip stitch it in place (the official / professional - if you ever want to show the quilt in competition - way) or you can stitch in the ditch and have a visible seam in the back.  I have no aspirations to show this thing so stitch in the ditch works for me.  She stated that most people make their strips 2 ½ inches wide but that she personally makes her binding strip 2 ¼ inches wide to save on fabric.  I thought it was a very clear and brilliant explanation for how to make and apply a binding strip.   

After some figuring, (admittedly NOT my strong point) I need 7 strips at 3 inches wide. 

I decided that I was going to make my strip 3 inches wide just to be safe.  Seven strips later I was ready to join them together.  If you put the strips end to end, it makes for a very bulky, lumpy area in your quilt as you will need to sew through four layers of fabric in one spot in addition to whatever number of other layers of fabric and batting you are encasing.  The best joining seam is to put them together on the diagonal.  Here is how I made my binding strip.

Lay your strips perpendicular to each other with the good sides facing.  Pin in place.

I used a ruler to crease the diagonal line for the stitching to follow.

Sew the two strips together on the diagonal line.  Continue to join the strips to each other in this fashion making sure to put the good sides together and keeping the seams on the same side.  It is easy to accidentally flip a strip over and put it together wrong when the front and back of the material is so similar.  Finally, iron and trim the seam allowance.

Finished 3 inch wide binding strip

HERE is where I neglected to think through exactly what she meant by a 2 ½ inch binding strip.  Upon finishing the 3 inch wide binding strip and starting to iron it in half, I realized that it was NOT wide enough.  She meant that you needed to cut a strip 5 inches wide so that when you fold it in half THEN it is 2 ½ inches wide.  Sigh…  I just spent an hour making this strip… I don’t want to waste that time and all the fabric.

Nope, nope, nope…that is not going to work!  

Ok, let’s think this through… the point of the binding strip is to go around the unfinished edge of the quilt.  It is attached to the front by a machine sewn seam, so it doesn’t have to be a tidy edge because it will be hidden.  The back does need to be a tidy edge so if I fold over one edge….  New plan peoples, born of the extreme aversion to wasting materials.

Operation save the binding strip.  Fold over a ¼ inch to make the finished edge for the back of the quilt.

Step 5:  Attach the binding strip to the quilt.  I ironed the front and back of the quilt again and then went about attaching the binding strip.   I lined up the edges of the binding strip and the dark blue stripe, already attached to the quilt, together with good sides facing.  I sewed them using a light blue thread for the top and the off white thread in the bobbin.  I could have just sewn the two fabrics together without going through the batting and the back but I thought this would make the whole piece stronger and it would be easier to do. 

The most interesting part of this portion of the journey was the corners.  I sewed to the point of the corner leaving the needle in the fabric, lifted the foot, turned the quilt 90 degrees (shuffling and pushing it to make it stay on the table) and then had to fold / situate the fabric of the binding strip to fit under the foot without too many wrinkles before putting the foot back down and continuing on.  I think it is a very good thing I have no intention of showing off this quilt in competition.  It also gives me a huge appreciation for all those quilts that I have seen.  I truly didn’t have a good understanding of how difficult it can be to sew a straight line through multiple layers of fabric.

Sewing, sewing, sewing… don’t get stuck by a pin, keep sewing…

The binding strip is attached!  Now to iron some more.

Once the binding strip was ironed flat, I now was able to start folding it around the edge.  On one side of the quilt there was extra batting which I trimmed off to use on the opposite side where it was a bit lean.  I also trimmed the corners a bit to help with the folding.  I have rounded soft corners here… no military straight corners to be seen.  Hey, it’s a blanket; it’s supposed to be soft.

148 pins were used in the securing of the binding.
 I may have snagged myself on approximately 142 of them while sewing.

The goal here is to stitch in the ditch on the top of the quilt while catching the edge of the binding on the underside at the same time.  Ahem, thus the need for all the pins.  I hope to keep the binding pulled far enough in to get caught in the seam but not too far as to expose the unfinished edge.  If it is not enough in, it will be missed entirely. 

Stitch in the ditch – to sew on a previous seam between two fabrics – in the “ditch”.

 
I put dark blue thread in the top and light blue in the bobbin.  My goal was to put the seam in the very edge of the dark blue fabric right up next to the light blue.  I thought this would look the tidiest.  On the back side the hope was that I would have a nice seam an eighth inch in from the edge. 

This is what happens when you stray too far from the ditch.  Probably the only time it is good to be stuck in a rut.

 
Upon completion of the first round I found several spots where I missed catching the back edge.  Every place it happened was because I strayed from the ditch. Many times this was because the weight of the quilt dragged the fabric away from my intended path.  I had to keep pushing the quilt around to prevent the dragging.   It wasn’t too bad and I was easily able to fix these areas by realigning the binding and resewing these sections.

DONE!!!

I did it!  I’m so excited to be able to use this quilt again.  The ladies at Pressing Matters suggested that we not use it to sleep under to keep from damaging it again.  My immediate thought was, “Why would you even have it then?”  Further discussion brought about the good idea to use it but just fold it down when sleeping so that it won’t be able to be grabbed and yanked on.  I think it will also help that we got a “real” bed to replace our air mattress.  This one is still on the floor but is a solid mattress that retains heat and it is so much warmer. 

Yeah, that isn’t a good way to show it off, let’s try it on the bed.

Back where it belongs… on the bed and being used!

Oh boy that was a trip.  I literally worked on this every single day this past week.  No procrastination on this one!  As I sit here typing, my nose is running, I am coughing and have a wheeze in my lungs.  I don’t know who or what got me sick, but I am definitely not feeling well.  I am happy that I got the quilt done but I’m not really excited about starting another project.  It is hard to be motivated when your lungs hurt.  I had already chosen to work on my pile of jewelry that is broken, unfinished or needs to be altered for this coming week and hopefully this shouldn’t be too brain straining.  We’ll see how many of them make it to the end or get let go.  I hope you are feeling better than me!  Blessings on your week.

Pile of potential pretties.