Day 12

Today is Sunday. I went to the store this morning and found a large rotary board and cutter for about 1/3 the price of the one at the quilt store, so I bought it! Too bad I didn't have this initially - it would have saved a bit of time...

The rotary cutter is like a pizza cutter. You have to be careful with it! I used my right hand to hold down the ruler and my left hand to cut (I'm a lefty). I angled the cutter toward the ruler to avoid the cutter making a turn into the fabric (which it did a few times). However, it also went up onto the ruler a few times, slicing a thin groove into the plastic. Had it hit my hand while up there, the white fabric would have turned red...

I lined up the 12 blocks with the GT's on the board, used the ruler, and cut off any additional material.

I then took the Black GT pieces and cut 1/4" seam allowance on all 4 sides.

After that, I took the rest of the white fabric, and cut out the 20 small squares (that will meet at the end of the colored strips.) Adding a 1/4" seam allowance makes them 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" each. To do this without wasting fabric, I cut 2 long strips, then cut the strips into 1 1/2" sections, and then took each of those sections, and trimmed the height down to 1 1/2" to make squares.

Once this was done, I took the border pieces that I had, traced the outline to the fusible webbing, cut the webbing, and attached it by ironing the webbing to the back of the border GTs - this is the same as I had done with the ones that went on the white squares. The red, white, and blue border cars are now ready to be sewn to the border fabric. (Doesn't that picture just make you want to salute?) :-)

Day 11

Today I sewed around the edges of the 12 GT pieces. First, I returned the old sewing machine and found one that allowed me to set the length and width of the stitches.

I already bought the thread and sewing machine, but before today, I had never used one of these. It comes with a thick book full of instructions, and even has a few options for stitches to use for the applique.

The first order of business was to read the instruction manual...well, at least part of it...to learn how to use the new sewing machine. :-) I had read the instructions and watched the DVD of the other machine. Even though this one was different, that info was helpful since there was no DVD for this one. I learned how to feed the bobbin and top threads through the machine properly, use the pedal, change the stitch length and width, and so on. This is me putting in the light blue thread - the last color I used!

This actually didn't take that long! Well, most of it didn't. Threading the needle proved to be quite a challenge. I was incapable of threading it manually, and had a very difficult time trying to figure out how to use the needle threader. I thought it was broken, but realized after about 15 minutes, that I had to raise the needle all the way up or it wouldn't work. This is a picture of how to use the needle threader.

I could not imagine switching thread so many times without having that needle threader! The needle hole in this machine is MUCH smaller than the last machine, and even wetting the tip of the thread was useless.

I had bought scrap material in advance, and spent about 20 minutes fusing a curvy design together to mimic the cars.

I then tried out different stitches and practiced sewing along the edges.

I should mention that I had a lot of problems keeping it centered through the curves. It's hard to figure out when to turn the material while sewing and when to stop, lift the zigzag foot, and turn the material manually before continuing. Apparently, I'm not cut out for sewing!

I tried zigzag at different widths and lengths, which I had to be careful of. If the stitches were too close together, the result is bunching of the fabric. If they were too far apart, I would have to worry about the pieces being pulled apart or frayed over time. If they were too wide, the sewing would stand out too much and cover up the graphics. If they were too narrow, they would not cover both sides of the edge, which would make it easy for the edge to pull apart, separating the 2 pieces of fabric.

Zigzag is a good stitch for applique, because it goes back and forth across both sides of the edge. The satin stitch is a very tight (short length) zigzag stitch. It looked the best, but around the turns it bunched up and jammed the machine. That was length .3. I ended up using length .5 and width 2.5.

It's tight, but not overly so - I can still go back a few stitches without it jamming. The width is somewhere between 1/8" and 1/16", which is pretty narrow for a beginner sewer. This is what it looks like on one of the heritage GTs. You can see that even though it is narrow, the thread still covers both sides of the edge (at least when I didn't screw up, it did).

The practice did not go as well as planned, but after trying a cutout and finding a stitch that worked, I decided to go for it!

I used white thread for the bobbin (lower thread) for everything. For the top thread, I started with black. There were black sections on all of the cars.

Here is the front and back of the yellow car after adding the black stitching. You can see the white thread on the back side.

When black was done, my bobbin was almost empty, so I refilled it and worked my way through the other colors. I changed thread frequently, and tried to remember to go back a couple of stitches before cutting the thread and also to make a few reinforced stitches at the beginning. Once I was done with a section, I cut the threads from the sewing machine, and then cut the threads from the front and back so they would not not be noticeable.

The hardest parts were the black rear diffusers and going around the mirrors. It was also difficult to see what I was doing on the lighter colors (light blue, yellow, white, and gray). And there were a number of times I had to redo a part or cut and restart the thread due to bunching. Overall though, I am happy with the result (not to mention, I feel like I can now change thread like a pro!).

Here are a few pictures of the finished blocks. You can see a lot of mistakes, but as my roommie says, it's a labor of love. ;-)

And here is the back of a finished one:

I am typing this after working all day on these and my back and legs are killing me! I guess that's what happens when you use a 2 foot table to work on rather than a desk... I was hoping to applique the border cars tomorrow, but since I have not received them in the mail from my sister yet, that will have to wait. Oh well. I did try to make it to the quilt store before they closed to pick up some more material, but since it is Saturday and they close at 4 PM instead of 5 PM, I was too late.

I should also mention that I just saw a picture of the little one and he ranks up there as one of the most adorable newborn babies I've ever seen! :-)

Day 10

Today was extremely frustrating. I opened up the sewing machine, read the instruction manual, watched the DVD, and put the upper and lower thread into place. I read through everything and noticed that there was no way to set the width or length of the stitches. I did a few practice stitches of the tightest (satin) zigzag stitch, but it was 1/4", which is WAY too wide for the car. I'm not sure why you would use a stitch that wide, especially since it says it is for appliqueing, but I cannot change that.

By the time I realized this, the stores had already closed. I packaged it back up, found the receipt, and got it ready to take back to the store to be returned tomorrow. Once it is returned, I will have to buy a sewing machine that allows me to adjust the length and width of the stitches.

The good news is that I realized it is much easier to set up the upper and bottom thread, so switching colors shouldn't be a problem. I also learned that if I use a tight satin stitch, I can easily switch it to a straight stitch to go back and forth on before cutting the thread. That way I won't have to worry about the satin stitching bunching up and the thread won't come loose after it's cut. I will have to practice this as it might be noticeable... Getting all of the curves lined up will not be easy either, and on this sewing machine, it was difficult trying move the needle at 1/2 speed with the foot pedal. Maybe the next one will be easier to slow down. That way, when I go around tight curves, I can make sure it is lined up and smooth.

I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow to find out...

Day 9

Well, I received a phone call today from a soon-to-be new daddy, and it looks like tomorrow will be the big day! This is earlier than expected, so I have to bump up work on the quilt, but how exciting!!!! :-)

I took a trip back to The Quilt Shoppe this morning to pick out the thread. It was pretty uneventful as I had already spent some time figuring out what type of thread to use for the appliqué. I am using cotton thread with a silk finish – not polyester. Polyester cuts into cotton, and can rip and tear at the material over time. I brought a few of the cars that I cut out yesterday, so that I could match up the colors with the thread. For instance, the red car faded to an almost salmon color after being washed, so I did not buy “red” thread. The rose colored thread did not seem to match well either, so I went with a light red-orange. You can see that with the orange tone it is not a perfect match, but it is the closest of the 10 or so red tinted colors at the store. I also chose to buy 500 yards of white thread, because this is what I will use for the piecing later on, and it is less expensive than having to buy 2 smaller rolls. Here is a picture of the thread next to the cars, so you can see how the colors match up:

There are a lot of ways to appliqué. Before I explain what I decided to do, I thought I would fill you in on some of my research! :-) Here are a few common methods for appliquéing (attaching one piece of material on top of another) on a quilt:

1. I could tuck under a ¼” seam, baste the material (lightly hand-sew) or pin it so it stays in place, and then machine sew it together. I saw a few examples of this at the quilt store today and it looks GREAT! However, there are a few problems with it. The first is that my pieces have a lot of curves, and also very thin areas, such as the rear diffusers on the black GTs and the side mirrors. This would make it very difficult to tuck the seams in without causing bunching or having the material show through, even if I cut notches. The other problem is that the stitching is not very strong, so with pulling, tugging, and washing, the stitching could easily come loose - not ideal on a baby/toddler quilt.

2. I could use 1/8” or 1/4” fusable tape. These are good for large shapes that have straight lines (such as triangles and rectangles). However, they are not good for curvy shapes, so I will not be using them.

3. There is also fusible webbing. I had bought lightweight fusible webbing a few weeks ago in anticipation for this project. On the package, I had to make sure it was lightweight. Lightweight is better than heavyweight, because heavyweight is too tough to sew through. I also had to make sure it was washable. These work great on smaller pieces, and also on pieces that need to be very durable, like a baby quilt. The fusing is cut to the same shape as the pieces and ironed on. If I chose this, I could then sew around the edges to prevent fraying, accent the pieces, and add an extra layer of protection. The problem is that the cotton loses its softness/fluffiness since the entire piece is fused. Imagine feeling something that has been glued together – it’s not a feel that I want on the quilt - especially with so many pieces that need to be appliqued. ( I saw an example of this at the quilt store, and did not like the feel.)

So, which one did I decide to go with? I am going to be creative and do something a little bit different, taking the best of all three options… Hopefully this will work. :-) Being on a time crunch and having confidence that my idea would work, I decided that I would not spend additional time testing this out on a practice car made of scrap material.

The first thing I did was take out the sheet of "Heat n Bond" (fusible webbing). Next, I had to trace the GT graphics onto it. The tracing had to be on the paper side of the webbing. This picture shows both sides of the webbing. The shiny side with the honeycomb texture is NOT the paper side.

The other important thing to note, is that the webbing needs to be flipped over before attaching it to the back of the graphic. If I copy and cut it the wrong way (i.e., tracing the GT when it is right side up), it will end up backwards (as if looking at the mirror image) and I will have accomplished nothing other than to waste precious webbing. To do it correctly, make sure the graphic is flipped over, so the back side of the graphic is facing up when you trace onto the paper side of the fusible webbing.

I would recommend using a pencil rather than a pen. That way, you don't have to worry about the pen leaving marks on the graphic that you are tracing or poking through the paper and leaving a dark blue/black mark that might show through once fused.

Once the graphic was traced onto the paper side of the webbing, I cut it out, making sure they fit on top of each other well. If the webbing is larger than the graphic, you will end up fusing the part that overlaps onto the ironing board - not something you want to do!

Once the fusible webbing was cut out, I wanted to cut out the middle of the webbing, so that only 1/8" to 1/4" was actually being fused. This would offer protection from fraying, keep the piece in place when I sewed, and allow most of the fabric from the graphics to stay soft. The tricky part was to measure 1/8" to 1/4" up from the where the border of the car would be - not that extra white part. I could cut the white off now, but that would make the webbing way too flimsy, so I took a different approach. I printed a black and white copy of each graphic - the same ones that my sister had printed onto the fabric - and then cut out the graphic without leaving any white around the edges.

I noticed that the size was a little bit off as the fabric had stretched and shrunk with the cutting and washing. Normally, this would not be a big deal, but with 1/8", it can be a big problem if you are off!

I then turned over those black and white graphics (which were just printed on regular paper) and drew a line around it that was about 1/8" in.

Then I cut out that area, so the black and white graphics were 1/8" smaller than the actual graphic, and then I traced those paper graphics onto the fusible webbing. This was challenging, especially with the lighter graphics (such as the yellow and heritage GTs). I put the actual graphic face down on a table, lined up the fusible webbing cut out on top of that. Some of the color came through with the lighting. Then, I could line up the black and white cutouts (also face down).

Without being able to see the color through the paper, I would be guessing where the black and white cutout should be placed, and if it's even a little bit off, the result would be part of the webbing would not cover enough of the graphic to properly fuse it in place.

Because the graphics were all a little bit "off" in their size, I was careful to cut about 1/16" inside the line that I drew all the way around. The result is that the part of the fusing that covered the actual graphic would be somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" all the way around.

Once these were all cut out, they had to be ironed. I placed the graphic face down, then lined up the flimsy webbing over the top, so that it was paper side up. (It would not line up with the car if it was the other way.)

It is important to keep the webbing in place as I ironed. Once you start ironing, you cannot rearrange the webbing as part of it will already be fused. So, I placed heavy objects on both sides of the graphic to keep it in place, and started ironing in the middle.

Note that I am not actually "ironing" the fusible webbing. I am simply pressing the iron on top of the material.

From here, I carefully cut off the white 1/4" border around around the cars.

Cutting around the corners can be tricky, and the backing started to come off in a few places (the paper - not the actual fusing). Here is what the yellow GT looked like before and after (from the backside). You can see that even after cutting, there is enough fusing around the piece (~ 1/8" to 1/4") to hold it in place.

And this is what the front side of the red GT looked like before and after it was cut. Instead of folding all of the edges under, I will be sewing around the edges in addition to the fusing.

The pieces are now ready to be fused to the white squares. I do not have the material for the border yet, and I do not even have all of the border cars yet - these should be arriving in the mail any day. So for now, I will finish the applique process to the white squares only, and I will put the border cars to the side and finish these when the other cars arrive.

I had to remove the back paper from the fusible webbing. The shiny part where the paper used to be is the glue that will fuse the GT pieces to the white fabric.

The pieces are already flat from being ironed, and it is pretty easy to "eyeball" the pieces when centering them. However, I did use a ruler on the sides just to make sure the pieces were centered.

Once the piece was centered, I used the iron without steam to press - not rub back and forth - the 2 pieces together. I held the iron on each spot for about 8-10 seconds. I tried only 4-5 seconds at first, but it didn't seem to stick. Once I did this to the front side, I flipped the piece over and pressed the back side as well.

A quick way to get the other 2 matching GTs in the same spot as the first one was to place a white square on top of the GT that I just ironed, and then since the color of that GT shows through the white fabric, I just had to place the other one directly on top of it.

The pieces are now all fused to the squares, and are ready to be sewn into place around the edges!

Day 8

The next step is to applique the 12 Ford GT graphics onto the 12 white quilt squares. This is actually a multi-step process (and I have a very busy week) but I will try to make at least some progress each day.

Before appliqueing, I first had to cut out the graphics. Because there is more than one car on each fabric sheet, I cut the fabric sheet so that each graphic was by itself.

This way, while cutting out the graphics, I did not have to worry about accidentally cutting into another car. I cut the border cars that I had as well, since this will need to be done to them later on. (When the second batch arrives, I will do the same with those.)

Then, just like I did with the squares, I used the fabric pen to mark an outline of where to cut. With the graphics, it is a little bit more complicated than with the squares, because there are a LOT of curves. I needed to leave 1/4" around the entire edge of the Ford GT graphics when I cut. In order to do this, I used the ruler and marked 1/4" at different points around each of the graphics.

I then drew the outline by connecting the dots:

One thing I noticed is that some of the areas (such as the mirrors) will need to be less than 1/4". I will cut those special areas down further when I am getting ready to use the webbing. I also am not sure about the rear diffuser on the black GT. It might be too thin to applique, because I have nowhere to tuck under the extra fabric for the seam. If that is the case, I will either end up cutting it out or just leaving the area alone as it is almost as white as the square...

After drawing the outline 1/4" from the edge, I used the scissors to cut out the car.

Since there are 3 of each kind of car, rather than take the time to re-measure each one, I only measured and outlined one of each kind of car. To line it up correctly, I did have to take at least 15 measurements around each car, but it was still quicker than having to do all of the points each time. Then, once the first car of the group was cut out, I traced it around the other 2 cars of the same kind, lining up the measurements, and then cut them out. Here is what each of the 4 center cars look like with the 1/4" seam allowance:

Once all 12 of the cars for the white center squares were cut out, I wet the sponge and dabbed it over the blue ink so it would disappear as it did when cutting the white squares.. I had already washed the material, so I did not have to worry about the water causing the color to bleed. However, I'm not sure why (since it is the same material), but this time when I dabbed the web sponge over the pen markings, the markings did NOT disappear like they had previously! :-( Some of the color dimmed and disappeared after a few minutes after I let the web fabric sit for a bit, but I even tried rubbing the markings out and that did not work. The ink should now show either way, because the part that is marked will be tucked underneath, but I find it curious nonetheless... Perhaps the pen works best when new, and once it's been used a bit, it loses its ability to disappear.

And even though I only have the red, white, and blue border cars (5 of each), I did the same thing to those. Because I had used a blue background rather than a white background, it was very difficult to measure the 1/4" - especially on the blue cars! If I could do it again, I would use a white background. The reason I used a blue background was in case some of the background was left showing, it would then blend in with the quilt's background. The good thing with having the background is that it was easy to line up the border car that I already cut, which was then used to trace over the other border cars - no further measurements had to be taken. And it really is not a bad thing, because when tucked underneath, the color will face the batting (stuffing that makes the quilt soft, fluffy, and warm) and shouldn't show through.

And now, after many hours of measuring, marking, tracing, and cutting, I am finished! :-) This is what a few of the cut pieces look like:

This part took a lot of time and a LOT of patience!!! I was watching TV while doing it to keep from going crazy. Without TV, there is no way I would have been able to do these all in one sitting!