Piccola's Projects: Day 25

Tonight I put the quilt sandwich together. The people I talked to said to use just one layer of the thin batting if I plan to use the machine to sew it together. I think the baby will like 2 layers as it will feel softer and fluffier. So... I moved the foot rest and coffee table over, laid out the white batting, flattened out the wrinkles, and laid the quilt on top.

Then, I cut the batting to fit the shape of the quilt.

I left about 1/4" extra around all sides to make sure I wouldn't end up short.

To make sure the quilt was flat without wrinkles, I started in the middle, and used the ruler to push the material to the end. I noticed that the bunching of the fabric by the embroidery shortened the width of the quilt by about an inch on each side!

Then I took the rest of the batting, laid it on the floor, carefully picked up the 2 layers I was previously working on, and cut a second layer out. I had used a twin sized batting package, which was just enough for 2 thin layers.

Then I took my push pins and pinned the 3 layers together. I used 100 pins, and spaced them about 3-4" apart. This would keep the layers in place as the quilt was sewn together.

From everything I read, at this point, I am supposed to start in the middle of the quilt and sew, or "quilt" to the outside. Then, once the quilt has been "quilted", add binding to the edge and sew the layers together around the edges. There are a few reasons why I decided not to do it this way. (1) I didn't want to lose the fluffiness with the quilting (though I will add sewing once it's put together). (2) The 2 sides were not exactly the same length due to the bunching of the fabric from the applique pieces and embroidery. It would look odd if I got to the end and had to add extra red to part of the outer border. (3) I already had the border in place and did not think adding additional binding would look good.

So... I called up my buddy John, who knows nothing about quilting (but has sewn more than me), to discuss the situation. When he mentioned flipping it inside out, I thought about it, pictured it, and knew it would work! :-)

In order to do this, I would put the 2 batting layers on the bottom, then put the back of the quilt face up on top of the batting, and then put the front of the quilt face down (same direction as the other side) on top of that. Then, I would sew 1/4" around all edges, leaving about 1-2 ft of space in the bottom, turn it inside out through that opening, and then hand sew an invisible blind hem stitch on the bottom. I had no clue if this would work, but since it worked in my head, I decided to go for it!

The first thing to do was to get safety pins to replace the push pins. I foresaw disaster trying to turn the quilt full of push pins inside out. I could sew basting stitches throughout the quilt, but decided it was easier and just as effective to use safety pins. So, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up 4 boxes of 30 basting sized pins.

Here is what the front looked like with 120 safety pins.

And here is what the back looked like:

Then, I put the the top layer on face down, and pinned the four sides using the push pins. I put 2 pins together at both ends of the part that needed to remain open as a way to remind me not to sew there.

Then I sewed the 4 layers together. The sewing machine had no problem whatsoever! The only thing that was a little bit of a problem was making sure that I had all 4 layers under the needle - a few times I had to go back and sew a layer of the batting that didn't make it the first time around.

The bottom stitching was white.

And the top stitching was red, to match the border (even though the stitches would not be seen).

I used the last of the white thread to refill the bobbin.

And when the sewing was done, I pushed everything threw that 1 1/2 ft hole, taking care not to rip the seams that I had just sewed.

It turned out great!

And this is what the corners looked like. I should have put my arm through the opening and pushed out the corners all the way, but I did not think of this until after closing the opening.

Here is the quilt with the hole in the bottom.

Some of the frayed edges came through when I sewed, so I had to cut these off.

Then, I ironed the seams down on all 4 corners. It felt so different ironing 4 layers, instead of just one. :-)

Next, I folded under a 1/4" seam from both sides of the opening, and held it together with pins.

Then I threaded a needle with red thread, tied a knot at the end, and took a deep breath. The last time I tried this was disastrous!

I started with stitches that were very close together, but they showed through quite a bit. After about 4" of that, I decided to use the seam ripper and start over with it.

This time, I tried to catch just a small amount of fabric from the top and bottom, and even though it showed through and the stitches were not as close together, it looked much nicer.