I had a very productive weekend! Robbie and his dad went on a camping trip, so I was home with nothing to do but work on my projects. Robbie thought it would be a great time to paint his wall and finish up his quilt, and I agreed. So the red wall was completed this weekend, so it could air out before he got home. Who likes to sleep in a room with paint smell?? I also finished his quilt. And I thought I would share some lessons learned during the process.
First, if you have stripes on your quilt wider than 12", you'll need to quilt it some how. See the red stripe with the "G"? Well that stripe is 30" wide. I quilted around the "G" and ran 2 parallel lines right above and below the "G". I did it in red thread, because I didn't want it to show too much. But I should have run parallel lines from the outside of the "G" all the way to the edge. There is too much room in between, and that's why it's puckering a bit. I may go back and do that just to mitigate that a bit. Second, it's hard to see in this picture, but I managed to get interfacing on the top side of that "G". It got stuck to my iron whilst ironing before I knew it. If this happens, try first to put a very light weight fabric on top of the glue and iron. Gently peel that fabric away. It should remove any remaining glue from the fabric. I had already washed and dried my quilt thinking it would come out in the wash. That doesn't work!! So I tried Goo Gone. That didn't work either. So I put a piece of wax paper on top of the glue and set my iron to the hottest setting and ironed away. That actually worked. I can still see minute traces of the glue, but it looks much, much better and is barely noticeable. I will not make that mistake again. Lesson learned! Third, the "G" was supposed to be rag style, but I sewed too close to the edge to get to get that really ragged look. It is about 3/8" from the edge and next time I'll use 1/2" or more. Fourth, prewash your batting! That is another reason for the crinkly look with the red fabric. I had already prewashed the fabric but had no idea you had to prewash the batting too. And of course, it shrunk. Robbie doesn't seem to mind, so as long as he's happy, I'm happy. Okay, who am I kidding??? It's driving me nuts, but I can't do anything about it now can I?
Those blue sheets and curtains will eventually go too. That quilt on the floor was his first quilt. It has equipment embroidered on it. He was all about big equipment when he was little. This quilt was also my first attempt at patchwork quilting from scratch. I had done other quilts, but they were squares you buy already on the fabric. I'll take a picture of those some day so you can see what I mean.
So now the only thing left is his bed skirt, window treatments and fabric for that lonely little round table. I also have to paint his dresser and book shelves. Oh and he wants me to paint a big "G" on that red wall, but I haven't decided if that's the best idea yet. I'll be thinking about that while I'm working on the other stuff.
Incidentally, I hand quilted this one, because there was too much fabric for my machine. It's just not wide enough, and there is no place for the fabric to go. It actually wasn't that hard nor did it take a lot of time. Also, I didn't have to worry about the layers moving as much. That was definitely a plus. I had someone quilt Robbie's first one, and that can get a bit expensive.
Angela
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