Snowflake Monday

Welcome to Week 4 of the Snowcatcher Snowflake Quiltalong!

Today I'm going to piece the back for my quilt. I have to piece the back because I ended up making the quilt top bigger than initially planned, and I didn't buy enough backing fabric.

I had planned all along to add 2.5-inch strips I cut from my blue snowflake stash to the backing if it wasn't big enough. So I didn't worry when there was an even bigger shortage than I'd expected.

The final flimsy measures 52 inches square, and I'd purchased 2 yards (or 72 inches) of 45-inch wide Wilmington Prints Quiet Bunny & Noisy Puppy for the back. After cutting off the selvedges, I had nearly 20 extra lengthwise inches of backing fabric that was roughly 9 inches short on the fabric's width.

I used to cut my backing (and batting) almost exactly the same size as the top because that's how my grandmother did it back in the '60s, and she and her quilting bee ladies would polish off a quilt by hand every Saturday morning in the basement of the church with the layers stretched out on a sawhorse quilt frame one of the husbands built for them.

One of the women would then bind the quilt with purchased wide (about 2 inches!) Wright's Double-Faced Quilt Binding by machine using a zigzag stitch, like store-bought single-layer blankets. I'm not sure that type of binding is even available anymore! But I certainly saw my share of it while I was growing up.


The women never had a problem with the layers ending up different sizes at the end of their quilting, probably thanks to those handy sawhorse quilt frames. Before I met my husband and before he built such a frame for me after we married, I didn't have that problem either because I hand-basted all my quilts on either the splintery old frame I inherited from my grandmother or the gorgeous and smooth frame Lizard crafted. Once I began trying to learn to free-motion quilt, however, I stopped hand-basting to further speed up the process. The layers inevitably would shift as I worked, or even stretch unequally, and I often had to cut off an inch or more of a quilt to square it up again after I finished quilting. I once added a two-inch triangle to the corner of a nearly finished quilt so the backing would be the same size as the top.

Now I cut my backing and my batting a couple inches bigger than the quilt top. I HATE the waste this creates, but I use the discarded cuttings to stuff my amigurumi. And I never have the problem of the sizes being unequal at the end anymore. It's a trade-off, but it also is a bit faster and easier than trying to get the layers lined up on my quilt frame by myself so I can hand-baste before attempting to machine quilt.

(The Lizard always helps me line up layers when he's home, if I wait for him when I get to that step. Sometimes I'm too anxious to get going on the quilting, and so I'm doing the layering by myself.)

This means my final backing size for Charmed by Snowflakes would need to be approximately 56 inches square. I used five-inch strips leftover from the extra charm squares I made to enlarge the quilt top as backing fill-in. I also threw in a five-inch leftover of some peacock feather fabric I'd used for a winter dress because it has faint snowflakes tossed in with the metallic peacock feathers. In retrospect, I wish I'd thrown in a charm square of this fabric on the front, but having it just on the back makes it sort of a fun I Spy activity, in my opinion.




I forgot to take photos of how I lined up these layers to pin baste, so I'll try to get another quilt sandwich made so I can snap a few photos to share the process of making a quilt sandwich by the time this post is published. If no pictures appear yet, it's because I didn't get another sandwich made. I will add photos as soon as I can if I don't finish on time.


Very excited there's enough wide mottled black backing for a second quilt!


wide backing cut to fit


Pun of the day... batting lineup. Ha ha ha!


batting cut to fit


backing taped face-down to the floor


Doesn't matter which side of the batting faces up or down.


Quilt Sandwich, pin-basted and ready to quilt!
Using packing tape, I taped the backing to our hardwood dining room floor face down, pulling tight in all directions without pulling the tape up. I then centered the batting over the backing and taped the corners and side centers into place. Then I centered the quilt top over the batting, face up, taping down the corners one more time and pulling tight as I could without pulling the tape up. (I've used wide masking tape in the past, and although it's easier to clean up when I'm done, it also doesn't tend to hold the fabric to the floor tight enough. Yet another trade-off.)

For the last couple of years or so, I've been putting my layers together outside on the driveway, and using an adhesive fabric spray to hold the layers together. This process, of course, does not work in windy weather, which we frequently have, and it doesn't work at all when the driveway's covered in snow or melted snow. Or mud...

Lizard does NOT like when we spray the adhesive in the house because the fumes are not pleasant. He also wouldn't be too happy if I got the spray on the hardwood floors and left it there. (Yes, I did get some on there twice, and I did my best to clean it up. But he could tell, and not just because of the smell. How about that?!? I rhymed!)

My quilting friend Ruthie in New Mexico has been putting her layers together with curved safety pins for many years, and I had been curious about how well that would work for me, even though I don't own any curved safety pins. (Ruthie learned the process from Eleanor Burns and uses Burns' curved pins. Curved safety pins are available on the internet and at craft stores, as well as Target and Walmart.) I have a huge package of not-cheap large, but fine, safety pins, so I tried the pin-basting method for the first time on Purple Haze, and I'm comfortable enough with the process now that I'll probably use it most of the time. Saves money, too, because that quilting spray is darned expensive.

I started at the center and pinned each charm square through all three layers, working around and around until the outer edge. I then lifted the tape up as gently as I could so Lizard wouldn't be frustrated with me for leaving small pieces of torn tape on the hardwood floor. Good fingernails helps with this step.






Next week, I'll be quilting by domestic machine, a process I expect will take up to four nights.

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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Snowflake Monday

Welcome to Week 3 of Snowcatcher's Snowflake Quiltalong!

I opted not to sash my snowflake charm squares but promised to share how I sash blocks just in case you'd like to use sashing in your project. I will be making nine boy quilts by Christmas (I hope), and I'm putting together a quick boy quilt top today to share how I sash blocks all the same size with the same color sashing throughout.

I haven't looked to see if anyone else has done a tutorial on my method, but there's no such thing as too many tutorials, right? Also, some of my regular (crochet) readers have expressed they have little to no experience with quilting, and they are hoping this QAL will be beginner-friendly.

This method of sashing really speeds up the process, I think, and it's simple to boot. The quilt top I'm making for this QAL installment also is fast and easy, the perfect quilt for a last-minute gift.

For today's project I started with 12 desert-colored batik layer cake squares (10-inch by 10-inch). I've previously made this same pattern multiple times with 12-inch blocks I cut myself from scraps and leftovers. I can finish this type of quilt in three or four nights, from fabric choosing and block cutting to quilting and binding. I've made three so far with nothing but scraps and leftovers, so this is a fantastic way to use up existing stash.

EVERYTHING in today's project is from my stash leftovers, so it cost me zero dollars and cents. $0.00!!! That kind of price tag is always a boon, right?


As I was playing with the block layout, I decided these desert rock colors also reminded me of volcanoes and lava. My own kids were fascinated by volcanology while they were younger, and almost all the little boys I've met in the last decade or two are obsessed with dinosaurs. So I have a theme for this young boy's quilt, which I'm now calling Lava Beds.

I pulled out my existing batik stash to determine which colors would harmonize best with the blocks I'd chosen. I picked an amber tone because it reminded me of the amber in "Jurassic Park" that started the fictitious amusement park. I sliced up 12 2.5-inch strips from the 44-inch width of the fabric. I ended up using only 10 of them for the sashing, and the two remaining strips go into the jelly roll section of my scrap collection for the next time I'm assembling a scrap quilt with mixed sashing.




If you prefer, you may cut your strips into 12 10-inch and 12 12-inch pieces (for 10-inch layer cake blocks) or 12 12-inch and 12 14-inch pieces (for 12-inch blocks). I don't cut my jelly roll strips first. I just start sewing and cut as I go. I do one block at a time, and I do two sides only on each bock. Typically, I will try to make the sashing seam line the same on each block. I was rushing during this project and forgot to pay attention to that tiny detail, so some blocks were sashed on the side first, and some were sashed on the bottom first. My final quilt top looks fine with the inconsistencies. It probably helps knowing it's not going to be entered into competition, where a move like that would have resulted in scorched earth.




Because I cut as I went, I had to piece sashing as I went. My goal is to get up from the sewing machine many times during a project; it prevents my back from getting as stiff. I also like that I used up every inch of my home-cut sashing possible. If I had cut the pieces to length before sashing, it probably would have taken up all 12 strips instead of just 10, and I would have a bunch of small leftover pieces instead of two nearly full-length strips.


After finishing the first row of blocks to be sashed, I could envision what the final project would look like.


Once all the rows of blocks were sashed on two sides, I sewed the blocks together in rows.

After all the rows were put together, it was time to sew the rows together. I have to be really careful every single time I put rows together because I'm famous for sewing at least one row on upside down. Every. Single. Time. Unraveling has never gone out of style at my house. My seam ripper will never experience rejection issues.


Once the rows were sewn together, I prepared strips for the two unsashed sides. The quilt top at this point was roughly 33 inches by 44 inches, and one 2.5-inch strip was not quite long enough to sash the long side of the flimsy. I pieced together 2 2.5-inch strips, then finished sashing the flimsy quilt top.


What do you think? Does it bring to mind "Dante's Peak"? (My kids' absolute favorite movie when they were young.)


This quilt top didn't seem big enough to me for a growing boy, so I cut and added two border rows of lava-toned 2.5-inch strips from my existing batik stash. All of the home-cut jelly roll strips for this project, by the way, are leftovers from Leaf Me Alone. Lava Beds now measures 43x56 inches, which I think will be plenty big enough.

I plan to back it with a lava-hued Wilmington Prints Essentials Cosmos because the nebula-like design looks to me a bit like hot, bubbly lava. I'm planning some fun motifs for the quilting of each block, recycling and renewing a plan I had two years ago for a different quilt but didn't have the courage to attempt because I was still such a beginner free-motion quilter. That design, however, will not involve snowflakes. So I'll save it for another blog post on another day.


Meanwhile, I've been piecing together my rows for the Snowflake Quiltalong, and thankfully, these rows didn't matter too much when I sewed a few together upside-down. (I still had to take them apart and put them back together so the triangle edges would line up properly.)


We were treated to a visit by my mother-in-law while I still had this project taking up most of the dining room floor space, and she commented how perfect my seams were matched. (!!!!!) Thankfully, she didn't look at each individual intersection with a magnifying glass because they are not 100% perfect. But from a distance, they do look pretty good.

I do not nest my seams. When you get deep into quilting, you will hear, see and learn about "less bulk" by nesting seams, which means pressing all the seams to one side so that when the blocks match up, stacked fabric on one side lines up perfectly with stacked fabric on the opposite side. I've been sewing most of my own clothing since I was a teenager, and I've always pressed all my seams flat, except in tailored collars. If you really think about the math, which I try not to do because my brain is allergic to math, pressing the seams to one side or the other is no different than pressing them open because you have the same number of fabric layers either way. You didn't add or subtract layers.

Some people may obtain better-matched seams by nesting, and that's fine. I pin my seams, and if I sew over the pins, I do so VERY slowly, turning the wheel by hand, to make sure I don't break a pin or a needle. I'm still haunted by the nightmares my ninth grade home economics teacher drilled into our collective heads by telling us we'd puncture our eyes if we ever sewed over a pin. You really shouldn't ever sew over pins, even if you go slow. Period.


Pinning my pressed-flat seams takes a bit longer but results in better-looking intersections.


Did you catch that?!? I finished TWO quilt tops in one week! Doesn't happen often in my neck of the plains-meet-foothills!


Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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