Little Bits.....: My tip of the year for you

and it’s only February!!!!
I made a series of quilts last fall..

And now they are all just about finished. The turtle quilt went to Haiti, the birds and the fish are staying here in Halton County.
My favourite is the fish! It reminds me of

Finding Nemo. I love the colour of it, I love the shape of it and no this is not a drawing I did. I found it on the internet. They just make me smile.
TIP OF THE YEAR
When you finish your tops, make your backings! I just got caught by my long arm machine quilter. She wrote to say when she wanted the quilt. Yikes! I knew in December this quilt was going in the early part of January, but I put it off and did other things.
I had a backing for this, but it is such a great piece of fabric I went searching for some pieces of flannelette. I found pieces and as backings don’t have to boring, I cut them.

Two different manufacturers, two different sizes. I trimmed them up and pinned them and got ready to sew. As these are flannelette I use a wider seam allowance.
Now people can tell you I can see a 1/4” seam allowance across the table, but anything else?

Not so much. I marked it with a pencil……you will never see this mark, so go ahead. I used my regular foot as my guide. I moved my needle as far over as it would go. As my machine’s default setting is 2.5, I moved it back to 2.0.

I stitched the whole thing………what an idiot statement that was!!!! Then I took it

to the ironing board and pressed it open……yes open!

Look at the fraying from just sewing the two fabrics together. After it was pressed I sat at the machine again, changed the foot and using the edge as my guide, I stitched both seams down.

Why? This will reduce the fraying of the flannel.
I then took it to the flannel wall and put it up. I put the top on top and here you go.

Now to cut the binding and put everything together. When I’m ready to machine quilt, it will be ready.

Okay, here's the answer and how I worked it out.
4 yards x 36 inches to a yard................= 144 inches
3/4 yard is 27 inches so add that.......... +27 = 171 inches
A metre equals 39 inches, so divided the 171 inches by the 39 inches and it gives you.......are you ready?
4.3846153....................make that a purchase of 4.4 metres. Personally, I would buy 4.5 metres in case of a cutting mistake, especially if the bolt is nearly empty. Murphy's Law says if you buy only what's on the bolt when its coming to its end....................you cut wrong, go back and the fabric has been purchased. And you all know its happened

Cause I'm the Grandma I got the bragging rights.

What a week-end we had. We went to Morgan's TaeKwonDo tests on Friday night. She now has her red belt........2 more and then she tries for her black belt. Yes!!

Cody has heard back from one of the colleges he applied to. The course he really, really wants is Construction Engineer. (no idea, don't ask) He has been accepted. Way to go.

(Oh, Grandpa says that means he will get to wear the white hat while the others wear the yellow ones.)

Now I'm not this little gal's Grandma, but I am her great aunt.

Congratulations go to our niece Cecille who lives in Denmark. She won three gold medals in swimming over the week-end. Fabulous.

Now before I sign off for the day, I'm going to try another mystery quilt. This one is small......probably 40 x 40 (on a good day). I have chosen my fabrics.