Wednesday, September 3, 2014

I really don't like


one part of quilting......truth be told.....a few parts of quilting, but this one always seems to cause me angst.
Making a backing!  It's been the last thing I do every time I've made a quilt and recently I changed that up.  I'm making backings before the tops are done.
You remember this one.......
all finished before the top was completed.  It gave me a bit of satisfaction knowing this was all done and actually made me more relaxed knowing it was.

I opted to do the same for the penguin quilt.  I ordered my fabric from Fabric.com and it arrived within 2 days.  Love UPS!  I washed it because it had an odor to it.....I think it was the metallic on it.....and then Karl helped me to fold it back again.  It was a little askew but not bad really.  I trimmed off one yard for the insert and then started to sew it together. 


It didn't take me long to make it up........perhaps 2 hours.........and that would probably be more than I actually took.  I hung it on the clothesline to take a photo and wouldn't you know, the only breeze we got that day, blew through the backyard just as I snapped the picture.

I made it up exactly the way I drafted it on graph paper.  I took the one yard and sub cut it into 8 1/2" widths....remembering this was a one way design......so I cut it lengthwise.  I sewed three pieces together.
I then cut the other large piece on the fold and had two lengths about 91" when I trimmed.  
I put the insert in giving myself a little bit more than a 1/4" seam allowance.  Then I pressed the seam open as that is the way the gals in the long arm business want it.
I left the selvedge on the outer two sides.  I'll trim them off when it's time to quilt this one.  It is big......I probably didn't need 6 yards, but if I had made a cutting mistake I may have been in trouble.
There you go.  You can order/buy your backing fabric and get yours done too.  I have no plans on changing the layout of this quilt.  Sticking to the original design......she says hopefully.
I think I'll draft up more backings before ordering.  I saved myself a few bucks doing it this way.

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