Little Bits.....: I wasn't impressed

A few months ago I phoned my far away quilt shop and asked if they had a baby panel I was looking for. It is called Jolly Jungle and its from Makower Fabrics. I asked them to set one aside and I would be up within the week to pick it up. I went up alright, only to find they had put all the panels into kits. The kits were $29.99 and fool that I am, I purchased one.

When I got home I opened it. Was I ever disappointed! One sickly looking green, there wasn't enough of the directional fabric for the top and bottom..........you need the width of the panel. The green leafy one you can work with. Binding is about all. This is for a child, for heaven's sake......did they not think of this. Did you see all the co-ordinates from Makower for this panel? A few of them would have been perfect. That was it -- four pieces of backing -- backing extra.....1.5 metres. I think not!

I did some quick thinking -- so quick it took me three months. I finally got the brain in gear and took the sickly green batik and threw it in the batik box, trimmed off one of the strips across the bottom of the panel, trimmed off the selvedge edge of the all over jungle print and added grey fabric from Connecting Threads to each side.

Then I fused the backing to fusible batting. This was a piece I had left over from another quilt. I start in the middle pressing it and then work my way out to the top and the sides. Try not to iron it, as you can stretch the backing doing it that way. Well, I can anyway.

Once it was fused, I trimmed away the excess. Then I found the middle of the all over print and placed a pin at the top and the bottom.

Before I placed the front down, I finger pressed the centre and then lined it up with the pins. As fusible batting can over time separate from the fabric, I pin it all together before I start to machine quilt.

I use my big ironing board that Karl made me. However, the softness of the cover makes for a wee problem......the pin tends to go into it. Solved that one!

I had Karl make me a board. It is a piece of masonite from the workshop. Masonite is hard and no pin will penetrate it. On the other side he glued a piece of cork. I have a board that has two purposes.

When I pin I use a tool called a Kwik Klip. I bought it years ago in the store I worked in, but its still available. I find it saves my fingers when putting in the pins. I try to pin where I know I'm not going to machine quilt. Sometimes I'm very succesful, sometimes I'm not.

Hancocks of Paducah carry the Kwik Klip.

The quilt is ready to be done. It is going to be a nap mat when its finished. About 21" x 29". Those little strips at the top and bottom, I'm saving. They may go on the bottom of some burp cloths.

I hope to finish up over the week-end. I'd like some binding to do when I go away............again!