QA # 13 Blocking, Binding, Finishing your quilt

Quilt Along # 13 is complete ~

     What a fun project this has been for me, and have I ever learned so many things with this assignment.  If you use a mechanical pencil, make sure your fabric is very starched, and you use a LIGHT hand when marking.  A scrubber, dawn soap, and elbow grease will remove what is left after you use a fabric eraser, but who wants to do all that work.

      If you use a wash away marking pen, just spritzing does NOT remove all the chemicals, and a hot iron with steam will cause them to reappear if not completely removed.   When completely dry, a dunk in a tub of water will reveal them if they are still present, and soaking for 15 - 30 minutes will remove the chemical as well as the starch you may have used.  Once dry, I then applied the hot iron again, and no more marks.

      A small change in pattern design can result in noticeable differences creating a different look.  Check out all 4 heart and feather quilts, 2 red spotted, 2 red bandana fabrics, and you will see differences.   Here is two of my red heart and feathers, blocked, bound, and have a sleeve, one is a wool batt one is a low loft poly batt, both went in the dryer after soaking in tub, and came out fine for blocking.

Here is my Third heart and feathers, done on a Fat poly batt.  It too, is completed having been blocked, bound and has a sleeve.  The fabric choice was too busy, so had to do a scribble stipple to help the trapunto work show up.   Look at the next quilt top below, which is already outlined, and you will see how very difficult that is to see.  When choosing a fabric to quilt with micro stippling, make sure the fabric print pattern is mellow enough to SHOW all your hard work. 

     When doing a twirling ribbon framing the piece that you want to puff well and really show, make sure you make it wide enough to give the batting  the necessary room to PUFF up !   Also notice all those pencil lines are now GONE!

My forth quilt is ready for microstippling, and has a cotton batt.  Because the red bandana fabric is too hard to see, I think that will become my backing and I will use the solid fabric for my top. 

You can see the outline stitching is done... now I wonder what alterations I will create in the design to make it different than the first three.

Thanks Leah ~ Really enjoying the Quilt Alongs with you :)  You have a very kind and generous spirit!  Godspeed,