I spent the entire day yesterday working on this donation quilt for the Linus Project. As I said in my last post, the challenge project this year for our annual QuiltNebraska convention is to make a quilt for the Linus Project.
Of course I wait until the last minute to get started but piecing and quilting this quilt went pretty quickly. I decided to use what I had on hand and thought I would use up a lot of my bright fabrics. It really doesn't look like I used any at all when I put that box away this morning. Think the fabric must have reproduced at night when I wasn't looking.
Back to the quilt...I did a simple quilting design of loops, with a daisy like flower or butterfly every once in a while. Was just quilting along until after I filled my bobbin for the second time, OH NO, I was going to run out of thread before I finished. Like a dummy I used the same thread on top and bottom and the spool didn't have enough for both sides, although the spool had a lot on it.
What to do, what to do, as I didn't have anymore of this variegated thread?
Well, I got this brilliant idea after looking at the back of my quilt. Notice it is pieced too. Well it isn't pieced just to make a design statement but it is pieced because I didn't have enough fabric. Did you know if you split a piece of fabric on an angle and insert a strip you can make a piece of fabric bigger for backing? If you split it one way it will make it longer and if you split it the other it will make it wider. Try it with a piece of paper and check it out.
This red fabric was not long enough nor wide enough so I split it both ways. Kind of has a modern funky feel doesn't it?
Of course I wait until the last minute to get started but piecing and quilting this quilt went pretty quickly. I decided to use what I had on hand and thought I would use up a lot of my bright fabrics. It really doesn't look like I used any at all when I put that box away this morning. Think the fabric must have reproduced at night when I wasn't looking.
Back to the quilt...I did a simple quilting design of loops, with a daisy like flower or butterfly every once in a while. Was just quilting along until after I filled my bobbin for the second time, OH NO, I was going to run out of thread before I finished. Like a dummy I used the same thread on top and bottom and the spool didn't have enough for both sides, although the spool had a lot on it.
What to do, what to do, as I didn't have anymore of this variegated thread?
Well, I got this brilliant idea after looking at the back of my quilt. Notice it is pieced too. Well it isn't pieced just to make a design statement but it is pieced because I didn't have enough fabric. Did you know if you split a piece of fabric on an angle and insert a strip you can make a piece of fabric bigger for backing? If you split it one way it will make it longer and if you split it the other it will make it wider. Try it with a piece of paper and check it out.
This red fabric was not long enough nor wide enough so I split it both ways. Kind of has a modern funky feel doesn't it?
Well back to the quilting....I decided to stop quilting with the variegated thread in the bobbin at the blue stripe then changed to red bobbin thread. I thought that would give me enough thread to finish the quilt and not look so much like I ran out of bobbin thread but that I did it on purpose.
I was wrong about having enough thread! I had one corner triangle left, about 12" on each side, when I ran out of top thread. Looked through my thread stash and found a variegated one with red, blue, white and pink so finished using that. It didn't have the yellow or green in it but I can hardly tell and I know where it is so don't think anyone else will even see the difference.
If I wouldn't have waited until the last minute to make this quilt I could have gotten backing wide enough and more quilting thread. But, and this is a big but, it wouldn't have forced me to be creative. I live about an hour from the nearest quilt shop so usually use what I already have on hand as I hate to wait until the next time I go shopping to finish a project.
The quilt is all washed and dried and ready to go so now I need to get my supplies ready for the classes I am going to take.
Lynn
I was wrong about having enough thread! I had one corner triangle left, about 12" on each side, when I ran out of top thread. Looked through my thread stash and found a variegated one with red, blue, white and pink so finished using that. It didn't have the yellow or green in it but I can hardly tell and I know where it is so don't think anyone else will even see the difference.
If I wouldn't have waited until the last minute to make this quilt I could have gotten backing wide enough and more quilting thread. But, and this is a big but, it wouldn't have forced me to be creative. I live about an hour from the nearest quilt shop so usually use what I already have on hand as I hate to wait until the next time I go shopping to finish a project.
The quilt is all washed and dried and ready to go so now I need to get my supplies ready for the classes I am going to take.
Lynn
