QT User Blog

With the quilt top finished, there were still decisions to be made and work to be done.

Of course, the backing had to be chosen. That was easy enough.

The batting can be a different issue. I showed Ellen quilts with various battings- Warm and Natural, Bamboo, Hobbs Poly-Down, etc. Ellen’s quilt top was sewn consistently enough that she could choose from any and get a great result. With some new quilters, I encourage a batting with some loft, as it has the propensity to absorb some of the lumps in a quilter’s early efforts. Also, a quilting pattern that minimizes the number of stitches and the tightness of the quilting pattern helps work in some of the inconsistencies.

Ellen liked a bit of loft and chose the Hobbs Poly-Down. She wanted a fairly modern looking quilt and choose an all over loop pattern for the quilting.

I think it’s important to give a new quilter the gratification of a finished project as quickly as possible. Ellen and I had scheduling issues, and it looked like it would take weeks to free up the time to teach her to quilt the quilt top and finish the binding, so we went to Plan B. I made time to quilt her quilt top on the long arm and finish it using the “Suzie’s Magic Binding” technique.

The link to “Suzie’s Magic Binding” is in the Tips Library. (Go to “Community,” select “Tips, References & Tools,” then “Library”– at the bottom right on your mobile device, at the top of the feed on the web.) Also, yardage requirements for this technique are included in the “Backing Yardage” reference in the same location.)

Live well, quilt well.

Lisa

Quilter’s Thread Mobile App has a new pattern prize for this month that you’ll want to have. This quilt pattern is called the Royal Braid quilt hence the pattern resembles a braid shape. The pattern design has four versions so start adding points up on our Quilter’s Thread Mobile App in order to win this pattern at the end of the month.

1. Original Royal Braid                2. Multi-Color Royal Braid

3. Crown Royal Version                   4. Spring Themed Royal Braid

The first quilt above is the original version of the Royal Braid quilt which has a variety of different shades of purple in it with little golden squares in between the braids. The second version of the Royal Braid quilt has multiple colors in it such as blue and green  giving it a different look compared to the original version.

The third quilt version is the Crown Royal, which has more yellow than purple in it. You can cut around three logos from Crown Royal Bags if you want and place them where the three purple squares are in the middle of the quilt to give it a nice unique touch. The fourth version of the Royal Braid is a great pattern for spring with it’s bright colors and yellow squares makes the interlocking chain braid moving from one part of the quilt to the other come alive. You can choose to add a border like in the drawings above or you can leave it without one. Having a border let’s the pattern come to an end without running off the quilt making it feel as if it is unfinished.

Share with us any versions of the Royal Braid quilt pattern that you make on Quilter’s Thread Mobile App. Remember to stay active on Quilter’s Thread Mobile App in order to earn points to win this free pattern at the end of the month. Comments, uploading photos, and responding to surveys generate 1 point each. Liking 3 things on the app generates 1 point. Earn 10 points gets you a free pattern and 40 points gets you a free pattern and a Quilter’s Thread cloth shopping bag. Earn 75 points gets you a free pattern, shopping bag, and a $20 gift card.

Live Well. Quilt Well.

After I had finished cutting all of my fabric in the previous blog post, it was then time for me to start quilting all of the pieces together! This is the part that took the most time and focus. I started quilting around 11 a.m. and finished around 4 p.m.that same day.

For this part of the quilting process I used white thread so that it wouldn’t stand out from my fabric in any way. The sewing machine I used was a Janome Gem Gold sewing machine. This sewing machine is a nice lightweight machine that is designed especially for transporting and is a good medium size machine to work with. One part of the sewing machine I want to point out is the foot. This helped me guide my fabric into the sewing machine. I used a quarter inch seam.

When making this quilt I sewed the pieces together using a technique called the “1600 Quilt”. Quilter’s Thread Mobile App has the pattern in the gallery library called “JoyAnn’s First Strip Quilt” and explains in detail this technique.  It is also important to note that JoyAnn’s First Strip Quilt was done with 2.5″ strips instead of 4.5″ strips that I used in this quilt. You can read about the how to make the quilt here.

What I did was I simply sewed a square piece to the end of each of my 4.5″ strips. Then I sewed the next long strip onto the block. When I had one very long pieced strip, I then folded it in half and sewed it down the long side. I did that a total of four times.  Then I added the border with the leftover blue fabric. When you first start your strip make sure you double stitch the ends before continuing forward. You want to align the strips next to each other and sew them together.

After you have completed sewing the strips together now make sure you press the seams of the quilt. First press the seams of back of the quilt and then press the front smoothing out any dents or wrinkles. Once I was done I could see just how much this helped my quilt look and feel more smooth than before. Now you are done!! Here are the end results!

This quilt is  perfect for my full size bed and my futon as well adding some color to the room! The quilt size is about 69 1/5 and 58 1/2. with the border. If you have any questions regarding on how I made this simple strip quilt or about the method that I used, feel free to ask by going onto the Quilter’s Thread Mobile App and commenting in the blog section!

Live Well. Quilt Well.

• Rotary cutter, preferably a brand new one because it will be super sharp. Many quilters fail to keep good blades in their cutters, which makes it difficult to get a clean cut. A good brand is Fiskars.
• A sturdy cutting mat. We recommend one that is big preferably 18″ x 24″. The Olfa Gridded Cutting Mat is a good option and is what I used to cut my fabric on.
• A long ruler to measure the fabric. A good rule type is the Omnigrid.