Happy Birthday to my friend, Andrea, photographer/artist extraordinaire and blogger (http://www.hulaseventy.blogspot.com/), owner of this charming antique quilt top made of original feedsack fabric. She showed it to me several months ago and asked me to repair and quilt it for her daughter, Ava.Through the years, Andrea used the quilt top for a stereo cover. Later she used some of the fabric at the quilt edge to make some glorious circus cards which appear in Jane Davila and Elin Waterston's new book Art Quilts at Play (C&T Publishing, 2009). Andrea casually showed me the copy they sent her and I thought 'girl, you don't even know how cool you are to be in that book'. But she clearly deserves it! Yea, Andrea!
After separating the squares, I spritzed each one with some of Mary Ellen's Best Press spray starch, and trimmed away the frayed edges to a uniform size of 4-1/2" x 4-3/4". I put a block of wood underneath my cutting mat to provide a firm surface underneath; otherwise the rotary cutter can break the mat because the ironing surface is too soft to withstand the pressure when cutting.
As I took each row apart, I kept them in a stack and labeled the first square. I sewed them together with a light gray cotton thread (Presencia 60/3) and shortened the stitch length slightly. The thread is fine yet strong and it's what I use to piece all my own cotton quilt tops.
The original quilt top has solid lavender and hot pink squares. Very random placement of these solid squares appear in two 9-patches. To get the quilt to the correct size, I'm incorporating some other solid colors of light yellow and aqua.This quilt top is still needing a few feedsack squares to make it a bit longer than the original and to fit the twin bed it is intended for. So while Andrea is on the hunt for more fabric, I'll work on some other projects and show you the finished quilt in the new year!
Copyright ©2009, Sharon Baggs
I used a stencil called "heart puzzle" (EL5) for the design. When I started the quilting, I drew the design onto Golden Threads quilting paper, stitched through it, then tore it away. When I resumed the quilting several months later, I used a blue washable marker to draw the design on. Finally, as I finished the quilt these past two weeks, I freehand quilted the remainder, having learned the basic line elements of the design.
I sewed on a blue binding and then added echo quilting around the outer edge where there needed a bit more quilting. I like the edges to have enough dense quilting to hold up to tugging and daily wear and tear. The thread used was Superior's Perfect Quilter, a 30/3 cotton.
Molly pieced this quilt top over the years from old jeans she had worn. She asked me to fix it and quilt it. The 'fixing' part required getting the seams as flat as possible by pressing them open and trimming away all the extra stuff on the inside of the quilt. This included zippers, white pocket linings and additional denim fabric that could be removed from inside the quilt top.
I removed the outside border and trimmed it even before reattaching it with 40 wt. white cotton thread. These seams were pressed toward the outside border.
Superior Threads King Tut (Color 976-Olde Golde), a #40/3-ply extra-long staple Egyptian-grown cotton was used for the quilting. It looks just like the thread on jeans and this meandering stitch was a good choice for an all-over design. When the quilting was complete, I had used up most of the 2,000 yd. cone of thread.
Nine yards of Sachet Flannels II by Marcus Fabrics was used for the backing fabric. Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 was used for batting and produced a nice, flat feel. There were virtually no folds or puckers on the back. Ya-hoo!!!
I regularly had to adjust the presser foot pressure gauge on my Bernina 153, turning it to a higher setting when approaching the added height at an impending seam. After going over the seam, the pressure was readjusted to a lower setting; otherwise, the needle skipped stitches.
Random strips of denim were sewn together to form the border framing the quilt. After stitching in the ditch between the quilt and the border, I quilted a wavy curled design around the perimeter (Stencil #119, 2" border with corner).
For the outer border, I chose a stencil (EK53 2" Ripple Border) that fit the space. I marked it with the Clover fine line white marker which resembles a gel pen. After marking it takes a few seconds for the white mark to appear.
Always test markers on the fabric to make sure it will remove. After a quick rinse the lines have faded. A gentle warm wash with Orvus Paste should remove the ink (See 
Our first stop was Thistleberries in the town of Riddle. Hannah picked out a red Moda fat quarter and we were on our way to Something to Crow About in Springfield. Here we found an awesome polka dot print to match our Christmas print perfectly.
We missed the next shop in Albany (The Quilt Loft) because the directions on their website were for I-5 south and we were traveling north--my navigator was very disgruntled over this! We scored big in Salem by visiting Rich's Sew and Vac who gave us two packages of machine needles, followed by Greenbaum's Quilted Forest--always a visual explosion to behold, and finally The Cotton Patch (just north of Salem in Keizer).
Here in the great state of Oregon, 35 quilt shops are participating in the third annual Sew Oregon (
So our first day out was today and we visited three shops. First was Cool Cottons at 2417 SE Hawthorne (Portland). This is where we found the Christmas print that jump-started our whole excursion. There is so much beautiful fabric in this shop and on the porch they feature bolts at $4/yard--very nice for backing a quilt. They also feature "baby bolts" (smaller lots of fabric) and several adorable sewing projects such as a bubble skirt.
Our last stop for the day was Canby Quilt and Fabric at 248 NW 1st Ave. (Canby). We had just been in this shop last month and the owner asked if we were going to participate in Sew Oregon. "No time" I said but...here we are!
The first step in putting it all together is to turn your quilt top over and clip all the loose threads from the back, making sure your seam lines are pressed to one side or open, with no flipped seams that will add bulk. If you plan to stitch-in-the-ditch, always press seams to one side in the piecing process. Press both sides of the top and use a bit of spray starch if desired. If your backing fabric has a seam, press it open and starch the entire backing for smooth quilting.
Use large office clips to secure the backing fabric to the table top. The fabric should be taut but not stretched off grain.
Use as many clips as necessary to secure the backing fabric to the table top. Smooth out any wrinkles and re-clip if you see any waves in the fabric. The center clip on both ends of the table should clamp over the toothpick.
Fold the batting to find the center and lay it over the backing, matching the center fold with the tootpick (you can't see it but you can feel it). Smooth out the batting over the clamped backing.
Put the top over the batting, matching the centers. It's a good idea to cut your batting piece about 2-4" larger than the quilt top--this is a bit close here so be careful to give yourself what you need.
To mark the top, I used a Clover white chalk wheel and a 6" x 24" acrylic ruler. The chalk does stay on fairly well through the quilting. It's easy to remark when necessary and rubs out when you want it to.
It really doesn't matter when you decide to change directions and make a point that meets at the quilting edge, but I found the center and then ended up marking it off-set a bit which looked fine. With that kind of freedom, you really can't go wrong. No need to worry about an exact fit as with some grids, this design works even if you decide on 1" or 2" spaced lines.
Using 1" stainless steel safety pins, keep them horizontal with the chalked lines. The quilting is done with a walking foot so there is room for the foot to clear the pins. A sufficient number of pins will prevent puckering and distortion that can occur when quilting long lines; unfortunately this problem is difficult to hide on solid fabrics so keep the pins in as you quilt.
This quilt has Quilter's Dream 100% cotton batting, which I presoaked and dried in the dryer because the quilt fabric had been prewashed. My client wanted the thread to match--navy on navy and orange on orange. The backing was navy so the tricky part was to balance the thread tension so I didn't get pop-ups from the navy bobbin thread while quilting the orange. I quilted several rows on a practice swatch, made adjustments and the tension was balanced. There were a lot of starts and stops but keeping dedicated to 1/4" of small stitches (8-10) at the beginning and end of a quilting line keeps everything secure. Then bury those threads, rather than snip them at the surface. I used a quality thread, Presencia 50/3.
