Saturday, November 5, 2016

Progress on the T-Shirt Quilt

Although I haven't written about it for a couple of weeks I'm still working on the t-shirt quilt. Of these three backs, M chose the zigzag pattern. (Pink is her favorite color - as if you couldn't tell.)

Three possible quilt backs

Next step is to pin baste - probably my least favorite part. As usual this involves moving folding tables, digging out pins and clamps, pressing front and back and letting the batting relax. It's so tightly cramped in the bags there are lots of creases.

My tables are long but narrow so I move the quilt package several times while basting. I used to pin on the floor but can't do that anymore. Weird late night colors.

Pinning the quilt

Then I ditch stitched the seam lines. I worry that the mixture of knit and woven may cause the seams to ravel. Also it helps consolidate smaller sections to quilt.

Now to fill it all in.

Enjoy the day, Ann

8 comments:

LA Paylor said...

never considered the raveling issues. I can say my grandmother made quilts out of heaven knows what and they were sturdy. The part of quiltmaking I like least is basting.

Ann said...

My worry (fear) is not natural. I absolutely hate the idea of these quilts fraying at seamlines.

Janie said...

Thanks for sharing this part of your project. I like hearing that this is your 'least fav. part'.
I too get frustrated with all those wrinkles in the batting coming right out of the package, wondering, 'Should I try pressing those out or what?'. I can relate.

Mary Marcotte said...

I used to put my batting in the dryer to fluff out the wrinkles. Now I use batting on the roll so it's not a problem. By the time I get to the center fold, it's sort of fluffed itself out.
Your quilt is beautiful and I am anxious to see the final outcome. I hope you enjoy the next step, at least.

Ann said...

It's never as big a problem as it first seems. But I always put it off. Not a fun step.

Ann said...

I never put the batt in the dryer. My excuse was that I prefer thin batts without scrim and they might fall apart. Not sure if that's true or not.
While I don't enjoy basting, it's great to have this step complete. Yay!

patty a. said...

I am one lucky woman when it comes to pin basting. Years ago I had my Dad make me a table at just the right height for me to lay my quilts out on to pin baste. With both leaves open it is 8' x 8' so there is no crawling on the floor or having to use a small table to try and pin baste which I have had to do in the past. When I moved the top criteria for the realtor was a big enough room for a studio to put my table in!

Kaja said...

Seems like pasting isn't anyone's favourite job. I still crawl around on the floor, but I'm not sure how much longer that's going to happen for: I've been eyeing up other people's table basting methods and it seems like a much better idea.