Quilting for the Fearless Five

Warning – Long post with many pictures – Grab a Cuppa and a snack and enjoy!

As many of you may know Sandra and her family have received the Fearless Five Memory quilt so now I can reveal my part in this project. When I received the quilt top from Agnes (What’s Her Name from Dachsies With Moxie) I thought it would be better for the quilt to add some borders around the outside edges.  After getting approval for that from Agnes I proceeded to add that to the quilt top.  The size of the quilt top was now about 115″ x 93″!

The next step was to cut the backing fabric and batting (the middle layer of a quilt) to the correct size and then baste all three layers together.  I like to spray baste my quilts together which means I use a spray adhesive on each layer to allow them to stick together.  The process involves laying the backing fabric on the floor and pinning it to the rug to keep it stretched out.  Lucky for me our living room was just big enough for the quilt to fit.  The next thing you do is start to apply the spray baste and stick the batting to the backing.  This requires much crawling around on my hands and knees to smooth the batting as you go.  Then you repeat the process to add the quilt top to the sandwich.

Basting is complete!

I regret to inform you that there were no pictures taken during this process so you will just have to use your imagination regarding me crawling around on the floor.  And for those of you who were wondering where Nina was through all of this we put up barricades to keep her out of the room.  I don’t think I want her getting sticky paws by walking over the quilt as I was working.

Then it was time to start quilting.  I decided to use a variegated pink thread on the top and bottom and had purchased a 2000 yard spool.

Variegated Pink Thread

When I quilt I use a device called a Fab-U-Motion that includes a stitch regulator.  I hope some of you haven’t stopped reading yet as I don’t want to bore you with the details, but I think some of my readers might be interested so bear with me. In case you are wondering, a stitch regulator helps you to keep your stitches even while you are quilting.

Fab-U-Motion Set Up

With such a large quilt there is a lot of wrangling involved.  If you don’t know anything about quilting I will try to explain.  When you are working on the middle of the quilt you have to squeeze half of the quilt into the area to the right of the needle.  To do this you have to bunch it all up and still have room to quilt. This gets a little easier as you work you way out to the edges.

Quilting in Progress

The other thing you have to do is support the quilt so there isn’t too much weight on the needle as you move the fabric under it.  It is not a pretty sight and sometimes you have to wrap it around yourself to accomplish it.

Not trying to keep warm. Just wrestling with the quilt.

The motif I used over all of the quilt is what I call hearts and loops.  It is just as it sounds and meanders all over the quilt.

Hearts & Loops Quilting

Back of Quilt - Click to biggify and see detail

Here is a video of the quilting action.

I lost track of how many hours it took to complete after the third day of 4 – 6 hours of quilting, but it was not a chore at all.  This was such a labor of love for all of us involved and while I was quilting I was thinking of all the bloggers that contributed fabric for the quilt.  When I am quilting along it is almost like having a “runner’s high” and I don’t pay attention to what is going on around me.

Thread Usage

It’s a good thing I had a 2000 yard spool of thread to start as I almost used every inch of it.  In the above picture the spool on the right is a full spool I am using on my next quilt, and you can see there isn’t much left of the pink.

After I finished all of the quilting I had to trim the edges to make them straight and then attach the binding.  The final finishing touch was to add the label to the back.

Quilt Label and Extra Blocks

There were also a couple of quilt blocks on the back that I added before I did the quilting.  As I like to say, “better late than never” so these two blocks of fabric were added to the back after the front was completed. The label reads as follows:

The Fearless Five Memory Quilt

Made With Love From All of Blogville

Pieced With Love By Agnes P. Bullock

Quilted With Love By Cynthia Welch

February 2012

And here is the finished quilt.

The Fearless Five Memory Quilt

I am very honored to have been able to be a part of this wonderful project and I just know it will bring Sandra and her family years of comfort and love from all of Blogville.  Once again…Blogville Rocks!

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