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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Nina’s News – Sew on and Sew Forth

Nina here to give everyone an update on some deliveries we received late last week and some other news.  The first delivery arrived on Thursday. I gave it an initial inspection and let mom know that at least 5 doggies had contact with that package.  They seemed to be small of stature and elongated in build.  Mom said I did very well because the box was from Agnes (What’s her name) from Dachsies With Moxie and that they had 5 dachshunds.

Mom was a bit concerned that only one package arrived that day because she said she was expecting two boxes and when it didn’t show up on Friday either she emailed What’s Her Name to see if she could track it down.  A short while later WHN replied and said the tracking information showed it was in Nashua, New Hampshire!

Path of the Wayward Box

Click on the image to see it bigger to see just how far off the mark they were. Fortunately that wayward box appeared on our doorstep the next day.  I helped mom inspect the contents of this box too.  Here is a little video of the action.

Charlie helped me take a good look at the second box. It had more pink fabric and a big pillow thing.

Delivery from What's Her Name

Mom explained that the big “pillow” is the batting that goes in between the quilt and the fabric on the back of the quilt.  The big piece of solid pink fabric is the fabric that will go on the back of the quilt and the other fabrics are the Fearless Five fabrics.   When the first box arrived with the backing fabric, Mom took it to the washing machine and let the machine eat the fabric.  She said she needed to wash and dry the fabric to let it shrink before using it.

That's a lot of Fabric!

The pretty fabrics will be cut into long strips and sewn back together to make the binding for the quilt.  I am sure I will be helping her with that.  Mom can’t wait to get the binding ready so she can add it to the quilt when she is done with the quilting it.

In other news Mom has been telling me about the Valentines Day Pawty that is coming up and I thought it would be fun to go.  Now being a mature doggie, I don’t think I will be doing any of that dancing and swinging from the chandeliers I have heard about, but I thought I would make a nice chaperone to try to keep some of the younger pups from doing anything they might regret the next day.  Of course it would be real nice if I could have an escort to the pawty too.

Nina in her Valentine Bandana

Mom has told me about a couple of boy dogs that would make great companions for me.  I’m looking for a mature male doggie, athletic (but not too wild), and maybe one that shares an interest in quilting too.  I wonder who could fit that bill?  I suppose he doesn’t have to be into quilting as long as he is a sweet, gentle doggie.  I’m not much of a dress up doggie, but I have been known to sport a pretty bandana now and then and I thought my Valentine’s Day bandana mom made for me would be perfect for the pawty.

Well that is all the news for now.  I am looking forward to helping mom with her projects and I can’t wait to meet everyone at the pawty!  See you then.

Nina

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