Ready to Quilt

I am finally ready to quilt the "Scrappy Trips" summer tablecloth.  I thought I had a quilt batt that I had not opened but I found that I had opened it and used a large piece of it. A trip to Joanns or a quilt shop was not going to happen so I ordered batting on line and picked it up at the local Walmart store.

Here it is layered with just the batting. When I use a quilt for a tablecloth I like to turn it pillowcase style instead of binding the edges. I'm not sure why I like it better but I do. In the long run it is not really easier. First I layer the top and batting and pin it all around the edges with some pins across the whole top to keep it from shifting. Then I stitch a bit less than 1/4 inch from the edge all around and trim the batting even with the edge of the top.

Here is the same corner after I layered the top and the batting stitched at the edges, right sides together, with the backing and stitched it all around except for an opening for turning. After I turned it right sides out I smoothed it out and pin basted it, repositioning the pins that were just through the batting.
Because I am not sure how I am going to quilt this, I haven't started quilting it yet. After it snowed all day long today I am sure I will be staying in all day tomorrow so I will have plenty of time to work on it.

Housebound

The weather isn't really terrible and I think the roads are probably not bad but we are staying in. Jack hasn't been outside since he was in the hospital with pneumonia and he thought he would like to wait another day before going out. I am currently not driving so I am staying in until he goes out.
So what to do when I can't shop for fabric or quilting supplies. Well.........I have some UFO's and some flimsys and almost flimsys and a box of odd blocks and a box or HST's and a box of cut squares of various sizes. There should be something I can do!

I chose an almost flimsy to work on. This photo is from March 2013 when it was up on my design wall before I sewed the blocks together.  I sewed the blocks but that was as far as I got as it was long and narrow 48 x 72. I didn't have many strips of the same fabrics to make more blocks   so I stopped to think about it and it lived in my closet

Today I got it out and thought about what I could do with it.  Not good for a twin bed, not really a good size for a throw, not good for a wall hanging, hmmm maybe a table cloth. I put it on the table and it almost fit, just a bit short on the overhang. Could this be what I was rolling around in my mind before I put it away? I think it was. I added a 3 inch border; you can see a section of it on the right. I had used that fabric in some of the blocks and I had a pretty good size piece of it so it was a natural choice.





Here is the flimsy on the table and it fits perfectly with the 3 inch border which doesn't show in this shot.


Below is a twin size vintage sheet that I will use on the back. I bought this years ago for a table cloth  for a large plywood party table my husband made for a Polynesian party. It is in perfect condition with no wear or stains. I have  packaged batting that I bought not long ago, maybe to use for this, but I got side tracked and I don't remember if it was for this or not. (it's that senior thing, you know).

Now I can get his layered up and quilted and who cares it I am house bound for a few more days.

Sewing

Jack said he needed to get out for a ride on his motorcycle as he was exhibiting signs of withdrawal. I knew exactly what he  meant. It has been many days since I have done any sewing/quilting and I was getting shaky.

I had the scrappy trips blocks sewed in to section of 8 blocks and for once I understood the way I had then stacked when I last took them off the wall. I had pinned the vertical rows together and labeled them left, center and right. I put them back up on the wall just to be sure and then I sewed them together. I got Jack to hold it up for me to take a pic before he went out for his ride; he was fairly cheerful about it. I told him if he held it up I wouldn't have to get up on a ladder to put it up on the wall.

It is not quite a flimsy; I have to add make the borders but I am feeling much better today.

At this point it is 48 x 72, a bit long and narrow. I really don't want to make more blocks; it would take 12 more to complete a pattern and would make the quilt square and it would end up bigger than I want.
So.............. I think I will make the side borders 6 inches and the top and bottom 4 inches (maybe). I am going to quilt the body of the quilt before I add the borders.

 I will see

 how it goes.

Many Trips postponed

I thought I would get back to my scrappy trips quilt and get the top put together; however, that didn't happen. As I was looking at it up on the wall with the blocks sewed into pairs I realized that there was not going to be enough take up in the seams to account make up for so much difference between the width and length. Without borders it would be 48 x 72. If I put 6 inch borders on it would be 60 x 84. I can't think what  might be an appropriate use for that size. This is really the width of the quilt on the wall because that is the best way for me to get it up there without a ladder.

Twelve more blocks would make a square quilt 72 x 72 w/o borders and 84 inches square with borders. In working out the layout so the pattern was even I wasn't paying attention to the dimensions. I am now rethinking the whole thing.

So this is where I am now. I took it off the wall and stacked it up 3 stacks  of  4 sets of blocks each. I pinned them and stuck a piece of masking tape on the top of each group so I would get them up back in order in case I want them as they are. If I make more blocks I want them to be interspersed with the ones I have already as I am going to use some other blue/purple blue green family fabrics for the diagonal  squares and I won't want them all in the same place. If I make this a large quilt I will also want to quilt it in sections.

This is getting complicated; I really like this palette but I don't want another big quilt and if I did I probably wouldn't use these colors. So...... I am stopping here and putting this on hold until I decide what to do.