Making Up for Lost Time

My sister-in-law was at our house this past weekend to spend some time with her nephew.  During her visit, she, my husband, and baby went for a walk to the store so I could get a much-needed break and some quiet time.  On his way out the door my husband says, "I love you."  I respond in kind with an "I love you,
too."  Of course, then he replies by saying "I love you more."  I chuckle quietly as I walk back upstairs to my sewing space.  But, as I reach the top of the stairs, it hits me that he does love me more.  It's not that I doubt my love for him.  Rather, I know he loves me more because he adores me in spite of all my exhaustion-induced moods.  To top it all off, when they return from the store he is carrying a pint of the most deliciously red organic strawberries I have ever seen.  See?  He does love me more.  They were so tasty that I was halfway through eating them before I remembered to snap a picture.  But you get the idea.

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I made this quilt top ten years ago, perhaps more, when I was still a teenager.  Since it was my first ever quilt, I planned poorly and only bought enough fabric for the pieced top.  After finishing the piecing I set it aside for some time.  I took it up again a couple years later in order to finish it only to discover that the fabrics I used for the top were no longer available at the fabric store.  So it sat in a box as I searched for the perfect fabric to use for the bottom.  I kept a swatch in my wallet so I would always be prepared if I found myself near a fabric store.  Alas, as beautiful as batik fabric is, it is terribly difficult to match.  I never found the perfect fabric, even to this very day.  In the end I settled for a similar color that lacked the depth of my first choice.  I found it in JoAnn Fabric's batik section a couple months ago.  The swatch below on the left is from the top of the quilt (you can see why I fell in love with it) and the one on the right is the fabric I settled on for the bottom.  It is pinker than I usually prefer, but I decided that ten years was too long and "good enough" would be better than forever unfinished. 

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My quilt top measures 50.5" x 66.5" so I bought three yards of this "good enough" fabric for the bottom, which comes to 44" x 102".  I drew a diagram of my quilt to figure out the best way to cut and assemble the bottom fabric, and this is what I came up with.  I cut my yardage in half so I had two pieces measuring 44" x 51".  One of these became the center panel.  I folded the second piece in half lengthwise by matching up the selvedges and cut 12" from the edge through both layers.  This resulted in two pieces 12" x 51" that go to either side of the center panel.  The remaining piece is 51" x 20" and will be used for the binding.  As I noted in my fabric book tutorial, putting it onto paper is an invaluable exercise and can prevent mishaps and mistakes.

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I pinned, stitched, and ironed the three pieces to make a bottom layer that turned out slightly larger than the top.  I made my "quilt sandwich" using the following steps:

1. lay the bottom fabric right side down and smooth it out
   
2. placing the batting over it (I chose warm 'n' natural cotton batting).  The batting sticks to fabric like velcro, so you may need help placing it in order to avoid creating wrinkles
   
3. trim the batting if necessary so it is about 1" wider and longer than your bottom piece
4. lay the quilt top right side up over the batting (again, be aware of the velcro effect)
5. baste by stitching long running stitches that begin in the center and radiate outwards (other basting methods include pins, safety pins, and spray adhesive.  Each of these links also includes a good tutorial on setup)
   

This is as far as I have made it since my family got home in the middle of basting.  But finally, more than ten years after starting this project (and while I await my delivery of suede for making toddler shoes), I am actually going to learn how to hand quilt.  I'll keep you posted.