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Wow! That quilt along was a fast one, I can’t believe it’s already the last week. Now that we are done making our blocks, it’s time to finish our quilt! If you are still making your blocks, that’s ok. This was a super quick quilt along because my family is going back to school/work in 2 weeks. I’d love for you to keep posting your progress photos over in the Facebook Quilt Along group.
QUILT ALONG SCHEDULE:
July 16th – Week 1 – Grab the pattern and pick out your fabrics
July 23rd – Week 2 – Cut your pieces
July 30th – Week 3 – Make Corner Units
August 6th – Week 4 – Make Diamond in Rectangle Units
August 13th – Week 5 – Sew the blocks
THIS WEEK – August 20th – Week 6 – Finish our quilts!
JOIN ME for a LIVE video on Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 7 am PDT in the Facebook Quilt along group.
If you can’t watch it LIVE it will be saved to the group and uploaded to my YouTube channel.
SHARE YOUR PROGRESS PHOTOS:
Join my Facebook group and post your weekly progress photos
OR post your photos on Instagram with the hashtag #OrchardInBloomQAL or Tag me in your photo!
Finishing our Quilts!
Things you will need:
Backing Fabric (at least 6 inches wider and longer than your quilt top.)
Quilt Batting (at least 6 inches wider and longer than your quilt top*)
* If you plan on having a longarmer quilt your quilt, check with them to see how much overhang they need.
Basting Spray or Basting Pins
Binding Fabric
These are helpful but not necessary:
Hera Marker to mark out your quilting lines
Walking Foot (Helps pull your quilt from both the top and the bottom)
OR a Free Motion foot, if you’d like to try Free Motion quilting.
Quilt Sandwich:
First you will need to make your Quilt Sandwich. You will need to cut and sew your backing fabric to make it fit under your quilt correctly. Make sure it is at least 3 inches wider than your quilt top on all sides (quilt top size + 6 inches).
Trim your selvage edge off after joining your pieces.
Make your quilt sandwich by first laying down your quilt backing, wrong side facing up. Tape down to a hard surface, making fabric taut. Next lay your batting on top. Smooth out with your hands, do not stretch. Then lay your quilt top right side up, smooth out with your hands.
There are so many different types of batting. I really love the Warm Company products! I really like the Warm and Plush a lot lately because it is a little thicker than the Warm and Natural and the Warm and White cotton battings. The Warm and White is nice when you have a lot of light colors or white in your quilt and you don’t want the batting to alter the colors at all.
Basting Your Quilt:
Spray baste: My favorite way to baste my quilt is by using Spray Baste! It makes basting so much easier. If you have allergies, this is probably not a good option for you. I’ve tried several different types of spray baste. Some are better than others.
505 Temporary adhesive spray has come highly recommended by several quilters to me. I have been using this brand for the last few quilts I have made. It has great stickiness without being overly sticky. I love that it does not get all over the place like some other sprays I have used.
Find a place where you can lay out your quilt. Make sure to tape the backing fabric taut to the floor (or large table).
Here’s a great spray baste tutorial by Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. Spray Baste Tutorial
Morgan Kelly has a great tabletop spray basting tutorial on her Instagram. Table Top Spray Baste Tutorial
Pin basting: You can use large curved safety pin about 3 to 4 inches apart (about the width of your hand). I like to use the large curved basting pins. This takes a little longer than the spray basting but is a great option.
Quilting your Quilt:
I love that Quilting your quilt can give it another design element. You can choose to send your quilt to a longarmer or quilt it yourself.
Make sure to check your batting to see how far apart your quilting lines need to be.
For my original quilt, I quilted it diagonally to make a crosshatch. I think I will probably do the same with this quilt too. I really love how it turned out.
I like to choose the lightest color in the quilt to use for my thread. This quilt I used white on the front and back.
Hand Tie your Quilt: Some prefer to tie there quilt. Suzy Quilts has an cool way of tying quilts. Check out her Tutorial!
Hand Quilt: Here’s a wonderful video tutorial by Suzy Quilts all about How to Hand Quilt.
Machine Quilt using your Walking Foot:
Emily Dennis from Quilty Love has a great tutorial on how to Zig zag quilt your quilt with a Walking foot. Click here I love this method of quilting, it give your quilt great texture.
Free Motion Quilting:
Free motion quilting can give you great texture and if you aren’t great at quilting straight lines, this would be great for you. Suzy Williams from Suzy Quilts has a great Free Motion Quilting Tutorial. Click here.
Binding Your Quilt:
Binding is the fabric strip that goes on the edge of your quilt. It covers all of the unfinished edges and rounds out your quilt.
You will want to make sure to square up your quilt before you attach the binding. Cut off the extra batting around the edges and make sure your sides are straight and corners are squared.
Most quilters will cut 2 1/2 inch by width of fabric strips and then sew them together at the ends at a diagonal. Then press the strip in half, so that you are wrapping 2 layers of fabric around all of your edges.
You can machine sew the binding to the front of your quilt and wrap it around to the back and hand stitch it down. Or some prefer sewing the binding to the back of the quilt, wrapping it around to the front and machine stitching it down.
Machine binding tutorial by Emily Dennis of Quilty Love CLICK HERE. This is a great beginner friendly tutorial.
Here is a great binding tutorial by Suzy Williams of Suzy Quilts CLICK HERE.
I’m so excited to see everyone finished quilts! Make sure to post them in the Quilt Along Group on Instagram with the Hashtag #OrchardInBloomQAL
Happy Quilting!
Andrea
