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Wow! That Quilt along went by so fast! We are on WEEK 5 of the Starlight Mountains Quilt Along with the National Quilters Circle! We have all these beautiful blocks, now it’s time to turn them into a comfy quilt!
This week you can download the Finishing instructions. These will give you instructions on how to sew your top together, add your borders and how to turn your quilt top into a cozy quilt!
DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN: Starlight Mountains Quilt Block Challenge | National Quilters Circle
Things you will need to finish your quilt:
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)
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)
Finishing our Quilts!
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.
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.
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 great spray baste tutorial by Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. Spray Baste Tutorial
Pin basting: You can use 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:
This step is totally up to you!
For my original quilt I used my walking foot and quilted about 1 inch apart. I used my hera marker a 6×24 inch ruler to mark out my line on the borders and larger finished pieces in my quilt top. I used my seams as a guide. I like to sew about 1/2 from the seam, this helps avoid the bulk of the seams.
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 /12 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.
One of my favorite binding tutorials is by Suzy Williams of Suzy Quilts. Go check it out!
I’m so excited to see everyone finished quilts!
How do I participate?
Make sure to Post your finished quilt top photo in The NQC Block Challenge Facebook group
OR Post your photos on Instagram using the hashtags #HappyCloudCreations and/or #NQCQuiltBlockChallenge
You can also JOIN my Facebook Quilt Along Group – Happy Cloud Creations Quilt Alongs I will be posting my photos over in my quilt along group also!
You can sign up for my Newsletter!
QUILT ALONG SCHEDULE:
Fabric Requirments
My Blog – Explaining this Quilt Along
September 7th – Week 1 – Small Star Block #1 (Make 6)
September 14th – Week 2 – Small Star Block #2 (Make 6)
September 21st – Week 3 – Mountain Block (Make 6)
September 28th – Week 4 – Large Star Block (Make 3)
October 5th – Week 5 – Quilt Borders and Assembly
Happy Quilting!
Andrea
