Hootville...

Today saw the finishing touches on a small quilt for charity.  It's one of the ones I practiced long-arm quilting on.  This is a picture of the top before I quilted it...

Hootville Top

The quilt is made from a panel I cut apart and sashed with the red.  It was a very cute panel and nice quality fabric, but I have to admit the blocks were wonky and not square at all.  No matter how much I starched and pressed them, they still continued to fight me - particularly while quilting.

I used minkee for the backing on this one.  It's a charity quilt for a child and I thought they'd enjoy the texture and softness of it.  Minkee is a bit stretchy though so I basted it to the batting before loading it onto the frame.  That seemed to stabilize it enough for me to quilt it.

Batting and Minkee Batting

I wanted to try a couple of different techniques on the long-arm and used this as practice.  I bought a clamshell ruler and used it to make circles inside the sashing.  I also used a different size clamshell in the outer border.

Circle and Clamshell Quilting

I completed all the circles and clamshells on the long-arm and then finished the rest of the quilting at home on my regular sewing machine.  I straight stitched the printed border inside each block and free motion outlined some of the figures in each block.

Hootville Quilted

I think the front turned out pretty cute, but I am so in love with the back!  I thought the minkee might be difficult to work with.  Not only was I wrong about that, but the effect of the quilting on the back is so graphic.

Minkee Backing on Hootville

It's as if all the quilting is etched on the fabric.  The color is really a deep chocolate brown, but the flash lightened it quite a bit in the pictures.  Hopefully you can still see all of the quilting though.

Monkey and Owl Block from the Back

In this one block I outlined the monkey and owl on a branch and they show up so well on the back.  I would definitely use this again for another baby or kid's quilt.  I don't think you even need batting here although it did nicely stabilize the backing.  I also cut my binding wider than usual to account for the bulk of the minkee.  I cut it 3", but probably could have gotten away with 2.75".  The binding was all attached by machine.  I don't know if it would have even been possible to hand stitch it to the back or not.

Another Section of the Back of Hootville

The stats for this quilt are:

• Size: 48" square
• Fabrics: Owl Panel from Wish Upon a Quilt, Sashing is Kona Cotton and Outer Border was from my stash. Backing is minkee in chocolate brown from JoAnns.
• Batting: Warm and Natural
• Thread: Superior Threads So Fine 50 wt for circles and clamshells; other quilting is a mix of Aurifil and Guterman 50wt.
• Quilting: Custom
• Started in September 2010, completed January 2011.

So this quilt is now done and ready to go to it's new home - a child at the InterAct shelter.

Until later...

So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. 

James 2:17 (NLT )