Rachel, I'm so very sorry to read of both of your Grandmothers' passing. I'm sure there is a hole left in your heart, but it will grow smaller as time passes.

On the other hand, congratulations of your new endeavor. I wish you all the luck for its success.

Thank you Kathy, it has been an enigma of a month, but luckily things are looking up now, so that is a very good thing. I got a lot of product pictures put into the store last night, so who knows maybe I will make my Feb 1st goal afterall!! :)

Thanks guys!!
Rachel

I'm getting closer guys! Its exciting!! I'm quilting now on pieced tri #47. I have decided that I will put the border together prior to quilting the plain between tris. So, I got to thinking..I think that I should baste the batting to the between tri first????

I must get busy finishing up those last 2 kites too. Maybe by tomorrow I can lay out all the tris, we'll see! I have 1 half of the batting sewn together on the center section..so still have that left to do too..but I can see a little pin-prick of light at the end of the tunnel!!

I just got an email from Quilters daily talking about joining quilt batting. It suggested that you should "graft" the batting rather than butting/zigzag stitching. :shock: SURELY, Jane will be ok just butting it together and hand stitching it, right???? I'm really looking for reassurance here, since its already done.

They were suggesting that you should cut a layer from each side of the batting, overlap them and then sew them together. I can see why that would be a nicer way to do it, but they also suggested that it would be a bit stronger and wear better. I doubt that my Jane will actually get enough "wear" to cause a problem, but it is somthing to think about....

here's what they suggest to do

I think that's a lot of extra work, and not necessary, Patti - firstly, Jane's sashing batting is so narrow, I don't think you would have the room to shave down half a layer of W&N so that you could overlap and 'graft'. Also, (well in my case) I did two rows of quilting along each section of sashing (I stitches a cross on the little cornerstones, so that on the long rows, I could go right from on end to the other, and turn to come back again). That is plenty of strength as far as I am concerned, especially as the batting got basted together at the back too.

I think their method might be good for 12in blocks, but not with Jane's blocks.

Well done for getting your tris done - you are at the more than a glimmer of light stage now.

If you are going to use one long length of batting for each border (of pieced and plain tris sewn together), then I think I would baste, and I also think I would start in the middle of the border, and work towards each end. Just my twopennyworth.

Thats kinda what I was thinking, Lesley...This quilt should be fine...I just read that this morning and my immediate thought was " WHAT???!!!"

Thats a good idea about starting in the center of each border, but I already have quilted the pieced tris, so they are already on the batting. I'll have to sew them to the betweens just like I sewed the center blocks together. Thats why I was thinking, I'll have to baste the batting to them and trim them up, then sew as before to make it work. Thanks for your 2 pennyworth...thats why I ask!LOL!

Not having sashing between the tris made it a bit different, Patti.

I hope the pics make sense.

Oh gosh...you are right! How did you trim the batting? I can see that I need to really think this through!

I wonder if I would be better off just sewing the quilted, pieced tris to the plain between, then cutting the batting to exact size for the "betweens" and then trimming the quilted, pieced tris batting, then sewing down? I bet there is a better way...

I trimmed with scissors, I have some nice sharp Ghingers.

I had another thought last night - you could obviously leave your batting in situ behind the already quilted pieced tris, just trimming the batting to a quarter inch after joining to the unpieced ones.

Then put your long strip of batting behind the whole border. The result would be a double layer behind your pieced tries, and a single layer behind your trapuntoed plain tris. How does that sound?

For others not so far along, if you want to put long strips of batting behind the tri border, may I suggest you don't QAYG on the pieced tris.

I think I did it the hard way, but I didn't consider how I was going to get my tris together without sashing between them. In the end, it worked out fine, just slowed up production when I had to sew all those seams on the batting.

I had a YIKES moment when I woke up this morning. I can't do it that way Lesley-I'm planning trapunto! I will have to sew the pieced/batted tris to the plain betweens (with no batting). Then I'll have to do the trapunto on the betweens- then I'll have to add the layer of W&N batting.

I can try using a strip and doubling up on the batting on the pieced tris..but I might rather only have the one layer. In that case..I think I can just cut each one to size and hand stitch it in place behind the between. I know....more work...but at this point...I think I'd rather make sure it ends up exactly "right" (for me anyway). Know what I mean?

I'm concerned with how that would "lay" as a finished quilt and also doing the SITD quilting once I get the back on.