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When I see pictures of the quilts posted on the Quiltingboard I so often wish I could see the photos of the quilt as it is being created. That is how I am going to post this and I hope you won't mind lots of photos.
The jelly roll quilt I made from my scraps
I started cutting my squares May 10, 2010 and finished the scrappy jelly roll quilt today. It was a hobby, not a job so I didn't do a 40 hour work week. I did spend a phenomenal amount of time reading, learning, researching, practicing and reading again. One of the best tools I had was this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw which came from one of the Quiltingboard posts from 2009. http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-17400-1.htm.
I enjoyed remembering whose stash the fabric came from, when I got it and what they may have been using it for.
I enjoyed remembering and applying the knowledge, tips and tricks I have learned on the Quiltingboard. Some of you will remember telling me some of these things in some of our posts.
Some of the good sewing habits I used: ( An asterisk * denotes the ones I learned on the Quiltingboard)
*Started a Quilting Diary, journaled each time I worked on the quilt and documented my work with digital photos
*used my walking foot
*used a Schmetz 75/11 quilting needle
*used the June Taylor Shape cut
*used a sharp rotary blade
*made good use of my folding tables and ironing 'wood board'
*used my design wall
*starched and pressed each seam, rolling them into a jelly roll.
*seamed strips from the jelly roll into a quilt top
*starched and pressed each strip seam
*added a 3 1/2" sashing strip around all 4 sides
double stitched around all 4 sides and then trimmed the raw edges.
*cut a 31/2" binding strip, pressed it in half with right sides together, *attached it to the backside of the quilt, *mitered the corners, and *stitched in the ditch from the top side to the bottom side.
*mitered each end of my binding strips together when I finished off the binding.
*was patient with the machine, sewing on slow+ speed letting the walking foot have time to function properly.
*was careful when moving the quilt with the walking foot raised so I didn't break the little plastic grabber thingy.
*did not put straight pins in my mouth.
Some of the not so good sewing habits I used:
used a 1/2" seam rather than the standard 1/4".
I had to sew over 5 spots on the binding where my I 'slid off' my stitch in the ditch. (An inch or so only per spot and I was proud of that!)
I broke one needle sewing over a straight pin.
I used the rotary blade on about 1 yard of the binding strip knowing it needed to be sharpened yet I waited to sharpen it.
I did not use leaders and enders.