Tuesday 7 February 2012

A back and a malfunctioning piece of household equipment

Those of you with a very long memory, and those of you who (quite rightly) keep a spreadsheet of all things in my life - Yes, that would be you Dotty - may remember I pieced the top of my nephew's quilt ages ago... see here if you don't remember, (and don't forget to put it into your spreadsheet).  I haven't given up on it!  At the weekend, I finally pieced the backing.

The quilt top is 37 x 45 inches and so the backing needed to be bigger as I know it will shift when I'm quilting it, just like it did with my lap top cosy.  I wanted it to be at least 6 inches bigger all round.  When buying the fabric, I'd bought a metre piece of two of the prints with the idea that it would be the backing.  Clearly I hadn't checked the fabric requirements, why would I do that?  That would be organised, and planning ahead...

A pieced backing was the only option.  But a simple one.


You know what?  It was easier to piece this than take a bloody photo of it!  There was snow on the ground outside and enough light coming through my window, but I just couldn't get a good photo!  As you can see, I've left the quilt top lying on the floor underneath it!


I pieced some of the left over charm squares together, then added a border of the print fabric which is the sashing on the front, then sewed it to a big piece of my two big bits. 



It is loads bigger than the top which is a good thing.  I then wanted to get the wadding fused on (yep, I went for fusible wadding, got to be easier...), baste it and get the machine quilting done, I'm also planning some hand quilting.


  
And guess what?  My iron had packed up.  It was spurting out lots of water, but it wasn't getting any of the creases out.  To top it all off, it might not have been hot enough to get the creases out, but the handle was burning my hand!  I had to give up for the day.  I bought a new iron yesterday so I hope to tackle this soon, possibly Friday night - anyone know if it's FSNI?

12 comments:

Allie said...

You did a lovely job piecing that back - this will be darling! What is it with irons, I swear they're all made by the devil.

Cuckoo said...

Wendy will you please post your broken iron to me so that I can get out of ironing myhusbands bnleeding work shirts?

Your piecing looks ace! I say that like I know what peicing is...

The Dotty One said...

It looks fab - sometimes the best things come out of making a mistake with measurements and having to fudge something! Grrr about the iron!
Looking forward to seeing it all put together - and v curious about the mixture of machine and hand quilting.
xx

PS. I don't want to send you into a fit of rage but I think blogger might have deleted some of your post - what I can see in my dashboard (thanks for the mention!) is different to what I can see on your blog. Weird!

Pootle said...

Your backing looks great! x

Fiona said...

love backs with a bit of piecing.. makes it such fun.... good luck with the iron.. they always give up at crucial times!!
Hugz

Sandra :) said...

I like pieced backs better than non-pieced ones - on the practical side they're perfect for using up scraps which will co-ordinate perfectly - on the artistic side, they're just plain out PRETTY!

Sandra :) said...

Oh yes - and I'm with Allie - I think most irons were made by the devil. No drip? Yeah - mine says that and is usually wet FROM DRIPPING. I used my iron a LOT - at best I get a year out of them, no matter the cost, so I don't buy the expensive ones any more. I hated like the dickens paying $90 for an iron that lasted only a year - colour me annoyed!

BarPurple said...

I've given you an award. http://www.barpurple.net/2012/02/versatile-blogger.html

Just-Do said...

How recognizable! But I love the way you solved the idea for the back of your quilt. And I won't comment on the iron; that would just be another horror-story.

Nancy Lee said...

Love your artistic decisions about the backing for this very pretty quilt. Sorry to hear about your iron. Once, I bought one to replace a broken one. The new one was WORSE than the one that I threw out. My current one is starting to spit water, so that usually marks the beginning of the end. Good luck with the quilting!

Nancy Lee said...

Oh, and FNSI is Feb. 17.

Allie said...

Hi Wendy, just gave you an award on my blog!