Pixies & Petals

 

    This post is going to be out of line.  Straight Out of Line.  That is the name of the ruler, designed by Karla Alexander, that I used for my latest Jaftex challenge.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that as a Brand Ambassador for Jaftex, I receive a mystery bag of fabric about every other month.  My job is to make something wonderful.  I love the challenge!  It is a lot like the TV program Chopped, but with fabric and a month-long time limit.

    The FedEx bundle was waiting for me when I arrived home from Sewposium.  It took a few days to recover from an exhausting week of wrangling 60 quilt shop owners, tossing around ideas and making plans with them for the upcoming year.  Once I caught up on lost sleep, I opened the package to find Pixies and Petals by Salt Meadown Designs for Henry Glass Fabrics.  These cuties brightened my sewing room and reminded me of our granddaughter Madeline.

    Thinking of her reminded me of the stop motion software that she received for Christmas and had downloaded on to my iPad.  A quick trip to Target to buy a doll to star in my show and some training from Madeline and I created this unboxing video.  TOO much fun!

    Now to make the quilt!  As soon as I saw the fabric, I knew that the Straight Out of Line Ruler would be the perfect size for these prints.  Random cutting has the pixies peeking out of the seam lines and
flying across the blocks.  I chose to make the center of the quilt in a checkerboard pattern, alternating the assorted fabrics from the collection with a white-on-white print.  

    I know this looks like one of those "why would I need that?" rulers.  I get that.  All I can say is that I own this ruler, and this is the FOURTH quilt I have made using it!  That is rare for someone that really doesn't like making the same thing twice.  The reason is that the quilts all look very different!

    The ruler is simple and easy to use.  It makes a four patch with "personality".  It also has the added bonus of allowing you to square up each block before sewing them together, so they go together like butter.  

    Once I had the center section together, I decided that this project really needed a border to finish it off.  With minimal yardage to work with, pieced borders are the only option.  I chose to continue the pattern in a row of blocks around the outside edge, eliminating the white.  That created what I think of as a virtual border, and it worked especially well for this project.

    Time for the big finish.  Batting, backing, binding and the photo shoot.  The only problem is that I have very little pink, lavender and light blue in my fabric stash.  Certainly nothing large enough to use for backing this 53" by 60" quilt.  Then I remembered a large piece of Shannon Cuddle that was stashed somewhere in my sewing room.  After searching a few nooks and crannies, I uncovered the lavender plush fabric that was exactly the size I needed.  It was like winning the lottery!

    Finishing a project with Cuddle or Minky type fabric has its own set of issues that need to be considered.  I added a layer of white pre-washed flannel as the batting.  You don't really need a batting layer when using plush fabric on the back.  I used the flannel to keep the purple backing from shadowing through the white-on-white fabrics on the front of the quilt.  All three layers were loaded on the quilting machine and lavender dragonflies joined the pixie party.

    I have to admit that applying binding to a quilt with plush backing is one of my very least favorite sewing chores.  It isn't difficult, just more labor than I think it should be.  It is possible to trim the plush, wrap it to the front and stitch it down by machine, and skip binding all together.  I'm not a fan of how that looks on the back.  I prefer a cotton binding.  That is more easily accomplished by stitching the binding to the plush side then wrapping it to the front to be stitched in place by hand or machine.  The problem is, plush is slippery. 

    Stitching the cotton binding in place is a slow process and requires far more pins than I like to use.  Once the binding has been stitched on the back, I have a trick I use to keep it in place while I top stitch it by machine.  Pellon EZ-Steam in the 1/4" width.  I fuse this tape to the seam allowance.  When you remove the paper backing, the surface is sticky.  You can finger press your binding in place, and it will stick.  The fusible isn't permanent until you iron the binding.  After everything is tacked down and my mitered corners are perfect, I machine stitch, very close to the edge of the binding.  This trick also works if you like to wrap your binding to the back and stitch in-the-ditch on the front of the quilt.

    Now my pixie doll has a snuggly quilt ready and waiting for Madeline's next visit!

FULL DISCLOSURE:

     The light turquoise I used for the binding isn't part of the fabric collection.  I had to go shopping for that piece.  I needed a 1/2 yard, but I bought a yard.... and a few other yards.... to match the 1/2 yard of turquoise that I will have leftover..... some might be two yards..... and some pink.... because as I said, I don't have much pink.... It is entirely possible that pixie is a bad influence. 😉