8/02/2014

Construction Notes on My Urban Contrast Quilt

I wanted to share a few techniques I used to make this little quilt. 


I printed the photos on EQ Printables Photo Fabric Sheets. I used Regular Cotton (200 thread count). I usually use Cotton Lawn with 240 threads and do like it better as I think it is a softer fabric. But this printed well on my older HP Deskjet F2210. I used the normal print setting. In the past I have not found a difference in the ink quality of the BEST setting and the NORMAL setting. 


I like the backing on the EQ sheets. It is a plastic-type film which peels off so easily. Then the fabric print goes into water to rinse out any extra ink. I have tried other sheets that have a paper backing and some of the papers are a bear to get off. 

I wanted to sash the quilt with a street look. I cut 1-1/4" strips of a black textured fabric and 1" strips of a solid yellow fabric. I sewed the yellow to one black strip and pressed toward the black.


I knew the yellow strip had to be narrow to give somewhat proper proportions. I decided on making it 1/8" wide. I had cut the strip wider than I needed so I could trim it down and get rid of any wiggly edge. I lined up my ruler so that I had the 1/8" of yellow and the 1/4" seam allowance. And my cut was straight because I lined up the seam line on the 3/8" mark on the ruler.


This trimming would make it straight when I sewed on the other black piece.


I had the sashings ready. I cut them a bit longer than the photos so I could trim each step of the way. 


I sewed the bottom two photos and sashing together.


A center sashing was sewn to the two top photos that would be attached to the lower section as you see in the completed quilt. Here is a close-up of the sashing. I am quite pleased with the straightness of the yellow strips.


The outer borders were added.
Before I began quilting, I chose to sew the label on the backing fabric. This is something I want to start doing with all my quilts. (I have heard of quilts that are stolen and labels are removed when they are attached with handstitching.)

To begin, I printed my label on a photo fabric sheet. With the label face down on the backing, I sewed the bottom edge to the backing. I used the water soluble basting tape to turn the side edges and the top edge under. I like this tape since it holds and I don't have to iron and fuss with the seam allowances in places like this. 


I put one extra piece of soluble tape on the top fold to hold the label to the backing so I could stitch it down without using pins. 



And the label is attached. After quilting the entire quilt, I saw that part of the quilting ran through the label. I should have planned the label a bit better to avoid this, but no doubt it is secure.  If anyone removes the label, there will be more work involved than they may want. 



On a large quilt, I don't think I would mind that the quilting goes through the label. Let me know what your thoughts are on labels and security. 


Remember, comment here or you can email me at patchworkbreeze(at)gmail.com

Stop by Monday to see the pincushion that arrived from my swap partner the other day. I will also post some photos of my latest project. 















2 comments:

barbara woods said...

love your labels

Leanne said...

It's fun to see the process of using the photos, thank you. I like your label, I just hand stitch them on but I figure that if someone stole my quilt, then I would just have to make another.