Wednesday 4 September 2013

Baby Fence Rail Pt VI

A couple of weekends ago I finally got to the shops to buy some wadding (batting) so that I can finish the Baby Fence Rail quilt.  That was the easy part.  I still needed to choose a backing fabric (remember the green stuff I bought for the purpose and then turned into a shirt?).  After trolling the streets of London for an hour or two I settled on some cassis-coloured (that's pale purple to you and I) cotton sateen lining fabric.  Surprisingly the colour combination works.

Having bought the missing ingredients I discovered new enthusiasm for this quilt.  So I wasted no time and gave the wadding a bath!  This is supposed to remove excess cotton oil which could mark the quilt and to preshrink the wadding.  Some people do and some people don't.  I guess I am just one of those guys who do.


With the wadding and backing fabric washed, preshrunk and dried I layered the quilt sandwich in the usual way.  Pausing only to spend a few minutes deliberating over the right/wrong side of the cotton sateen.  I decided to put the shiny side out.  I thought that this would feel nicest if anyone should try sleeping under the quilt.


When I sandwiched the Log Cabin quilt one of my readers was rather alarmed by how few pins I used in my basting and I solemnly swore to use more on my next project.  I even bought some fancy curved safety pins.  I basted at approximately four inches or less and here is a photograph to prove it.  I must confess that the whole thing feels a lot firmer and I am hoping it will make the quilting process easier.


Now for the really big news.  In an exclusive announcement made this evening our spokesman can confirm that this quilt will be quilted OUT of THE DITCH!!


I have started to mark the quilt top with inch wide masking tape.  I am going to quilt the centre of the quilt with a diagonal cross hatched grid.  Tomorrow, with a fair wind, I may get the Singer 401G out and lay down that first row of quilting...


3 comments:

  1. ... and I'm just one of those gals who doesn't.

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  2. Yes! Out of the ditch :). You will enjoy it. I am curious why you prewash your batting...is it recommended due to manufacturer? I had not previously heard of this.

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    1. Hi Karen
      I used polyester batting on my very first quilt last summer and I didn't prewash it but I washed the whole quilt after it was finished to get rid of the sewing machine oil I managed to drip onto it. Since then I have been using cotton polyester blend batting and the manufacturer of the brand that I used for my log cabin quilt recommended pre-washing to pre-shrink and to remove residual cotton oil which they claimed could stain the quilt top or lining after the quilt was completed. I just followed the instructions out of good old English fear or doing the wrong thing.

      Hugs
      G

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