Wednesday, September 26, 2007

WIP Wednesday - Week 38 - The end of the raggedy edge quilt

Well don't fall off your chairs, but I am about to do a post about quilting! LOL I'm up to the binding on my Dolls Quilt swap, unsure now about it, it looks a bit "safe" may just have to sew another one! And up to sewing the label onto the back of the Quilt Studio's 12 inch challenge, so with two projects nearly scratched off the WIP list, I decided I was on a roll, and dragged out the raggedy edges quilt I started back in June that was a sew along/tutorial for some of the sewing girls on EB, they have all finished their's ages back! Check out Natalie's here and Ad's here and Kylie's here. Great work girls!

But for anyone else who is interested, the getting ready instructions are here, and then when you are ready to sew, here are the steps to part 2. So now, when your up to that bit, here comes to fun bit below!

Once you have all your squares sewn in rows, you need to sew the rows together. Same as sewing the squares, pin it down and sew about 1cm in from the edge. When you get to the bit where the squares are joined, its a bit chunky as you are sewing through 8 layers of material, you can fold one square "flap" up and one down to get it under your machine, or just pull it through. With a walking foot it shouldn't be a drama.

Then once all you have sewn your rows togther so you have two rows joined, you want to keep joining them up till you have the whole quilt top complete. I sew my rows in batches, like if it was a 10 row quilt, I'd sew 2 groups of 3 rows each, one of 4, then sew then together, rather than just adding one at a time, makes it easier to handle when your running it under the machine.

So once all the rows are completed, this is what my quilt looked like! You need to sew around the very edge of the quilt, about 1 cm in again, twice for strength. And now for the fun part!

Get out your little scissors and get ready to be covered in little offcuts of thread as you snip snip snip the edges all the way around! Every side of every square! Be careful not to cut your stitching though. I cut about 2 mm away from the sitching. Then you want to give it a good shake and then pop it in the wash. Don't wash it with anything else cause you'll get little offcuts threads over everything!

After you have washed it, pop it in the tumble drier, this will make the raggedy edges, soft and more raggedy looking, like above. I like to repeat the wash and dry process twice.

Then the next and last step is to snuggle under it, or be a ghost as Grace is here! Hope these instructions make sense, pop in a comment if you make one, love to see a photo!

7 comments:

Jody Sanders said...

Thank you so much for posting this! I saw your quilt on Flickr and followed the link ... I've been wanting to try my hand at one of these quilts and now I think I will! Your quilt turned out very nicely.

Natalie said...

Gorgeous quilt as always Helen! I love your eye for such beautiful bright colours too.

Rosalyn Manesse said...

Thanks for putting me down for a contact on Flickr. I'm kind of new to Flickr and I don't fully understand all the Flickr stuff. I love the fluffy quilt you made. I'm afraid to make one as I live in a condo, and don't want to stuff up the dryer exhaust. But I am making a puff quilt, as I explain in detail on my blog.
http://roz-counterpane.blogspot.com

Cass said...

Looks good Helen

atet said...

Lovely quilt -- one recommendation for washing/drying it. If your washer has a lint trap -- make sure it's new as it will fill up quickly. Also, with the dryer, make sure to check the lint tray often and clean it while drying. Let's just say I learned the hard way (an overflowing utility sink) with the washing machine and the dryer -- well, after the water clean up I made sure to check the dryer (had to clean the darned thing 3 times for the first time through).

AJ said...

Well Done Helen...i'm still working on mine!!

Dannielle said...

Lovely! I love the fun, bright colors you gravitate toward.