Jeannette's Quilt

I have had a friend for a very long time and her name is Jeannette. Jeannette is famous in her own right as a cross-stitch designer, you can check her out at http://jeannettedouglas.ca/ . Her designs are amazing and I am fortunate enough to have some beautiful work done by her decorating our home. On a visit to Jeannette, I snuck into her studio and took a few pictures and also one of her and hubby's bedroom. It was done with the intent of making a quilt for her. Below is a picture of the quilt that I did for her. It is a variation on a McCall's Quilting Magazine pattern called "Something Blue" Jeannette's is done in cream tone on tone and an almost black background with vines twisting all over it in blue grey , green and muted gold. I wish I had bought more fabric originally as 3 yards wasn't quite enough to make a draping queen size bed quilt. I had bought the fabric years ago and was waiting for the right person and project. It is made with triangles on a roll and I did the FMQ on my Sapphire 830 Viking. Jeannette told me that she has had many compliments on the quilt and the quilting too.

I really like how the dark binding helps to frame and define the quilt.  Thanks to Carnell for holding the quilt up so I could take the picture.

Here we are Janet on the left and Jeannette on the right!

Above is the artwork in Jeannette's room that inspired the quilt



 The quilt above and below are an example of a non-traditional baby quilt. Like always, I am trying out new patterns all the time this is a split rail set on point in regular fabric and batiks. finished with a simple meander FMQ. This is for my stepdaughter's brother Allen, he has a new daughter Peyton :)

Summer Breeze for Sharon a Hurricane Sandy Survivor!

 My g/f, Sharon from high was struck by Hurricane Sandy.  I felt instead of making a quilt for someone I didn't know I would make more than a charity quilt and go whole hog for someone I did know!  I had been holding on to my Summer Breeze II collection and I thought this was the perfect time to use this simple beautiful fabric. I chose the Stepping Stones pattern from Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  I did not have the required fat quarters so I ordered some yardage in the fabric line from ebay.  I am really pleased with the crisp and fresh colors of yellow and blue.  Yellow is not one of my favourite colours, but when combined with blue I love the contrast.  I am truly hoping that this quilt can be a new keepsake for Sharon, in light of having lost everything to the storm.

 LeMoyne Star for Namaar

LeMoyne Star with Lattice Work done with Rapid Fire Ruler

and sandwiched with Elmer's Washable Glue

This quilt was made for our young friend who has graduated from college and has gone for more schooling to become a minister. I used 2 jelly rolls one was Warm Colors from Moda, the other was a random cranberry colored picked up somewhere, and Moda Warm colors fat quarters, the background was from a member here in the sales section. I used the Elmer's Washable School Glue method for the sandwiching and FMQ on my Viking Sapphire 830. The pattern is from Marsha McCloskey's Quick Classic Quilts, I had already made the stars before getting the book off of Amazon - so I had to put my thinking cap on to figure out the measurements for the sashing, lattice work and corner stones. Deb Tucker's ruler for LeMoyne Stars was sure the ticket to the success of this quilt!
I really like this quilt and think it is perfect for a young man. I made 2 pillow case to coordinate also and makes for great wrapping paper at this time of year 

Starry Night for Jessica and Tim

 My daughter, Jessica requested a quilt made from this pattern. I used Moda's Good Fortune Fat Eights and yardage from Connecting Threads, the pattern also calls for using Triangles on A Roll which I did use and that makes for nice crisp star points.  I chose the colours to go with the walls in their guest room - here is the link to see it in place (I hope) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151328098250891&set=a.10150338670640891.386840.564335890&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

 This quilt, above and below is also from Pam and Nicky Lintott's book  It is called Blossom Time.  To me this is a modern quilt and a variation from more the more tradition quilts I do.  The bright colours against the white background make it pop - I must thank my good good friend June from Vancouver for showing me how nicely white can be as a background!  This is a baby quilt for my daughter, Jessica's friends Shayna and Travis who has a little girl they named Chloe :)

Here is another quilt from Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts! Two summers ago I participated in an exchange of 7.5 inch Christmas squares on with individuals from the Quilting Board.  I never knew what I would do with these squares until my newest granddaughter Gemma Elizabeth was born.  Previously, I had made her sisters matching Christmas quilts from another block exchange I had done with my guild.  The Hexagon Hip Hop was the perfect pattern is use the squares and create for Gemma an I Spy Christmas quilt.  The pattern orginal called for layer cakes but I just followed their method using the 7.5 inch squares and I must say it turned out great.  We all have to adapt patterns to suit ourselves, just like a recipe can be tweeked to our tastebuds so can a quilt pattern.  Merry Chrsitams Gemma and have fun with your I Spy as you grow older!

Using Elmer's Washable School Glue to baste your quilts

Elmer's Washable School by the gallon is $14.00 on Amazon - cheap  I should be able to do at least 18 quilts with a gallon of glue
vs
505 in the red can $13.00 a can and I can get maybe 3 quilts per can

Read on and see if this method is for you.

My guild President asked me this past Sunday why I would want to use glue on my quilts, I gave a quick answer but will go into some depth here.
I hate pinning - nothing seemed to stay flat and in place no matter how many pins I used.  I would poke my fingers and sometimes get some blood on the quilt that I would have to remove then.  NO blood on quilts as there is enough sweat and tears - he he he do you remember the group Blood, Sweat and Tears :) I spend too many hours pinning quilts either on the floor or on tables if the quilt was small enough - I distinctive remember spending 8 hours pinning my son's quilt for when he passed boot camp for the NAVY back in the day when I only stitched in the ditch.  I hated taking all those pins out again as I was sewing along.
When I found 505 temporary spray adhesive, I was in hog heaven!  The answer to my prayers was at last at hand.  I scoured the Internet to find the best price and by ordering it by the case it was about $13.00 a can for the large size. Now, 505 in the red can comes from Frances but is still the same as the 505 found here in the USA.  I figured I could get 3 maybe 4 quilts out of each can.  Not bad, since it cut the sandwiching process down expediently. I experience no fumes with the spray either,
but there is still is the cost.  This was when I decided to try FMQ on my domestic machine also and I was zipping along in no time.
I had been reading on the Internet at the Quilting Board, that some folks were trying the Elmer's Washable School Glue for basting their quilts together.  I know in elementary school in Canada where I was a support worker that we frequently used this glue on the cloth crafts that the children would make at Valentine's Day.  So I asked if anyone had done a tutorial - no one had so I figured I could do this.
The Elmer's Washable School glue is affordable (I even tried some Playschool washable glue I found at the 99 cent Store) I bought a gallon and a single bottle to put glue in to for around $ 17.00 - I have done 14 quilts and still have a little more than 1/3 of the gallon left.  So for less than a dollar a quilt I have found an excellent alternative to pinning and spray basting.
If kids can eat this stuff at school and we all know that they do unintentionally I know it is safe for my quilts and for the environment.
Yes, it does wash out in warm water in the washing machine.  I take my quilts as a rule to the laundry mat (see that posting here too) as I have an HE top loading washer and it is not the best for washing anything larger
than a lap quilt.

If I use Elmer's I will have more money for fabric :)


Okay everyone!  Sweet Adeline Quilts has perfected the Elmer's Washable Spray Glue in a spray bottle ratio so here you go!  It is as follows: " I played around with watered down elmers in a spray bottle (1 part glue to 3 parts water) and it worked but requires a LOT more ironing."

or

I have tweaked a recipe from a member of the Quilting Board forum that I follow.  Mrs. Beasley posted a recipe that I finally got around to trying yesterday, I modified the recipe to keep in step with my cooking style.  The spray glue mixture sprayed easily out of the bottle and had a nice adhesion to it.
So here we go!

3 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces or rubbing alcohol
clean spray bottle


- In a pot place 2 cups of water and 1/2 tsp of salt bring to a boil and reduce to a gentle boil.
- In a gravy shaker (or a jam jar) put 1 cup of cold water and 3 tbsp of flour - shake until the flour and water are combined.
- Whisk the flour mixture into the gently boiling water like you are making gravy and let it cook until the consistency of gravy/egg whites/ thin gruel.
- Remove from the heat and let it cool down to room temperature.
- In a clean spray bottle add 8 ounces of rubbing alcohol and the cooled flour mixture, gently shake and go sandwich a quilt.

*** There was one posting that someone had sprayed a quilt and left for a few months and they had some mold grow.  Since I am not going to leave my two quilts that I sandwiched yesterday that long I can't say for certain that this does or does not happen.  I just wanted everyone to know that this had been reported. 

 First, I put my Warm and Natural Batting in the dryer for a bit to try and soften the wrinkles.  The I spread it out on my ping pong table (we never play ping pong on it, I use it only for quilting purposes)

 Then I spread my backing on the top of the batting. I arranged it so that there was batting showing underneath all around the edges.  I smoothed it all with my hands to ensure that there were no wrinkles in the batting.

 Then I folded half of the backing towards the center of the quilt, (like folding a piece of paper in half on the long side of the paper.)

 Now, holding the smaller bottle of glue over the batting at about 18 inches high  I began to squeeze out the glue. With constant pressure I swirled the glue about 18 inches back and forth until I had about an 18 inch square swirl of glue.  It dotted and did not lie in a straight line.  I did this the entire length of the quilt.

 I started in the center of the length of the backing and gentle lifted and pulled it towards me.  I then smoothed it down with my hand. Then I did the same thing towards the left of me until I reached the end of the row and then I did the same thing on the right side.

 I made sure there were no wrinkles and hand pressed the backing to the batting.

 I repeated the same actions on the other side of the table with the glue onto the batting, then hand pressing it down.   The I let it dry overnight.  I positioned the quilt so that the center line was on the table's middle so that there was even pressure on the quilt as it dried.

I glued right up to the edge of the quilt!  When I FMQ, I work the FMQing around the edge of the quilt and quilt into the middle of the quilt.  The exact opposite of most folks.  I read that if you quilt was securely basted it didn't matter where you started and ended :)

 It repeated the gluing and hand pressing for the quilt top.  I know you can see ripples on the batting, but once the glue and hand pressing was completed the weight and pressure flattened them right out.  I let it all dry overnight once again and FMQed the next day.

Here is the completed quilt, it is a Turning Thirty for my stepson in the Army up in Alaska.  I made pillowcases to coordinate also.  I washed the quilt in a triple washer at the laundry mat with Purex soap pucks and 2 Color Catchers.  I pieced the back aka Back Art, as it is more of a scrappy quilt.  I am sure he will like it!  Sorry the picture is sideways, I tried to straighten it, but to no avail.