First Quilt (proper) part 6

Well, thanks to the Sheffield Steel Dogs who had a game yesterday, I was able to check out my quilt 'strips' on the wadding/winceyette and the Ikea lightweight tog quilt to see which of the two 'paddings' I am going to use as my final (final) 'quilt'.

Well the Ikea solution sounded good but in practice the outer fabric, I don't think, will last very long before it's torn.  The fabric seems to be similar to a lightweight interfacing material and, although we won't be playing tug-o-war with it, I don't think it will be long before repairs will need to be made or  (even worse), another quilt for the underside!! lol groan!

Therefore I will be using the wadding/padding I got from my trip to Hobbycraft as I was correct in thinking that the seams would be too 'uncomfortable' without it and I am also going to be brave, bite the bullet and sew all the rows together first then sew all three parts together.  I haven't decided what colour thread to use yet as my denim is mainly blue (doh - obviously) but the backing has a cream background with pictures of black animals all over.  (see photo right)


As there is quite a lot of sewing to do not to mention the quilting part (!!!!), I will pin everything down within an inch of its life and any bits I have to 'trim off' will be used to sample thread colours both top and bottom of the quilt.  That way I will be able to work out what tensions to use them under (if they are different makes) and also check out the finished look before I commit myself 100%.

Initially I thought, to be on  the safe side, I would 'stitch in the ditch' for this one as it is my first and there is so much 'faff' on the top side anyway.  However, I wasn't counting on the number of seams on the reverse of the topside and the many different ways that they lay.  Stitching in the ditch has now now been ditched (! pardon the pun) and I will have to rethink how I am going to quilt it.

As a final decision hasn't been made on the colour of the threads I will use and I know that I will be trimming off some of the winceyette/padding, I can also trial quilt using some of the odd pieces of denim I have left to experiment with the quilting.   I think I may also revert back to using Lucy - my hand-crank - as she really doesn't care what I throw at her, she just sews!  The hand control will be better at a slower speed even though I will only have one hand to guide the whole thing through the machine.  This is the theory - practice may be different and I may stop with the electric one.... will let you know.

Who knew there would be all sorts of decisions to make - thought it would be just sew and go!  Yes, I do know what thought did, thank you!  lol

However, there may not be another post for quite a while now as I can see these last two stages taking a lot of my early mornings up.  Wish me luck................................. :0)