OK now you have a pattern and you have your fabric, type/color and you have it all cut up into the pieces (that’s another whole post) you need as dictated by your pattern. The next item you”ll need is some thread to hold the whole thing together with, and as in you fabric type you can’t go to far wrong with cotton thread.
When making your quilt it’s best to try and match your thread type with the type of fabric your working with, and as with your fabric use the best quality thread you can afford.
Lets take a look at some of our options:
Cotton: Cotton quilting thread is coated so that it is easy to sew with and being a natural fiber is sturdy and durable making it ideal for creating something that will last for years. Cotton works fine for both hand & machine quilting although hand quilting thread is usually a bit heavier weight than machine quilting thread. Since cotton is so durable it is great for a quilt, that will get everyday use, and occasional cleanings. The endless choices of color also mean that you can find a thread color that will match you fabric.
Rayon: Is a very shiny thread which is fine for embroidery work, but because it is not always colorfast you may want to use it only on wall hangings and quilt art which would not be subject to much in the way of cleanings. You will want to buy good US made quality as many foreign brands have high acid content and are not as durable.
Nylon: Is a polyamide (most invisible monofilament)which becomes yellow and brittle with time and also melts at very low temperatures, so I feel is not something you would generally want to use in a quilt.
Polyester: Unlike nylon monofilament it does not grow yellow and brittle over time or melt at low temps so it is a much better choice for embroidery work, and aplique’
Metallic: Is an aluminum coated thread, using cotton/polyester/paper core. It can be a little difficult to use in your machine with taking care in setting it up properly.
Metal/Plastic: It is a thermoplastic with aluminum coating. For  art/embellishment work.
Thread weight is something else you need to take into account when deciding on your thread choice, it usually comes in 30 to 60 wt. Here are some rough guidelines. You may find that you prefer different wt for your quilting work.
20-30 wt – heavier used for decorative work
28-30 wt – for bobbin in decorative
40 wt – used for quilting
50 wt – for piecing
50-60 wt – used in bobbin and for applique’
wt & plies are referred to in 50/3 format which would be a 50 wt  3 ply thread.
Again like fabric there are endless choices, ask your favorite quilt shop for help,  out there today so find what you like and buy the best quality you can afford and don’t look back .

Next Batting (“Fluff” for the middle of your sandwich)and Backing (the back “crust”)

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So you want to make a Quilt Part 5

The Batting:
OK we have chosen a Pattern, we have Fabric in the Type & Color that we want for our project and we have the Thread to hold it all together. In all most every instance we’re now going to make a sandwich with our Top-using the pattern, the middle with Batting, and the back with a Backing fabric.
Lets start in the middle. Batting-Padding-Wadding, as it is know as, gives a Quilt bulk-thickness, adds warmth, and can help in adding to the final appearance of the Quilt top. Batting comes in a range of natural fibers, cotton, wool, bamboo- or synthetics and man-made fabric.
Cotton- Like most things cotton you can’t go wrong in using it. It does have some drawbacks in it’s pure form, it is made by needle-punched process which makes it a dense fabric and harder to hand quilt, and it tends to be a little more expensive, but it does give a long lasting/excellent finished product.
Cotton/Polyester- This combines some of the best of both worlds, it provides more loft than cotton and is easier to hand quilt, and is more breathable than polyester.
Polyester- Provides the most loft, puffier,  and comes in a variety of weights and lofts. It is non-allergenic and is lighter and easy to hand quilt.
Wool- If you want to create a quilt that keeps you warm without over heating you, wool is your batting of choice. It tends to be pricier than cotton or polyester and you need to preshrink it before you use it, and being a compressed fiber mat can be a little harder to hand quilt.
Alpaca- Is a pricier alternative to wool. It is lighter and offers the same advantages, but has to be cleaned very carefully or it can get ruined.
Silk- Being lightweight and thin if is often used in quilted garments because it insulates like down. Like alpaca it does take some careful handling.
Bamboo- The new kid on the block, it offers a compressed mat that works up easy and in a 50/50 cotton blend gives you excellent breathability/wicking properties and bamboo is naturally anti-micro-bile. Its new, so that you can’t find it everywhere, and it is pricey, but as it’s popularity grows that will most likely change for the better.
Choosing the right batting for your quilt project depends a lot on the type and use that you are creating the quilt for, and again use the best you can afford, check out on line for what’s out there and what it costs so that you’ll know what your getting if you buy it at your local shop.

The Backing:
Now we have an area that your own preferences play a big part in your choice of fabric. If you are doing a small wall hanging or a crib quilt it is not to hard to find a piece of fabric to make it from. If you have created a bed quilt you may have trouble finding or will have to pay a larger price to get what you need in one piece. The experts say never use a sheet to back your quilt with, but what do they know!(an old, much washed  one. NOT brand new.) Seriously if it works and you like the final results do it! Some people make almost another top out of the back- if thats the look you want fine. If you need to you can piece together fabric to make your quilt back- even for something this simple you can find dozens of “best ways”. In the long run do what works best for you and gives you the final creation your looking for. As I have said before have fun, be creative – to me that’s what Quilting is all about.

Next time The Boarder

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This is a two fabric quilt. One is a large print Japanese Cat pictorial or novelty fabric, and the second a co-originating print. The quilts in the magazine article show various ways the basic units can be arranged. Also showed what could be done with more “second” fabrics and boarders.
I am currently working on a Wizard of Oz wall hanging, using material left from “Christmas Oz” quilt, using this same basic pattern.
The Cats have been embellished with beads and fuzzy eyelash yarn. The Cats panels are outlined quilted and the triangle half blocks have parallel straight lines.

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Now that you have a pattern, you’ll need some fabric to make it with. If you found a pattern to fit the fabric from your stash your ready to go-but if you have a pattern and now need the fabric, well that’s a little different.
There are two things to consider when choosing fabric, type of material and color. We’ll deal with Types of Fabric now and address Fabric color another time. You can’t go wrong with 100% cotton fabric, whether it’s solid color or print, and get the best quality you can afford. Look for the deals/sales, in your Quilt Shop, Online Quilt Shop, Local Thrift Shops, Yard Sales, Road Side Free piles, Flee Markets. You will be surprised at what’s out there in unlikely spots if you just look!
When looking at Fabric Types in those unconventional places, pick it up handle it, if you don’t like it leave it. In a Quilt Shop you will find Fabric labeled as to it’s thread count, if you can’t find a label ask for help. If your comfortable about what you want look on line there are some great prices/sales going on right now.
Fabric Types
*Cotton: Natural fiber, easy to handle, long lasting, comes in many colors/prints Plain, Calico, Gingham, Lawn, Muslin, Satin, Organdy, all types of cotton     giving you different textures – colors – prints
*Silk: Natural fiber, soft tends to be more costly than cotton.Organza, Flannel
*Wool: Natural fiber, thicker than most cotton makes warmer Quilt Flannel
There are other blends, and synthetics that depending what you are going to do with it may be your best choice. Fabric that does not work well for making a block may work well for an applique’ on the block. You should avoid knits, stretch, crepe fabric because they can be difficult, but not impossible to sew with.

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The Quilt is made up of 21 – 10″ blocks.
12 of those blocks where made by starting with a 6″ embroidered rectangle. A 2″ red patterned border was sewn around the block and then another 2″ block of background fabric was added to create the 10″ block.
The other 9 – 10″ blocks were cut from a repeating design patterned fabric,(They could be created by sewing together strips of fabric).
The assembled quilt was created by starting with 3 embroidered blocks, then  alternating rows of embroidered/patterned/embroidered then patterned/embroidered/patterned.
A 4″ complimentary red border was added around the entire quilt, then finished off with a gold/green/red binding, tying the quilt together. The finished quilt measures approximately 39″X79″.
Ellen Marie has shown with this creation that very simply made blocks can become something very unique.

The Golden Years

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In my last post on Fabric we looked at some basics in types and texture of Fabric. Perhaps a bigger part of choosing Fabric, whether we realize it or not is in the color of the fabrics we choose to use in our quilting projects. There are people who devote entire life times to doctorial studies on color and its affects in painting/fabric etc.
I plan to touch on a few areas to hopefully help – not muddy,  in choosing Fabric colors for you next Quilting project. I had heard about the Ives  Color Wheel. As it turns out that’s not easy to find, what there is out there are many interpretations of of Dr. Herbert Ives color research.
I found the following info in an article by Janet Wickell on color theory. The first wheel has the Prime colors – yellow/red/blue or yellow/magenta/cyan in printer ink talk. If you mix any two Prime colors in 50/50 you will get orange/violet/green which are your Secondary colors.

The next completed wheel shows the Tertiary colors which you get by mixing any two adjacent colors from the secondary wheel in 50/50, such as 50/50 yellow and green for yellow-green

Choosing colors to put together in a Quilt is where all the fun begins!  You have some of the following color combos:
Analogous Colors – Take your main color choice the two colors on ether side it of the wheel those are Analogous
Complementary Colors – Take your main choice and the color directly opposite on the wheel is it’s complementary color.
Color Triad – If you take just the three Prime colors and think of that triangle, now turn that triangle around the wheel the three colors at the triangle points are all part of that triad.
Monochromatic Colors – This is fabrics all in the same color theme – ie. all blues
Confused? I hope not. There are three other considerations (notice a trend 3’s) that affect your colors.
Shades – This is adding black to darken a color
Tones - This is adding gray to make a color less intense
Tints – This is adding white to lighten

After you numb your brain with lots of color theory, it all boils down to pick the colors you like and go with them! Color choice all depends on what are you doing for a Quilt project – you may want quiet earth tones, for a soft warm quilt, or you may want your colors to clash and stand out,

so as I said find what you like and -

QUILT ON!
Next time Thread.

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Georgia Bonested’s books have a similar basic pattern called Saw-Toothed Square. The Lady of the Lake uses more colors.
This wall hanging predates, rotary cutters, and any easy half-square triangle sewing tips or aids. With today’s easier more accurate way of constructing the half-squares you can get a much more uniform resulting squares. I know if I was to do this pattern wall hanging or bed quilt again now, lots more of the points would match up better! Not all of them mind you, that never happens!
The concentric squares of quilting result from throwing a “square” rock into the center of the lake.
Again if you arrange the half-square blocks differently and use a different color theme this would turn into a completely different quilt, so think outside the “square” as it were and have fun!

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I have been trying to come up wit h a theme in Quilting, since starting this site over a year ago, to give me something to write about for these posts. At the moment I have caught up with all of the quilts that my wife and I have made, a wall hanging and bed quilt still in the works. So what I am going to attempt to do is walk through the making of a quilt from beginning to end. Along the way I hope to provide you links to other sites I have found in my searching for information and references. So here goes……..
Every quilt has a pattern, whether it’s highly intricate or very simple there is a plan that is followed to come up with the final quilt. Quilters I find are very individualistic, and their patterns reflect that for an unlimited rage of finished projects. I did some digging on the internet, an as with everything else there are thousands of sites offering patterns, many of them for free, when I searched “quilting pattern directory” I was given: Free Quilt Patterns Directory, Free Baby Quilt Patterns Directory, and Ask.com “Quilt Patterns”, also Penny Halgren’s Quilt Block Library. As I said there are thousands of other choices but these four will give you hundreds of patterns, many to download for free, or at least ideas to help create your own pattern if that’s what you like to do.
Don’t forget your local library for pattern ideas, there are usually quilting books, perhaps magazines, and articles. Your local Quilting Club or Guild will also, not only provide pattern help, but a connection to quilting “pros” who can help all along the quilt making process.
If I gave ten quilters the same pattern and told them to make a quilt, with the fabric of their own choosing, the final quilts would all be very different. So don’t over think it when it comes to a pattern, sometimes the fabric comes first, sometimes the pattern says “this is it” just enjoy the process!
Next time The Fabric – Types & Uses

Original design with stash material

Classic design

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Pattern: Original Design by Ellen Marie Mislo
Material: Fussy Cut Blocks collected for about 5 years
Quilt size:  28″ x 36″ Machine Pieced and Quilted

Ellen Marie always wanted to make a I Spy Quilt but could never find one that she liked so she designed one herself to incorporate the blocks she had been collecting for years. The Quilt was inspired by a friend in her vet”s office and so she made it for her.
The pattern is 42 – 4-1/2″ by 4-1/2″ fussy cut blocks connected with 2″ sash and arranged  6 rows across and 7 blocks down ..The first row down is sewn by alternating a block an sashing to the bottom then repeat again adding a block and sashing to the bottom until you get 7 blocks in the  row. The second row down begins with the sashing first then the block, so forth down the row, until you have 7 blocks. Once you have the 6 rows sewn together with the alternate block then sash first, you assemble the rows – again with the sashing between. Having the top of each row alternating -block then sashing gives you the offset appearance in the finished quilt. Ellen Marie used the same color sashing to boarder around the quilt. The Quilt backing was a piece of material bought special for the quilt that carries the theme to the back as well.  This quick an easy to assemble project is a fun Quilt that any child would love to have!

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Sunny Bunny X

First off I think Bunny X is larger than 24″ – more like 26-28″. The direction in the magazine for the legs are not entirely correct as an Email correspondence  proved.
Supplies:
* 6 skeins of yarn (I used multi-colored instead of multiple colors, that way no need to change during crocheting.
*Size G-6 crochet hook
*A stitch marker – since you are crocheting in rounds -  I used a paperclip
*Polyester fiberfill
*6 1 1/4″ buttons – for connecting Ears/Legs/Arms Plus two for the eyes
*6″ upholstery needle and Size 10 Crocheting yarn, for connecting the arms/legs
This was a lot of fun to make, although I felt like Dr. Frankenstein collecting body parts. Huge body parts! There were a few Ah-Hah! moments, well for someone who hasn’t crocheted in a long time, as the directions began to make sense as Bunny X progressed. The individual body parts work up quickly, but do pay attention to your counting because of all the increases – decreases.
The body parts can be just sewn onto the body, but then Bunny X is not as easy to pose . Eyelashes were added using eyelash yarn, and a final touch of a ribbon around the neck.
Bunny X will remain unnamed until our granddaughter receives it and gives it a name.

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