Quilt 62: more "Robert Kaufman" placemets - DONE!

("Where's Quilt 61?", you ask.  It's coming.  I promise.  But I got a little side tracked...)

Last week I mentioned how I torture-tested the Robert Kaufman "golden gum leave" print in the dryer.  The fabric came through just fine.

And so I proceeded with that project and whipped together another healthy stack of placemats.

11" x 15" - polyester batting - quilted on the longarm

I'm loving these - so quick and easy to make, and they are just so very attractive on the table.

I'd love to have some coordinating cloth napkins as well, but haven't found anything that comes out of the dryer without needing ironing (and I'm not fond of ironing table linens). 

The Cheap Stuff Is Just as Good - NOT!!!!

Growing up, I watched my mother's vigilance over the budget, and often heard her declare "the cheap stuff is just as good." 

Well, folks, she was wrong.  Period.

Although I accepted that long ago, I have to admit to being tempted, esp. when solid homespun fabric goes on sale at my favorite nationally-known fabric chain store (whose name I will omit here, but if you are in Australia, you know who it is).

Yeah - they had $8 homespun for $5 a meter and I was sucked in (when you're buying 10+ meters at a go, it adds up fast).  To be fair, most of what I bought was fine - but then I got the soft green bit out I'd set aside for backing.  As I was ironing the fabric, preparing it for the longarm, I found not one, not two, but three holes in the middle of it:

(click the image to see a larger version - that hole is pretty good size)

Grrrr.

The hole is placed in a horrible position - no way to just cut around it.  I had to cut the panel down and piece it back together - giving me an extra seam in the backing on this particular project, something I generally try to avoid.  But the person getting this quilt isn't put off by the extra seam and I have to admit the seams aren't very obvious after quilting.

Why I'm a Robert Kaufman Fan

In the past few months, I started to realize that I'm starting to recognize certain quilting cotton manufacturers.  First it was Moda, then Timeless Treasures, then Robert Kaufman.  There are others, but I won't bore you with listing them all.

Robert Kaufman, in particular, has a huge number of designs that I just adore - and I am mad for their metallic prints.  I've been buying their prints for a few years now, but only recently realized how much I've used them.

They aren't cheap - but oh my... the quality.

I've been making placemats with a couple of their "gum leaf" prints - such as the one in the photo above.  Placemats really need to take a good bit of washing, but metallic prints, well, that lovely shiny gold isn't going to be happy with a lot of warm-water washing and detergent.  I figured I'd just pamper the fabric and do cold wash (and line dry in the shade, of course).

Last weekend I decided to do a little test with some of the scraps from my recent project - and so I threw them into the wash with warm water and ordinary detergent - and then "TORTURED" the fabric by putting it in the dryer.

The result?

Look at the photo above.  The quilted bit on top has not been prewashed.  The unquilted strip at the bottom was subjected to the "torture".  There's absolutely no difference in them, other than the washed fabric is now softer.

I couldn't be more pleased.  I still intend to pamper those placemats, but if they happen to end up in a warm wash load by mistake, I'm glad to know that they'll come through OK.

Quilt 61: Jelly Roll Race - DONE!

OK - I know I started quilt 60 last week, but I got a bit distracted....

Last week I mentioned the "Four Square Star" quilt design I found in a YouTube tutorial from The Missouri Quilt Company.  "Jenny" - the tutor in the video - is a delight to watch and I've been enjoying some of her other videos, including one called "Jelly Roll Race".  I watched that one and - WOW!  It looked like a lot of fun - so I had to give it a try.

And I just couldn't wait to do it, so quilt 61 was pushed aside temporarily in favor of this one.

I bought this jelly roll last year - had other plans for it, but decided it might be a good "race" candidate:

In her video, Jenny says that you can do this quilt in about an hour.  Watching the video, well that seemed possible... maybe..

Basically, all you do is sew all the strips in a jelly roll end-to-end, then take that one long strip, cut it in half and then sew the sides of the 2 strips together - and just keep repeating the divide-in-half and join-the-sides until you end up with a completed top.

So, I watched the video and did I make the top in an hour?  Well, no.  Mine took a little more than 90 minutes - but my sewing machine isn't anywhere near as fast as Jenny's (I think hers probably runs at twice my machine's top speed).  Still - having a top pieced in less that 2 hours works for me!

And here it is - mounted on the longarm:

I quilted it with a pale mint-green thread, just using free-motion loop-t-loops, and finished the quilting in about 2 hours.  So OK... a good sized quilt done (except for binding) in less than 4 hours - WOW!

 For the backing, I used a solid bright green - and the light green thread looks terrific on the backing.

And the finished quilt (with thanks to hubby Stephen for holding it up for me):

Finished size:  48" x 61"

Just as Jenny did, I pulled the strips right off the roll, joining them in the order they were on the roll... and yes!  It turned out fantastic!  Look at how the blocks of white, yellow, dark blue are all balanced on the quilt - too easy!

This one will be going to "Inspirational Quilts".