Sketches of Hawaii

Remembering a painting trip to Hawaii from many years ago...

Photo suite 214 -- taking the gloves off

Using up leftovers

Perhaps you noticed when I showed pictures of my second flag quilt earlier this week that the back of the piece is quite a mishmash.  I'm deliberately using up leftovers in all phases of my flag quilts -- leftover chunks of batting, leftover and recycled fabrics for the quilt tops, and miscellaneous fabrics for backing.  Since I'm constructing the quilt in modules, it's easy to find some poor misbegotten piece of fabric the right size, or augment it, to back a small module.  Sometimes I'm using pieced work that never made it to prime time as backing.

The yellow composition at the top was made several weeks ago for my drawing and design class -- I got permission from the teacher to do some color exercises in fabric instead of in paint.  Then it made a fine quilt backing.  The log cabin square at the bottom came from somebody else's leftover bag.  The rest of the fabrics were given to me by somebody who wanted to get rid of her stash and didn't know that I don't much use commercial prints.  Except they were perfect for this project.

So here's what some of the back looks like now that the modules have been cut into stripes and rejoined.

My stash of fabric that was too good to throw away but not what I would ever use on a quilt top has gone down considerably, and I'm delighted with the scrappy, miscellaneous look.  Since these quilts are flags, I'm calling the backs melting pots.

June!

Time to change your desktop calendar. 

Click on the image below to download from there. 

How I sewed the flag together

Yesterday Camilla left a comment on my post about finishing my flag quilt, wondering how I sew the modules together.  Here's the step-by-step:

After each module is quilted, cut neat, straight edges.

Cut a narrow strip of fabric to stabilize the seam -- a little less than one inch wide.  Stitch it to one of the modules.

Butt the edges of the two modules and zigzag over the join.  I use a stitch that goes five stitches in one direction, then five stitches back.

Here's the finished seam.

All those loose threads caught under the quilting stitches are deliberate.  It is what you might call a distressed finish.

Sometimes I do additional stitching to join more strongly, or just because I feel like it.  Here's the back view.  This is pretty distressed as well, with raw edges and miscellaneous fabrics.  I'll write more about that in my next post.