My Little Girls Quilt

Well it has been a hectic week for me this week, but I have finally managed to finish my daughter's quilt top.

It has been modified from Janelle Wind's Candy Girl pattern. I managed to finish the quilt top with little problem. My problem came when I tried to quilt it. I had basted it (the first time) and jumped straight onto my new sewing machine to quilt it, and it puckered, really badly, so, I had to unpick all the stitches I managed to do and then pull it apart and then re-baste it. I was pleased with the short amount of time it took me to re-do but then was kicking myself when I turned it over and it was bunching up under my hands. I then undid it all again then sat down in front of the computer and looked up basting a quilt. I just couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. It's not like I haven't basted a quilt before and each time I had done it in the past it worked just fine. 

I managed to find quite a few references to basting the quilt sandwich, and the thing that jumped out at me the most was DO NOT STRETCH the fabric, just make it taut. I realised that I was making the backing fabric too tight. Then I came across another reference  that used a really long quilting ruler to help smooth out out the fabric (I was using my hand), and quite a few mentioned having only a fist distance between the safety pins. With all this new info on board I decided to re-bast my quilt. I used a ruler to smooth out the backing fabric and used masking tape to tape down the entire backing fabric to the floor. I then laid the batting and quilt top down and smoothed it out with the ruler. It is a really nice technique. I will definitely be using that one again. I then got out all of my safety pins and started basting. I ran out of pins one row from finishing the quilt top. This really surprised me as the other two times I did it, I had half  my tin left over. I had to go out this morning to get more safety pins. 


Once it was all basted, the top was nice and straight, I then took off all the masking tape and noticed that the background fabric did not 'spring' in a bit when the tape was removed, it just stayed exactly where it was. I then turned it over and ran my hand along the back. It seems so much better than the last two times I did it. I am not sure if it is going to be pucker free. 


I am just so annoyed with myself at having to do this basting three times and I am still not sure if it is going to be okay this time round. I look at sites like Oh Fransson and others an wonder - how on earth do they get it right every time? I know I am out of practice. This is my first quilt in 8 years, but still - three times is way to much re-do!


I am still not completely sure that I am going to free-motion quilt this quilt at the moment. I have had my confidence shaken a bit. I might just do some stitch in the ditch around all the blocks and do some parallel lines on the three borders and then decided what to do with the applique blocks. I do have then marked with a nice stencil I had, but I am not sure if I will do it just yet. Thinking about it.....