Finished Friday, the Wedding Quilt

The wedding quilt had to be done to go to the Iowa wedding on Friday, so I am calling it Finished Friday!  Here are some pictures.  The blocks are paper pieced multi color and the in between is a red and black ginkgo leaves block.  The theme of the wedding was red and black so the ginkgoes fit well while the paper pieced blocks made it much more colorful and bright.

For the paper pieced blocks, I quilted a section to highlight the star, just in the ditch.  On the ginkgo leaves, I did a crossed canoe.  It looked really nice I thought.  (Although hard to see in the picture)

The backing is a more orange red ginkgo with a black border.  I need to say one thing about washing quilts.  I did a lot of line marking to make the crossed canoes.  The quilt needed washing, you can see it kind of puffed up in the pictures.  However, the paper pieced blocks were made with batiks and the black was very black.  I used quilt soap and I put a couple of Shout Color catchers in the wash.

You can see they were well used.  I maybe should have used more than two, but the color of the batik blocks did not dull so I think it was enough.  Clear warning when using dark colors with lights, Color Catchers can make a huge difference on how your quilt looks after washing!

Favorite Notion

Since I am busy doing some domestic machine quilting, I have a favorite notion to share that I don't think many people use.  However, if you pin baste your sandwich, you might want to give it a try.  From an earlier post, my WIP Wednesday post, I showed my pin basted quilt ready for the sewing machine:

All my pins have a "cover" on them.  I can't tell you how much easier a pin is to grab and work with when you have the cover on the top.  Here is the product:

It is the Kwik Klip and pin covers.  The Kwik Klip is a tool that helps you pull up the pin from the back so you don't kill your fingers as you try to get the pin closed.  You could use it with or without the pin covers and I personally think it is great.  I don't use it on every pin, but sometimes the pin can be stubborn as you are trying to close it and this product really helps.

The pin covers are another story.  Here is a picture of the pins and pin covers:

I use a #2 pin, any larger and it makes a big hole in the fabric.  I also always use the bent pins as you can see.  They are so very much easier to get up from the back without any strain on my part.  But there is one problem with the pin covers.  They don't stay on well.  If you have tried them and you are frustrated, this is probably why.  So, I put the cover on the pin and a drop of crazy glue on the top and bottom where the cover meets the pin.  It is kind of a pain, but once you have them on, you will be so glad you took the time to put them together.  They are easy to see, easy to grab ahold of, and when you are bringing the pin up from the back, you are not straining your fingers to pull it up because you have a fairly large surface to work with and combined with the Kwik Klip, you can easily pin a quilt sandwich in no time.

I have used other methods to get my sandwich prepared, but frankly this is my favorite.  Here is the set of tools I use:

Dritz Curved safety pins size #2, crazy glue, and Kwik Klip and the pin covers, both made by Paula Deen.

Let me know if you have any questions...  love always, k