FINISHED ! Trip Around JoAnn’s World

Well, I have to say, this quilt was a total joy to finish. As I said in my last post, I bought this top from my friends garage sale many years ago. Two Saturdays ago I basted it, and although I thought that I was going to hand-quilt it,  I machine quilted it this week on my old Singer 15-91 sewing machine, using the method that I described with my last finished quilt, a few posts back.

I couldn't wait........it's a soft Summer-weight quilt, and I wanted to use it NOW !

I simply quilted in the ditch of all horizontal AND vertical seams.  I chose not to quilt anything in the four-inch-wide border.
Finally a quilt that pretty much fits my twin bed !

The backing fabric is the same white with grey print that I used in my big stars of the Shine Brightly quilt.  It is a 108” wide fabric that I bought from Fabric.com.  Buying 8 yards made the price only $4.?? per yard.  It is a lovely soft fabric that also backs my Turquoise Peels quilt.

Onward and ......onward , basting Jo Ann's Trip Around the World top

Time to start another quilting !

I bought this quilt top from my dear friend years ago when she had a garage sale (her garage sales were EPIC !)

She says to me, "what are you going to do with that?  Those are not your colors at all !  You're a scrap quilter !"  What she didn't mention is that her quilts HAD to be made from fabrics all belonging to ONE COLLECTION at a time, and this top was actually made with FIVE different colors of THE VERY SAME PRINT !  It was classic Jodie Ann, and I HAD to have it !

Well..........Jodie passed away a year and a half ago, and Dolly will now have a 'remembrance' quilt to enjoy, and to make me smile at her wonderful quirkiness.  

So, today I spent the afternoon basting it in my living room......my living room that after scooting furniture as near the walls as possible, and some in the adjoining kitchen, is barely bigger than this quilt, which is actually only twin-sized.  But it's done now, and I'm hoping to make it my 'spare-time-hand-quilting project', enjoying my Q-Snap floor frame.

Reposting with new format....SHINING BRIGHTLY finished quilt

And I apologize for the tiny print in places....it won't let me correct it, and I'm too tired to start fresh.

I finished binding this quilt last night, choosing a diagonal stripe found at Hobby Lobby.  I was very excited when I came across this fabric a week ago, because it contained so many of the colors that are in this quilt, AND I was specifically hoping to find a stripe to bind it with ! 
 Later, when I tried it out, draped around the quilt, I DID NOT LIKE the fact that it brought the attention away from the gorgeous solidness of the top, and onto the twirling binding.  

Before wash and dry

But, I made the decision to go ahead and use it, even opting to make another 3/4-inch finished width binding.  It is single-fold, not double-fold, and sewn onto each border separately, not in one continuous seam around the quilt.  

Thankfully, this time I remembered to take the time to label the quilt.  That's when I gave it the new name, "SHINE BRIGHTLY"

After wash and dry

I HAVE decided to keep this one FOR NOW.  I really like it, and realized that it was too bright to be the comforting quilt that my friend would like to have.  She sweetly agreed that, although she thinks that it is a beautiful quilt, it is a DOLLY quilt. 

 As usual, it is not long enough to fit a bed, covering the feet.  Making those bigger quilts is a rarity for me anymore.

Finished measurements are 51 inches wide by 70 inches long.  That means that it shrunk, after a good soak and dry, by an inch in width, and 2 inches in length.  Not bad for an 80% cotton/20% poly batting.

The colors in this photo are not doing justice to the actual piece of fabric.

This piece of fabric that I used as a back was a 5 yard piece that I have hoarded for years, intending to use it as a back for an entirely different quilt top that was stored with it.  It is from the "Wrenly" collection, by Valori Wells.  I pieced two sections of the 44" wide fabric to fit.    The colors just went so well with this top that I decided that it was time for it to make it's debut.  I'm happy with THAT decision.

I will end with photos of my newest machine-quilting technique for getting virtually tuck-free concentric lines of straight-line machine-quilting.

This is AFTER having thread-basted the quilt closely on my basting/quilting frame (old-school boards and clamps).

A slower method, but DEFINITELY worth the extra effort.

                              Yes, those pins are placed EVERY INCH, sewn over, and then repositioned for the next section ahead.

I no longer use my walking feet (I have several).
 They all push the top fabric into tucks when crossing seams.