The instructions merely stated "Piece your backing and then cut a square 60.5 x 60.5. Honestly, I think that this quilt could be made with slightly less fabric than what she recommends. It is nice to have some scraps for the stash, though, I guess.
It is always enlightening to make a quilt for the first time. I would do several things differently next time.
The sucker is on the frame now and I have made one pass with the meandering FMQ. I would love to do something like flowers or feathers, but I am a novice and meandering seems to work for me. I practice the feathers, but they end up looking like a clump of white blood cells under a microscope. Not pretty.
I likely will run into a problem when it is time to bind this quilt. The seam allowance at the peak of the contrasting diagonal boarder is about 1/2 inch, if that. I will probably absorb that with the binding. The things you learn by doing.
I had a boat load of trouble mounting the quilt sandwich. I basted it with the thread to the cloth leaders. That was a huge mistake. I thought it would be better. Pinning it is the way to go. I also forgot to square up the back before I mounted it. By the time I got the back basted and mounted on the rails, it was a little off. I adjusted by pulling the excess into the hem and pinning.
I had to do that on the take up rail and on the feeder rail.
I decided that I would machine baste the top to the cloth leader . That took about 7 minutes, versus thirty or forty hand basting the back to its leader.
I do enjoy FMQ on the frame, despite the tedium of setting it up. The Jeans Machine is not fast and I can get some pretty decent stitches with it. This frame is not as smooth as my newer one. Now I am inspired to get the bigger one set up with my Bailey.
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