chevron wedding quilt (part three)

**Alert! This is going to be a bit of a long post because I'll be writing today about the quilting and binding steps, as well as showing photos of the finished project. After spending so many hours on this quilt, I'm really eager to just have it out in the world. Enjoy!**

When I left you off on the progress on my sister's wedding quilt (previously written about here and here), I had so far:
• taken wedding reception fabric + coordinating fabrics and cut them into triangles
• paired the triangles together to make squares
• counted the squares and designed a chevron-pattern layout in Illustrator
• sewed the squares into rows
• sewed the rows into a quilt top
• laid out the backing, batting, and quilt top and pinned them together.

On a small scale, like a doll quilt or a baby quilt (both of which I've made several of before), this doesn't take much forethought or effort, but this was my first queen-sized quilt and the logistics were way beyond me.

When it came time to sew the layers together, I had free-motion quilting in mind. In the end, I decided to go a different way because: a) I don't own a long arm quilting machine; b) hiring someone else to do it is way too rich for my blood; and c) it would have taken three weeks before it was returned to me. So I scrapped my plan and my "out-of-my-league" ambitions, and went with something a little simpler.

I started out by "stitching in the ditch". That is, with every row and column, I stitched along the seam, hidden in the crease. Then, along each diagonal, I borrowed a method from Rachel Denbow over at Smile and Wave and stitched along either side of the seam to emphasize the chevron pattern on the back.

With a large quilt and a regular-size sewing machine, what made this possible was using thin quilt batting and keeping the quilt rolled as I worked on a section at a time. If I hadn't taken the time to keep the quilt rolled, I would have ended up with a bunchy mess or possibly with weird corners of the quilt sewed together.

I used scraps to make the binding using this method, again using a tutorial from Smile and Wave. Basically, I cut all my leftover squares into three-inch wide strips and stitched them together.

After ironing, I attached the binding by following the tutorial seen here. It looked really, really nice. By far the nicest quilt binding I've ever made. Also the most labor-intensive, so there's definitely a connection between effort and results on projects like this.

To finish things off, I embroidered a mason jar with their initials onto the back of the quilt.

When all of the machine sewing, hand sewing, and embroidery were finished, I tossed the quilt into the dryer with a couple of dryer sheets and two damp hand towels to give it a finished look, a fresh smell, and to help remove some of the cat hair my house tends to add to projects. Nothing's worse than a labor of love covered in pet hair. (exaggeration)

Phew! So the next step was to wrap it off and send it. I'm sure those of you who've attempted a project like this can empathize with that stress. I wrapped it in parchment paper, put it in a cardboard box, and absolutely covered the box in packing tape. And then I paid for an extra $250 worth of insurance, because dammit, if anything happened to it in transit, I knew I didn't have the moxie to start a new one right away and I'd just have to buy her a quilt. I had my eye on this one.

Luckily it arrived in stellar condition, and my sister loves it to bits. I hope it lasts a long time in her happy home, and survives to be the heirloom I mean it to be. 

Thanks for reading along as I tackled this! Top tip for anyone who might be thinking about starting their first large quilt: take time for all those time-consuming preparatory steps. I'm an anxious crafter and I tend to prefer immediate results, but I'm always happier with the final product (always) when I take time for things like measuring and ironing and trimming. Word to the wise.

p.s. you can make these photos larger by clicking on them, but I'm sure you already knew that, clever you!

thrift store finds: cathrineholm enamel bowl & sanity

Today, the bebe and I loaded into the car and headed all the way across town to a thrift store where I usually find something cool. It had been quite a morning; I'd cleaned up pee off the floor a couple of times (gotta love potty training!), piled an upended pile of laundry, cleaned shards of plastic from a broken picture frame, made not one but two uneaten breakfasts, suffered bites and kicks, cleaned up white acrylic paint from hands and shirt, and survived one decent-sized fit over a candy hamburger. Ah, the joys of toddler-hood!

Anyway, the drive across town didn't bother me; I welcomed it with open arms. Because, see, I get to strap my kid into one place while I drive for twenty-minutes. He can get into very little trouble strapped into the car seat. Usually. We listen to music and drive by construction sites and everything is peaceful.

This morning, we were on the lookout for baseball caps and rubber balls for a Halloween costume. Both of which were acquired for under a buck. In fact, I chose this particular store because someone had donated a ton of brand-new with-tags wool caps which were being sold for 49 cents.

My patience with the morning's trials was truly rewarded, though, when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, this bowl being placed on a shelf.

As Dr. Who would say, "Yowza!" 

I've seen a few bloggers blogging about these in recent months so I recognized it when I saw it; a Cathrineholm enameled bowl. This one is about 8 inches across and 3.5 inches tall. Very mid-century modern. Gorgeous black and white "Lotus" pattern. Not in perfect condition by any means (definitely well-loved!) but pretty darn good. 

From cathrineholm.org:

Cathrineholm was an ironworks, located near the town of Halden in Norway, which started production in 1907. Originally the ironworks manufactured wrought iron products and agricultural equipment, but due to changing economic circumstances it later evolved into producing enamel kitchenware. The company closed in 1970.

I thought maybe it was my prize for being a patient mama, but when we got home, I closed the door too hard and a couple of things fell off a shelf and broke, so my "one-in, one out" sacrifice chose itself. Ah well. Balance is good.

I'm thinking about listing it my Etsy shop so I can make a nice deposit into my kid's college fund this month. Eventually he'll stop tinkling on everything and I can send him off to university, right??

Thanks for reading!

p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that!

Linking up to:

Cap Creations

Apron Thrift Girl