Katrina Relief Quilts Question

Buy the thinnest poly batt you can find. It is lightweight and warm, and the victims don't need a lot of warmth. Sew the batt and backing together first with long lines vertical and horizontal about ten inches apart, after pinning or spray basting (usually the fabric will 'stick' to the batting without any pins) Then place the top, face down on the backing. Stitch around three sides; clip the corners and turn right side out. A walking foot is best. Sew up the opening. Sew half inch from the edge around the perimeter, then add quilting lines as needed. I like to do diagonal quilting lines, starting corner to corner, then about every

There's a million different ways to do it and everybody has their favorite method that works best for them. None are right or wrong- it's getting them done and shipped out that's important. ;-) I do it slightly differently. I prefer a cotton batting- Warm & White or Warm & Natural. You can lay the backing and top- right sides together- on top of the batting, smooth out the wrinkles with your hands and it won't need any pinning at all- altho I have been putting a couple pins down each side and in each corner since I cut and layered ten quilts and then folded them up sew all at once- I needed the pins to stabilize them thru the folding and handling. When I sew around the four sides with 1/2 in. seam allowance, I only leave about an 8 in. opening on one long side to turn the quilt. Turn the quilt right side out, lay flat and smooth out the wrinkles again. (You can even iron it smooth when using cotton batting.) Since I use a 1/2 in. seam around the outside edges, I can fold under the 1/2 in. at the opening and stitch around the entire quilt at 1/4 in. which stabilizes the edges and closes the opening all at once. I prefer to quilt in lengthwise parallel lines- diagonal quilting is on the bias and I sometimes get shifting layers with the "stretch factor"- YMMV. Warm & White can be quilted up to 10 inches apart, so I'm sewing a line the width of my machine's harp- about 6 inches, down the two long sides, then folding the quilt over at the stitching line and using the edge of the quilt for a guide for the next two inner stitching lines at about 7 in. since I'm a bit over from the edge of the quilt. The final stitching line I eyeball down the center of the two stitching lines on either side or you can lay a 6X12 ruler along the stitching line to the left and just sew alongside the ruler at the approx. center. I can now cut, sew, turn and quilt a twin size (one fabric width wide- approx. 45X90 in.) in about 1.5 hrs. I want to do 30 quilts- if the batting holds out- and I'm trying to develope the quickest process and still have it sturdy and durable. I'm into speed at this point!

See what works best for you!

Hugs,

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

You have some good responses for how to quilt it. If you are tying it, just lay it out in the middle of a room (for me it is my living room). Get it all smoothed out, and then tie. I started in the middle and then did every other tie out until I had the whole thing done with half of the ties. Then I went back and filled in the ties I skipped. I thought that this would help get things tacked quicker before the kids or the cat (or me not being careful enough) had a chance to shift things too much on me. Worked for me, JMMV.

HTH

I'm not..... just the lengthwise stitching. But it wouldn't take too long to do the same process in the sideways direction of you felt you needed to.....

Have fun!!!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. (Oops, had another thought. I'm gonna try use darker, busier prints as the recipients prolly won't have much access to washing facilities.)

The high loft batting is wondeful for padding those horrible make shift uncomfortable cots. You can quilt as much as 8 inches apart. But I just bar tack on the machine every 8 inches or so. Makes a big thick comforter type quilt that will be warm and comfy this winter and make a good pad right now.

Nope!!