Christmas Potpourri BOM - Block One

This is the first block for the Christmas BOM Quilt -- the finished size for each block is 18" - the block is currently at 16".  The block construction is rather interesting, the inner border of half-square triangles is actually designed as part of each of the 10 outer blocks.   I made the first set of  hs triangles but have decided to wait until all the blocks are complete to decide how the position the colors.

Christmas Potpourri Quilt Block of the Month

 

Christmas Potpourri Quilt - Block of the Month by Winnie S. Fleming

 

This is the photo that came with this super quilt kit!  The pattern was designed by Winnie S. Flemming and has a copyright of 1998.  It is a Block of the Month distributed by Quakertown Quilts.

If it looks familiar, it's because the Christmas Potpourri quilt is very similar to the Plaid Potpourri quilt (same idea, same designer).  There are 12 packs of fabric and instructions, each pack makes an 18" pieced block.  The border will be made from extra/leftover fabric.  My kit came from Great American Quilt Factory in Denver, Colorado.

 

Water soluble graphite and quilting

The safari quilt came out of the washer looking great!  Once again, the white marks were completely gone -- not so with the graphite.  And.... once again, Fels Naptha to the rescue.

Water soluble graphite pencils from Fons & Porter did no better in disappearing during the wash than the Sewline Fabric Pencil in black. I did not try erasing the lines before washing the nap quilt, but I wish I had.  That will be the next test.

With both quilts, I used Quilt Care in a gentle wash on cold with a cold rinse.

 

Nap Quilt Binding is Complete - What about the quilt marks?

Yesterday I finished stitching down the binding for the Safari Nap Quilt.  At the moment, the quilt is in the washer and I am anxious to see what happens to the quilt markings.

When I marked the quilt lines I used two products.  The Sewline white pencil and the Fons & Porters Water Soluble Graphite pencil.

Quilting the Safari Nap Quilt

The latest throw quilt has been quilted! Please click on the photo above, take a close-up look at the quilting!  This was really fun to work on -- the smaller size makes such a difference.

After I found the YouTube about spray basting, I really wanted to give it a try.  Over the weekend I found the 505 brand at a local quilt shop and in less than one hour I: laid out the quilt back and taped it to the floor, spray basted the batt to the backing, spray basted the quilt top to the batt and cleaned up.  Amazing.

It is doubtful that I will every pin baste again.  Besides the time saving feature of the spray, since the "whole" surface is tacky the occasional pucker while quilting doesn't happen. How cool is that??

New blog for my eBay items

I have created a new blog that I will be using to provide additional photos and information for my auction items, it is called jbf auctions.

Please bear with me while I make the transition from using this blog for that info.

For those who are looking for auction info you can still find it by selecting "Auctions" from the menu above or going to my new blog at jbf auctions

Safari Nap Quilt

Safari Nap Quilt - In Progress

The latest project is another super simple quilt.  This is from a kit called "Safari Nap Quilt" from back in the day when Fabric Expressions of Littleton, CO was owned by Toni and Juanita.

I'm still drawing the quilting lines and am trying to expand my machine quilt skills from straight lines - portions are marked with scallops.  As I was looking online for some ideas of how to deal with the corners, I watched a YouTube on using basting spray rather than pins.   I definitely want to give that a try!