Today I worked on a practice piece – a free little mini quilt from Sassafras Lane Designs. I found several places for improvement, which was not a surprise. It had more difficulty in cutting and sewing these small pieces, so this was good practice. I also found that my sewing was fairly accurate, but I need take more care with the cutting. I sewed each of these quilting lines from the top down. Next time, I will alternate stitching one line from the top and the next from the bottom to see how much difference that would make. If I were to quilt a “real” piece, I would starch it until stiff as the back became shorter an inch shorter than the front in this small piece. Then I would spray glue it together so the top and bottom fed evenly. Or I could just allow extra backing if doing this on the domestic machine. I ended up trimming an inch off the bottom and the top. It finished at 8.5 x 10″ and out of scraps. I will use it for a mug rug when have a small plate of something with a drink. It was a good learning experience.
That’s a cute little mini!
I’m sure that when you baste a larger quilt, you would probably sandwich it a bit more securely than you can do a mini – that said, even when I made sure that all my layers were taut, they still shifted some. I used to pin baste my layers – now I spray baste all my bigger projects and I don’t have those issues! (I found a Dritz basting spray – it works really well, and doesn’t seem to have any detectable smell!)
Great mug rug for a cool drink in the summer!