Trimmed to make it manageable to work with but still leave extra. As I quilt from the center outward, the quilt top will expand a bit so I need to know I'll have batting to quilt onto by the time I reach the edges.
Flip the quilt top and batting over and lay down the backing fabric. For this quilt I just wanted a crisp white back. I had to cut two pieces of fabric and sew them together to get the right length/width for my lap quilt. The yardage just wasn't wide enough on its own straight from the bolt, and this is pretty common.
Fold the fabric in half over itself and spray the batting with spray adhesive. Carefully lay the backing fabric onto the sprayed portion of the batting, and repeat for the other side. Flip the quilt over gently and spray the quilt top into place as well.
I didn't use adhesive on my first quilt and I can say it did make a difference while it retained its stick. I took weeks to quilt this bad boy, though, so by the end the adhesive had worn off. Maybe it's because I used this tacky spray instead of one specifically made for quilting.
Sprayed and smoothed out. Now we pin!
It helps a lot to use these curved safety pins that reach down into the layers and then come back up so smoothly, rather than a straight safety pin.
I pinned in most of my herringbone rectangles, but I ran out of safety pins. This proved troublesome later so I recommend you invest in a mountain of safety pins so you can pin each square/rectangle in your pattern. You don't want things stretching out of place as you quilt.
Make sure your pins go all the way through the layers, too! I'd periodically flip the quilt to make sure I saw them peeking through the backing fabric.
And now the quilting can commence! I was delighted to realize I did in fact have a quilting foot that came with my sewing machine. Especially with this pattern, the quilting foot was a LIFESAVER. You can go in any direction without having to constantly stop, move the back button, restart, etc.
Laying out the quilt and starting in the middle of the quilt. All the tutorials I read stressed how important that is. So starting in the middle, I began tracing the white lines in my herringbone pattern. I want that blank white back of the quilt to show the herringbone pattern clearly!
I've also learned to roll the excess quilt that I've already sewn or haven't yet sewn into this neat bundle under the sewing machine. Just keep rolling/unrolling as you work and it makes that volume of fabric more manageable.
A little sneak peak of how tracing the herringbone pattern on the quilt top translates on the back of the quilt.
Quilting done! Ermahgerd! Time to trim the leftover batting, which you can see was pretty much what I started with. Hmm. Not sure if the stretching that takes place while quilting is as dramatic as I thought it was, but oh well. Not a bother at all. :)
This point is so deceptive. It's super exciting because it's SO CLOSE to done, but binding is no small feat. Sigh. Onward march.
I'm binding the fabric in navy blue, and I've already cut 5 strips that are 3" wide, and as long as the width of my lap quilt (WOF). I need to attach the pieces end-to-end perpendicularly. So step one is to attach the ends at an angle like this and pin in place.
Then draw a straight line across the diagonal where they meet. Stitch in navy thread to be all coordinating and feel overly proud of yourself.
Cut off the part past your seam, leaving about 1/4" past the seam.
When you unfold, the strips are now attached at a diagonal. My strips never lined up perfectly but I guess it's no big deal as you walk through the folds and everything that takes place with binding.
Once the strips are all sewn together, it's time to fold them in half (definitely iron so the fold stays put) and pin them in place along the edge of the quilt, raw edge lining up with the raw edge of the quilt. You'll have a lot of excess binding at the beginning and end.
Just kind of pin that excess out of the way. You'll need to carefully sew the beginning and end to each other when you finish up. I have no hope of explaining that process well myself, so I'll just direct you to the tutorial I used here.
Once that's done you sew along the edges (1/4" seam allowance), and fold the fabric over to the back. Hand stitch in place.
AND THEN YOU'RE DONE! Eeeee! Look at that herringbone design all over the back. Ahhh.
Close up!
The quilt is done! Time dance around the kitchen like a crazy person. Post to FB about 2 seconds later.
I seriously love this quilt so much. It looks beautiful and colorful and I love the patterns. It's a great size for my 4-year-old son to snuggle up with, or even little me for that matter. For my tall husband it just covers his lap when he's lounging on the couch and that's fine. Big pat on my back for this one, and a mental note to enter it in the fair next summer. ;)
