With a little prodding from an upcoming move of my Granddaughter and Great-Grandson to Australia, I finally got back on the horse and finished this quilt. It had been sitting since February 2017 and all it needed was a binding. Since I wasn't sure how to do that, I put it aside and procrastinated.
With help from a tutorial sent by a quilter friend; several books I own; plus several You Tube videos, I finally figured out the proper way to add a quilt binding, and got it done. Today it is going in the mail to Denver instead of me having to pay the postage to Australia. The grandson-in-law is in the US Air Force and is stationed in Alice Springs. Should be exciting for them, and hopefully they'll take advantage of exploring a new country and area. I've done a bit of Google Research on Alice Springs and it sure does look different from Denver where they've been living the last several years, including all of Great Grandson's life!
Great grandson should have a really interesting accent when they get back. Dad is Texan with the typical drawl; Mom has been an Air Force brat, raised in Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, and Colorado, but doesn't have a discernible accent to my California ears. He's now talking with no discernible accent, but the combination of Texas, Colorado, and Australia should be really interesting! How does y'all sound in Australian? LOL
Without further ado...
I used a package of 2 1/2" strips called a Jelly Roll to make the quilt.
Back in 2014, when I was still in California, I went to a Jelly Roll Race class. You take approximately 40 to 45 precut coordinating strips that are bought in said Jelly Roll and just start sewing. You sew them end to end, mitering the pieces together. When you have them all sewn into one huge strip, you cut it in half, then sew the two halves together. Repeat until you have them all sewn.
It makes a piece big enough for a baby quilt with some left over. The batting I used was about 45" by 60" and I trimmed it a bit. I just sewed the quilt, batting and backing together along the lines of the strips. Then the binding was sewn in a very long strip that would go all the way around the quilt with about a six inch tail at each corner for mitering. It was cut 2 1/2" wide, folded and pressed in half. I machine stitched it to the front in a 3/8" seam allowance, turned it to the back, and hand stitched it all around. The quilt isn't perfect, but for the first one I've ever made, it's not bad at all! The next one I do will have a wider seam allowance on the binding so it can be machine stitched instead of hand sewn. That part took forever!
This is the first thing checked off my June-July=August sewing to do list. Hooray!
Onward and upward!
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