Figuring out the Impossible

This quilt was mostly quilted last summer or early fall, and as of today has no official name. I guess, the quilt becomes "real" when the maker names it. It was originally made with the hope of finishing by December 2017 to enter in spring Paducah. I became disenchanted with things about it last year, stopped working on it, then proceeded to mark a peach piece of silk with the same pattern. The hope was that "try #2" would yield a good quilt. Needless to say, there was no entry for Paducah and I had 2 small quilts unfinished.

(yes, I know the damn circle at the center is not centered...to be dealt with)

On the bright side, the peach version of this quilt (named Persistent Peach) was finished, and is currently awaiting her first show! I'll show photos of this quilt, which has small differences from her green step sister, next month.

After I knew Persistent Peach would be done, I went back to this quilt and vowed to finish it, even if I later decided it would only be good enough to keep for myself. Finish what you start, I told myself.

Because the peach quilt is truly a whole cloth, meaning the quilt and binding are all from the same peach fabric, I decided to make this a "wall quilt". Should it actually make it to shows, I don't need 2 whole cloths. This worked well for my plan because I really wanted to incorporate black into the binding somehow (making it ineligible for the whole cloth category anyway). The quilting has lots of black thread on it.

I also decided I'd do a "go for the gusto" or freakishly nutsy binding. What better quilt to try something different on than one that may not be up to snuff anyways. I always fear screwing up a really well done quilt with my binding, but when the quilt is somewhat compromised, where's the harm?

So, this post will show you my thought process on how I added a silly edge of green and black loopy things, some black beaded trim and my first ever (maybe even last) facing. It is every-bit not my style, but I wanted to try these things.

The first task was to make a crazy amount - like 12 yards of green silk turned piping. It is stuffed with a piece of yarn. Sometime a year or so ago I think I showed how I did this for The Twisted Sister, but this quilt has MUCH more of this stuff. It was then cut into a couple hundred 2-3/4" pieces to make loops -- like those on the edges of a couple of Sharon Schamber's older quilts.

 This beady piping is not something I would use on every quilt, but since I was doing a facing, I thought it would give it a bolder black detail than a single micro piping. Though I worked this out simply on my own using a 2" piece of interfaced bias silk and purchased 4mm beads on a string, Bethanne Nemesh does teach classes on the technique. 170 inches of this trim took me about 10-11 hours to create - so not really an afternoon job, but not outrageous either. I used a very grippy thread (Black Omni) to stitch and knot between each bead. It was then trimmed to yield a 1/4" seam allowance, and stitched onto the edge of the quilt with a zipper foot.

One might think that sewing beside plastic beads is risky, but I only broke one needle in the entire binding process, and it was while doing the facing, which is completely blind (no visibility of the beads).

The piping is added first, then the green loops were individually glued to the quilt, set with pins until the glue dries. This took a proverbial lifetime because I could only set about 24" at a time, as my ironing board was in use with other things.

After they were all set, I stitched them down (zipper foot), and went to the facing.

Even though the quilt is silk, and the backing is a sateen, I chose to use a black batik for the facing. It is much tighter weave than the sateen, and I felt it would yield a more rigid framing. Colorwise, it was a good match.

I added one side of the 4-1/2" facing (pressed in half) to discover that small variations in measurement on the green loopies really showed (sorry, no photo). I was not happy. I had just discovered a finer satin cording, and ordered a lot of it, thinking I might remove the green loops and just go with black. At that point, I took off for Jamaica for 12 days, forgot about the quilt-binding-mess, and vowed to reinvent it upon my return.

When I got back, and saw the new cording, I decided to add an entire layer of black loops to the green loops, thereby doubling the loop density. This glue and pin eternity started again while I quilted client quilts for a few days. Not to fear, you will see a picture of my insanity soon...

So with the trim and loops, there was a goodly amount of bulk, and I feared it would not show nicely beneath the facing. Further, it was really challenging to get the quilt, with its double batting, to turn to the backside and lay smoothly.  Here's a glimpse at the thickness...

I contacted an art quilter who I know has a lot of experience with making faced quilts in hopes she could shed some light on what I should do. Sarah Ann Smith to the rescue!...

We brainstormed about how to make the bulk lay down better. She does not add the bulky edge trims that I used, but her more vast facing experience helped me to know a few things to definitely not to do. Don't trim the excess quilt - that may make it nearly impossible to get it to fold to the backside. Her first suggestion, which I knew of before contacting her was to run a row of stitching along the top of the quilt, right at the edge, catching the seam in its turned position. The problem with doing this is that I have a clean edge of matchstick quilting that I don't want interrupted with a seam running the opposite way. Good things to consider for the next time (LOL...there probably won't be a next time!) I do a facing. This is something I used to do with garment construction to make collars lay cleanly. It works for quilts too.

We decided I could trim away some of the thickness of this seam - namely excess of the loops outboard of the seam. Since the green loops were filled with yarn, they are thick. The quilt was not possible to thin down because it has this matchstick quilting right out to the edge.

I also trimmed as much as I could from the quilt and loops around the slightly rounded corners. The corners don't really turn easily to the backside anyways.

The other thing we decided would work was to hand baste the turned seam down, thereby preventing it from flapping up within the facing. This was a small stroke of genius. I didn't need ultra tiny stitches - 3 to the inch worked just fine.

The next step was something I was not sure would be needed, but I decided $3 of fusible was not a huge investment. I cut 1-3/4" wide fusible strips and stuck them underneath my double-fold facing, making sure to place it on top of the turned seam. This way the facing would adhere to the seam. It's not like my stitches were not going to hold, but this was their insurance policy. LOL!

 If nothing else, the fusible means I don't need to wrangle with pins when I hand stitch the facing. That is a $3 win-win!

It is a different look for me. I'd like to say it was a fun and interesting journey of a quilt, from working with the black thread to playing with a wild edge long after the worry of actually screwing up a competition quilt wore off. When there is no expectation, or assumption of what a quilt will be used for, the process becomes much more carefree, almost liberating. I am going to bling it up a little. Perhaps you can see the black crystals I already added to the corner. I have a few more to use. Some quilts just need more pizzazz.

So, thanks Sarah for being my sounding board on this. I know you said to get a sample and try things but seriously, this quilt was sort of my learning piece. How badly could I really screw this up?!? Next time I will use a sample. For today, I am happy with how it turned out. All it needs now is to hand stitch the facing down and add a sleeve & label. Oh, and I need to give it a name... Any ideas? Thus far mine have all been R-rated, thus not usable. Ha ha...!