Hi! Today it is time to ‘Dream to Achieve’ Finish the Top, so let’s get to it!
1. Take your main piece
Nanny Note: Now that we have been very careful in cutting, sewing and pressing, we should find that we are nice and square BUT please check this BEFORE going on as it could mean the difference between a straight or wonky strip!
2. Decide where you want your feature strip to be. I placed it on the bed and decided from there that for me, it looked ‘best’ one strip (ie 9″ for me) in from the edge.
3. Measure in 9″ along each strip and mark.
4. Using a ruler, join your marks. (If any look ‘out’ please double check) Cut along the line either with scissors or your rotary cutter. I suggest you do this in a single layer to avoid any mishaps.
Now all we have to do is join it together again! Isn’t this fun!!
Take your feature strip
5. Now as we have carefully measured and cut our fabrics, this will easily join to the piece we just cut off – just as we did before – find half way and half again and pin.
6. Sew and press.
7. Repeat to join this section to the quilt top – I used my breakfast bar for the pinning because it is nice and wide and I could lay it out flat- you don’t need the weight of the quilt top to skew it. In the first photo, I am pinning along the sashing at the top, with the main piece underneath. In the second photo, I have just lowered the camera to show you that the sashing strips are lining up nicely!
8. Sew and Press well.
9. Measure through the quilt down the length and record.
10. Take sashing strips and join and cut to fit the length ie the sides of the quilt.
11. Using the same method as before, join the sashing to the quilt top sides
12. Press
13. Now measure through the width of the quilt top ie side to side
14. Join and cut sashing strips to that measurement and join as before.
15. Press.
Yayyyy! You now have one finished quilt top!
So for next time you will need the wadding and the backing fabric. If you are yet to purchase these, you now have your quilt top that you can take the measurements from and take with you. Both the wadding and backing fabrics are much wider than quilting fabric and you can often cut it out across the width. I am using quilting cotton and so will be joining two width of fabric strips to get the size.
If you are not continuing with the quilting and are sending it on to a quilter, you will need to check with them re their requirements for size.
Remember to add your photo to the album or the Flickr page to be in the next gift pack draw.
Until next time
Nanny xx
Leave a Reply