Charity quilts ready for quilting

I spent a productive day at our guild’s Cuddle Quilt workshop last Saturday. I got three cuddle quilts basted… well, almost… the weather had other plans. It was too cold and windy for spray basting, so my guild friends and I had to adapt. 

Three tops sandwiched and ready for pin basting and quilting.

Layering the quilt sandwiches

At the workshop, batting was cut for all three quilt tops and the tops were layered with their backings. The next step is to pin baste before I can move on to the fun part: quilting. 

The workshop coordinator prepared and made available several rolls of bindings. We chose some coordinating colors for the tops I brought in and once quilting is done, these charity quilts will be on the fast track to being finished.  

After borders are added, this quilt top is ready for basting.

Besides the three quilt sandwiches ready for quilting, I have this (above) and another top almost complete.

Thanks to the guild members at the workshop who helped me cut the batting and lay out the sandwiches. All in all, it was a great workshop day. 

A basting party with the Churn Dashes

My students hit Week 4 of my Beginning Quilting class—basting the quilt in preparation for machine quilting. This is a fun week for me as quilt tops come together and we see final fabric choices for sashing, outside borders and backing. Here is today's Show and Tell.

Louise's Churn Dash

Don't you love the surprise on Louise's backing? She unexpectedly found a coordinating print that was part of this fabric collection.

The backing shows off the coordinating prints.

Sue made her Churn Dash a scrappy version. Last week, she auditioned the layout of the blocks and decided to put the bright yellow in the center. Your eye dances around the other blocks from color to color and value to value. Nice variety!

Sue's scrappy Churn Dash.

The background of the Churn Dash blocks is a Splash blender from Blank Quilting and the border is from the Inspiration collection.

A light backing will show off the quilting.

Sandra is making her Churn Dash for a grandson. Her choice of colors, prints and stripes gives her quilt a masculine look. The dark border will frame it beautifully.

Sandra's Churn Dash is for her grandson.

 Cheryl brought in this 9-patch on point quilt top. The color combination is striking!

Cheryl's 9-patch quilt top.

Everyone in class helps each other basting their quilt tops. With multiple pairs of hands, the basting process moves quickly. This is the best way to baste quilt tops (in my opinion)—with a bunch of quilting buddies!

Group basting is the way to go!

After a discussion about threads—fiber content, weight, color, and reflectance—we did some auditioning...

Auditioning thread color for quilting.

Which thread color do you think she went with—the peach or the mint??