So I wanted a sweet quilt. So I set out to DIY one. This project has been months in the making for me.
SPECS:
outer shell: 1.0 oz hyperD royal Blue
inner shell: gray .66 oz membrane66
measurements: head ~57", foot ~38'', taper started ~33'' from head end
I used 1.5" baffle material from Dutch and sewed it on with 1/4" seam allowance
I decided to incorporate some quilting skills picked up in discussions with the lady's who work at the quilt shop where I buy my needles. I knew I wanted to have the celtic knot on my quilt, I just wasn't sure how to make it work. A few questions here and there and some googling and I had an idea.This was it:
TQuilt.jpg
So this is what/how I did most of it....a semi-tutorial, if you will.
First I decided on a particular picture and I printed it to scale using adobe PDF reader, I taped the papers together to get this:
IMG_20150715_141735035.jpg
Then I measured a square of white 1.1oz ripstop (I ordered materials for this quilt before the white HyperD was available....dang!) 32"x32" and taped it over the pattern I had taped to my dining room floor:
IMG_20150715_142145634.jpg
Then I traced it with white chalk....I know, white chalk on white fabric!?! Well it works if you look hard enough!!!
I then made double fold straight grain binding from blue HyperD 1.0, this is done by cutting strips of material and folding each cut end so the meet in the middle. I then began to pin this tape over my design, I used lots of pins:
IMG_20150715_213546611.jpg
Then I used white thread to topstitch it on, making sure the pattern was correct...stopping and starting where the tape goes under itself so the celtic knot would look correct when finished.
IMG_20150715_232255011.jpg
I then proceeded to join large stripes of blue HyperD to each side of the square, followed by a smaller stripe of white, then finally a smaller stripe of blue (I forgot to take the pic with the blue stripes added) All seams were sewn with a flat felled seam:
IMG_20150724_093526994.jpg
I then rotated this whole piece of fabric I had and measured and cut my large top panel. The result was this:
IMG_20150724_105013798.jpg
Then a few bits of measuring and cutting and sewing and I joined the bottom panel up with the top panel. My outer shell was complete!
IMG_20150725_141443974.jpg
I then sewed the baffles on to the outer shell. This part required some dedication on my part. I used white thread, but I did not want it the baffle stitching to go through the knot anywhere. So I stopped my stitching everytime I came to the blue hyperD of the knot, started it up again after the knot, and then went back and finished those short sections of stitching with blue thread. Talk about tedious. But, I think it looks great:
IMG_20150809_151324007.jpg
I knew from joining multiple pieces of fabrics and some cuts made on the bias that my measurements would not be exact. So I taped out my outer shell, measured each baffle spacing and transferred these measurements to my inner shell, made of grey membrane66. I should note that to work with the design, not all of my baffle spacings were equal, I wanted to intersect the knot at the knot intersections as much as possible. So I based my baffle spacing on that mostly. Here is the inner shell laid out and ready for cutting:
IMG_20150810_200905079.jpg
Then I attached them together starting at the bottom and working up. This was much less tedious than attaching the baffles to the outer shell.I then sewed an 1/4'' simple seam on three sides, leaving one side open to fill with down. I used ~5.5 oz of 850 FP water resistant down from downlinens. I used a vacuum with noseeum attached to the tube and just blew the down into each baffle chamber. I placed my down in a box on a scale,zeroed it out and sucked up down until I had the correct amount. I used a 10% overstuff. Then I sewed up the remaining side with a 1/4'' seam and this was the result:
IMG_20150816_151158081.jpg
Now to hide those ragged edges!!! I used a single fold straight grain tape I made from blue HyperD. I cut it into 2" wide sections by folding the width of the fabric over and using my straight edge. I needed 5 sections to go around the perimeter. Prior to stitching this on, I trimmed my seam allowance on the perimeter of the quilt to 1/8". This was very tedious. This tape I only folded once on the midline, hiding the calendered side on the inside.
I sewed the single fold tape to the perimeter of the quilt by lining up the cut edge of the tape with the cut edge of the quilt. I sewed with a 1/4" seam allowance. It is important to make sure the tape is sewed to the inside of the quilt.
IMG_20150816_210817025.jpg
I then sewed buttonholes on the tape where I needed my shock cord to enter and exit. You could also just leave the ends open, channel style, but I chose to use on continuous strip of tape all the way around. When I got to a corner, I stopped 1/4'' from the edge, then folded the tape at a 45* angle, then back down the the edge of the quilt, matching edges up. Easier to do than to explain, there are plenty of youtube videos explaining this....I forgot to take pics.
Then, to get a great finished look, I folded the tape over to the outer shell side of the quilt. I loaded grey thread in my bobbin and contrasting white thread in the top of the machine. When sewing this, you want the edge of the tape to be folded over just past (about 1/8") the stitching from the seam that joined the tape to the quilt originally. Then sew very close to the edge:
IMG_20150817_205107823_HDR.jpg
It will look great on top:
IMG_20150818_170506430.jpg
and great on the bottom:
IMG_20150818_170601297.jpg
My quilt was essentially finished!! All I had left was to add snaps, shock cord and cord locks......
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks