I finished the Mario Quilt this week! I used fusible grid to make this process really quick and painless:
Fusible grid is a thin piece of interfacing that has iron-on adhesive on one side and grid lines printed on the other. There are different brands of fusible grid, and it comes in different grid sizes. For this quilt, I used a 2" fusible grid from Quiltsmart. The 2 inches denotes where the grid lines are printed so my squares will end up being 1.5" finished. The Quiltsmart grids are sold in panels so for Mario I needed a top and a bottom half. For larger quilts, you would just use more panels and sew them together after each panel is created.
First, I cut up my 2" squares of colored fabric and laid them on the grid with the adhesive side UP. For the white background, I cut up a variety of 2" squares or 2" strips of fabric to cover the area. For larger sections, you don’t need individual pieces if the layout desired doesn't require it. Once you stitch everything, it'll look like you cut smaller square due to the stitch lines.
Now it's time to iron the fabric to the grid. Make sure you protect the iron, so cover the spot you are ironing with parchment paper or an applique pressing sheet. Tip: I used parchment paper because it's a cheaper option, and I already had some in the kitchen for baking. I also flipped my piece so I could iron on the back. If you do this, make sure to put the parchment paper between the fusible/fabric side and the ironing board to prevent the adhesive transferring to the board.
Once you have everything ironed on, fold the first section on the line and sew the 1/4" seam. It doesn't really matter which direction you start with, but you'll want to do all vertical or all horizontal before changing directions. Tip: Make sure that the seam catches both fabrics. Sometimes the fold will crease the fabric on the inside and not make the seam.
Once you have the seam sewn, you will want to trim just the edge (less than 1/8") of the seam. Tip: Do this after each seam. It's easier than waiting until after all the vertical/horizontal rows are done. Once trimmed, iron and press all the seams in the same direction.
Before moving on to the other seams, you will need to snip the intersection points. Tip: Snip as close to the seam line as possible without snipping the seam line.
The seam directions for every other row will now need to be flipped so the seams nest. Tip: Fold on the dotted line so that the iron only touches the row that needs to be flipped. Repeat this for every other row.
Sew a 1/4" seam on the rest of the piece, trim the seam, and press all the seams to one direction to finish the panel.
Other tips: The "Quiltsmart" printing that is not the dotted line WILL show through white fabric. I had to pick that off before I quilted Mario.
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This week's Quilter's Planner Block was Nautical Compass By Tish Stemple of Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland. I really like this block, but I wish it was larger than 12" due to the TINY little half square triangles (HST). I have yet to really use HST paper on a large scale, but I think it would be easier than trimming all these 1.5" HSTs used in this block.
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I finished the Modern Heritage BOM quilt top. This BOM was hosted by Serendipity Woods and I had so much fun I think I'm going to be joining her next one, Long Time Gone, too. Here are the month 8 and 9 blocks and the final quilt top.
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Last but not least this week, I created a Show and Tell Bag by CrazyMomQuilts. I used Sunnyside fabric from Kate Spain to make it extra cheery! The tote is rather large, but it's perfect for transporting quilts or to use at the beach.
I can't wait to make more of these cute totes!
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6/6-6/13 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
Thursday PM, Saturday AM, and Sunday afternoon
Projects I want to work on:
Quilter's Planner Block
BCBarnQuilt
Thunderstruck
Goals for the Projects:
Quilters Planner Block: Complete this week's Block
BCBarnQuilt: Create the design and complete the quilt top/block
Thunderstruck: Finish this quilt top