All Together Now @ Home

 

This is my long arm quilter, Janet-Lee Santeusanio. While I was making All Together Now she wrote to me and said how much she loved it. She likes all my quilts, but was really taken with this one. I decided I would give the quilt to her. 

When I brought it to her to be quilted, I made the mistake of telling her the quilt would be hers. "Now I don't know what to do. You shouldn't have told me." Eventually we figured it out.

The morning I was to pick up the quilt I got an email from Janet-Lee. "I'm not charging you for quilting this quilt. Bring me the binding and I'll sew it on myself."

FAT CHANCE! I thought. I wrote back "I'm giving you a Lynne Tyler quilt, and you are going to get a Lynne Tyler quilt. And I sew the binding on my quilts. Besides, I don't even know what I am going to do for the binding."

I couldn't even remember what the edges of the quilt looked like. I had to go back to my pictures to find out the quilt had a white border around it. A white binding would have been OK, but I thought since the quilt had a variety of fabrics in the border, a binding of mixed black fabric would be better, so ran into the studio to search my stash for black binding fabrics. 

This was three hours before I was to be at Janet-Lee's! It's an hour's drive to her house! I was still in my nightgown, and I hadn't even showered! 

I picked fabrics, cut strips, marked and joined them at an angle (above) cut them apart, trimmed and pressed the seams, then pressed the binding lengthwise. I folded it up, then ran to take a shower and get going. JL liked the binding I had made, but I took the quilt and the binding home to finish.

As you can see, JL LOVES the quilt. She says she loves every inch of it and that it represents everything she loves about quilts. (Gosh I hope I got that right.) 

She has since told me the quilt has already taken its place of honor on her recliner. "Don't you worry," she'd said as I was getting ready to leave, "this quilt will be USED!"

Beauty Shots of All Together Now

I finished the All Together Now quilt a few days ago, but the weather hasn't been very conducive for outdoor beauty shots. Finally on Saturday the sun came out and it warmed up a bit. Stone walls are all over the place in the New Hampshire countryside. This one is in my neighbor's yard, and it's a good backdrop for a quilt, but this didn't sing. 

There is a public park in the center of my town, so I tried posing the quilt on one of the benches.

It was really breezy, so I put clamps on each corner so the quilt would stay put. The quilt looks like it belongs on this bench.

Since this quilt has such a spectacular backing, I decided to show it off too!

After I take the finished quilts outside for their beauty shouts, I wash them so they will be soft and crinkly.

Millie had already performed her QA check and given the quilt her paw of approval. Although Millie won't agree, I also wash the quilts to remove her dander.

The quilt is ready for its new home.

Still Sewing Binding

 

I worked on the binding of the All Together Now quilt while I watched Top Chef Portland. I have about three feet on one side, then four or five on another and I will be finished.

Black is Best!

 

I just love black-and-white. (Did you know every cat I have ever owned has been black and white?)

I wrote the other day that a white binding would have worked, but I was wrong. A white binding would have let the design flow right out. Those black triangles would have just been floating away. The black binding contains the design and because it is the same black-and-colors as the black triangles, that idea is repeated and carries all around the quilt.

Love, love, love this!

The Waltzing Matilda quilt has been delivered to Megan and she promises a full report shortly - she's had a couple of those workdays-from-hell-on-steroids and she needs to get all that stuff settled first. We all know what those are like. She did tell me that the quilt was "a delightful pick me up" and that it had been "cuddled and admired," which is good enough to hold me until she's ready.

Black is Back!

 

It's always fun to pick up quilts from Janet-Lee Santeusanio. I picked up the black and white Scrap Slaps quilt, All Together Now.

You can see the quilting design best when you look at the back. 

I was picking up the quilt after lunch, so I had to prepare the binding. But I had to go back to look at a picture of the quilt, to remember what the edges looked like. Once I knew the edges were white, I knew the binding had to be black. But black with colors, just like the blocks in the quilt. So I rummaged through my stash and found eight fabrics. For the binding I needed eight WOF strips. I cut strips of each, then cut the strips more or less in half, and then sewed the strips together for the binding. I feel the binding tells the quilt what color it is, and while a white binding would have worked, this quilt is black with colors and white, and a black (with colors) binding would emphasize that fact.

As you all know, I sew my binding to the BACK of my quilts, so my finish stitching is on the front. (Because you know, I like to show off my invisible stitches.)

Yeah, this is going to rock big time.

You know what's THE BEST thing about this quilt? Every single bit of fabric, from the top, backing and binding, came from my stash. 

(Of course that could also be a little bit scary too! How many quilts are hiding in my stash?)

Border, Backing for All Together Now

 

I added a narrow border of the black on white fabrics found in the quilt as the border of All Together Now. I cut the strips in random lengths and joined them at an angle.

The next thing was to find fabric for a backing. I wanted to use what I had, not buy anything else, so I started rummaging around. I found this panel, above. I know I bought it on sale, and I didn't have any plans for it, but I thought it had some great possibilities. It was sold as a panel, and I bought three. Heaven knows why.

When I moved so I could look at the fabric AND the quilt at the same time, it was immediately obvious that it was a perfect choice. I just had to make it wider.

A few hours later, after hemming and hawing, and fussing and adjusting, I added seven pieces of fabric to the big panel, and I have this.

I think this photo makes it pretty clear that the fabrics all work together and this is going to be one spectacular quilt.

What's really cool is that I did not spend one dime to make this quilt. Every single bit came from my stash or the scrap bins. SOMEBODY is going to get a really cool quilt when this is done.

If YOU want to make a scrap slabs quilt you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.