Ingrid Whitcher

I often get asked how I baste my quilts, so I thought I would take pictures of the process with the wedding quilt. I have a table that is about 50×60 inches – which is a nice size although I can not quite reach to the middle if I am sitting. I lay the backing fabric right side down on the table and clamp it to the sides with hand clamps. I then lay the batting on top. When the batting is in the right place, I release the clamps and then re-clamp the backing and batting together.

I then lay the top on. I make sure that I have at least 2 inches all the way around the quilt. This ensures that I have something to hold on to when I get to the borders. I actually have more difficulty quilting the borders then the center of the quilt because there is less to hold on to. I do not leave too much around the edges, as I have on occasion flipped the backing onto itself and actually quilted it down. (not a happy moment) When I am happy with the position of the top, I re-clamp the three layers together. I am then ready to baste.

Here is a close-up of my hand clamps. The only disadvantage is that they are hard to open when my hands are hurting.

I pin bast my quilts with medium sized safety pins. This is a personal preference. The “experts” say to use the small pins, but my hands get too sore and I have good success with the larger pins – so I am sticking with it.

When I have all of the top that fits on the table basted. I release the clamps and move the quilt, then re-clamp. The clamps help keep everything tight, which actually makes it easier to bring the pins back up to the top.

I finished marking the center of the quilt. I am waiting on the borders. I have an idea but want to be able to change my mind when I see the center.

I do not usually ask any questions – not that I do not have questions – but here goes. When joining fabric for a backing, do you leave the selvage edge on or cut/rip it off? Do you press the seam open or to one side? I am just curious. I have my way of doing things and am happy with the results but wonder what other quilters do and why they choose that option.

I am finally recovered from the quilt show. I did not realize how worn down I was until the last night of the show when I was so tired I could not even sleep. Over a week later, and my mind/hands are craving something creative. I bought the fabrics for a wedding quilt about a month ago. (the wedding is in May- I know, right around the corner) I really like the greys in this and am hoping it reads as elegant-not dirty/old when I am done with it.

I had wanted to use the stamp that they are using on their wedding invitations, but it was much to complicated. I am doing another monogram piece like I did for my niece Abigail. I wanted to do this quilt a little larger – finished about 60 inches, but did not want a seam down the middle and not white. I ended up using a light grey for the center and added a 10 inch border to it.

I had marked about 1/2 of the design and stopped yesterday in utter frustration. The design was very complex and the projector kept getting bumped. I would get it basically back in place and then – bumped again. I decided to either simplify or I was going to loose my mind. So I erased all my blue lines and started back over again today. Overall, I am much happier with the design and I think I will have a lot more fun quilting this.

I did make some paper shapes this time to help me get things a little more accurate and symmetrical. I gave myself some guidelines for the feathers-they will still be organic as I do not mark the plumes only the stem. I put notches in the heart paper shape to help me keep the starts and stops of the shape somewhat even. I don not know why I had never thought of doing this before. It is similar to lining up the notches with garment sewing.

There are some times in life that bring unexpected and wonderful joy. This past week our guild – the Pensacola Quilter’s Guild held their biannual quilt show. I entered 3 quilts this year, none as big or elaborate as in previous years, but one of them was very close to my heart. My middle child has a love for all things reptiles, especially frogs, and I designed this quilt with him in mind. I started piecing the middle of this piece about 2 years ago – and then added the leaf border about a year later.

Here is the quilt in its very early stages.

To my amazement, I received my first perfect score in a show. Our judge, Anita Shackelford, was a very careful and thorough judge. I had the privilege to observe her judging several of the quilts in the long arm category and was thinking to myself, “Did I make sure the quilt was flat?”, or “Did I double check the mitered corners of my binding?”. Shocking to see a perfect score!!

Anita was kind enough to take a picture with me right after they announced that I received the Arlene Gutzeit award for meticulous workmanship. You can receive this award only once and it has only been awarded to machine quilters now twice. Arlene’s family started this award in memory of their wife/mother.

Logan even let me take a picture with him – big deal for a teenage boy.

This award come on the heels of receiving some news about some health concerns. It is so wonderful to me how the Lord gives us times of unexpected joy in the middle of our troubles.

A big thank you to all the wonderful guild members and my dear friends and family who have been such a source of encouragement to me over the years and especially to Mrs Hicks who finally made me get over my shyness and join the guild.

Here is the final picture of my last minute show quilt. I love the warm colors in this quilt. The only fabric I had to but for this was the border. I really enjoyed the scrap piecing and doing just a few paper-pieced snails trail blocks. The center square of the block is about 1/4 inch – so cute.

A friend of mine brought me a stack of large fat-quarters this week. They are all so pretty. I got 3 repeats of the same three fabrics which is wonderful since I had a new project in mind. I am working on a new quilting design project and needed to make 6 small samples out of the same fabrics. What fun it was using these new fabrics.

I had plenty of scraps to make a thank you card out of the fabrics in a similar pattern.