Sewcialites Quilt Finish

This is another post for the update on my Sewcialites Quilt. This is a FREE quilt along that has just ended but you are free to download the patterns even though the QAL has ended.

(The QAL began on Friday, September 25, 2020 and ended on Friday, July 2, 2021)

You can check out some of my previous posts on the blocks and some of the tips and things I learned as I made the blocks and the quilt top.

In this post, I have a finish quilt to share with you!

There are affiliate links within this post in which I may earn a small commission from the links.

Sewcialites Quilt Along Details:

If you want to make the quilt, you can find the info, FREE pdf patterns, and suggested fabrics HERE>

For the fabric requirement & coloring page: click HERE>

For this project,

Quilting Tools and Notions I used:

My trusted workhorse, Janome Horizon Memory Craft QCP8200
So Fine Thread for piecing
My new favourite Navy Blue Rotary Cutter
Large cutting Mat
Wool ironing Mat (I have no issues with the smell, but sometimes it can burn if the iron is way too hot and no steam)
Travelling steam iron (I love this Iron, so much easier to use small iron when pressing small units)
Sets of Trimming Rulers (small rulers makes a difference when you need to trim small units)
Mini Rotating Mat (mainly used to trim the units before piecing them together)
Fabric is mainly Moda Fabric Little “Miss Sunshine” by Lella Boutique, background is a mix of what I have in my stash. (check out all the pretties from Lella Boutique’s newer collections HERE)
The pattern is Sewcialites Quilt (FREE pattern and quilt along)

Free Motion Quilting without any foot

I brought the quilt back to my mum’s house over one weekend and tried quilting using our Juki Industrial machine.

I had no foot that I found to suit the machine just yet, so I thought I give it a try without using any machine foot.

And it worked!

Well, there was a lot of tweaking at the beginning, but I noted some of those and will be sharing with you a full walkthrough of how I go through that in my upcoming YouTube Video.

I took all of my own advice trying to make this work and I am happy to report that those tips are still valid if you are starting out to quilt on a new-to-you machine or if you are totally new to free motion quilting.

Simple Stippling

Since this was my very first time quilting with this machine and without a foot, I decided to take it easy and chose the simple stipple design.

It was pretty relaxing to do, but I did have some issues with the thread breaking here and there. This is as normal as can be, it is just me getting to know the machine even more and what it liked and what it doesn’t.

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I used a Superfine Bottom Line Thread in Snow and went through 9 rounds of bobbins to get this queen size quilt quilted.

If you want to learn how I handle a large quilt under a domestic machine, check out this video.

If you want to learn how to get random stipple design, I teach this in the free course for beginner free motion quilting. You can sign up through the form below or the above header.

Quilt Backing

I made the backing with cotton poplin that I have in my stash. Thought the colours perfectly matched. I had 4 meters of this cotton as this was actually intended for dress making.

In my stash, I don’t have large pieces of quilting fabric, mainly because I only buy backing when I need to, otherwise I will opt for vintage sheets, bedsheets or other than quilting cotton just to save some dollars.

Since the backing was not enough to cover the whole quilt, I needed to piece the backing. Adding in just some plain solid and A LABEL, this turned out pretty simple and worked well.

I just love the idea of labelling before the quilt is quilted, takes away the resistance of labeling a quilt when the quilt is all done.

This way, the quilts are done and labelled when you’re done with the binding.

You can check out Quilt Label Wizard to start making your own custom printed labels!

Binding the quilt

I was torn in between stripy binding or scrappy binding.

I went through my stash looking for the right stripy fabric for the binding, but couldn’t find one that suits. Hence, I went back to the scraps I gathered from making this quilt and decided to cut them into 2.5″ x 4-5″ strips to piece into a scrappy binding.

I have always wanted to try scrappy binding like this, so this was a nice chance for me to finally make it happen.

And I love it!

It suits the whole look of this quilt, scrappy yet muted to certain colour pallete.

I am thinking of making some pillow shams to go with the quilts.

Sorting the leftover fabrics after a finished quilt

I try to sort the leftovers as soon as I finish a quilt into strips or squared off pieces so that it’s neat and easy to use.

You can read more about organizing scraps in this post here.

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Sewcialites Quilt Photos

I took the advantage of my husband’s drone for some top view quilt photos.

Yes, I did lay the quilt down on the dirt. But, I’ll get it washed before we use it so might as well I try to get these fun top view photos outdoor.

We also did try the walking quilt pose.. but it was pretty windy..

Do you like Block Of the Months (BOM) or Quilt-along?

If you are working on one, let me know which one are you doing at the moment.

I absolutely love quilt-along as they help me make quilts little by little. The accountability and the joy of making together also keep me productive. Now that I have joined several quilt along, I do have some tips to share for a succesful quilt along. I’ll be sharing that in the upcoming blogpost.