Red Bicycle (Gladys) post 2--First Finish for 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long 2018

White tulle

Red tulle

The first trip that I made to Joann Fabric store didn't net me one piece of tulle. I returned a couple weeks later and the selection was much better. I purchased a half-yard piece each of red, black and purple tulle and a black organza. I did take the top with me. I also looked at some Halloween fabrics that might have worked; but, the print was too big. For the next step, I placed the tulle on the top and took a photo of it. Trying to do this in a crowded aisle wasn't the ticket. Also, the store lighting was awful!

Purple tulle

Black organza

Black tulle

At home, I photographed my choices. The reason that I went to purchase tulle was because the white that came with the kit dulled the piece too much. While I liked the red tulle, it seemed to distort the background color to a pinkish tone which wasn't my favorite. The purple was a little too dark and the black organza was way too dark. The black with the few sparkles intensified the colors the best so that was the tulle that I chose. It was interesting to see how the tulle changed the feeling of the piece!

Borders attached; quilting started

The directions in the materials was to trim the top within a quarter of an inch and to layer the piece with the tulle on top. I had some scraps of red fabric that I pieced to make the back and I also saved some fabric for the sleeve. I also pieced the sleeve.

The next step was to add the borders by stitching through all of the layers. I wasn't keen to do this step because I was concerned about keeping the border from distorting using that method. I wasn't going to do it and then I thought I would try it. The border did stretch a bit; but, in the end, the results were good. Would I use this method again? Probably not.

The label for Gladys

I started quilting the red areas of the quilt using a silk thread. Then I moved to the basket using a brown silk thread. I used red in the bobbin which matched the backing fabric. I stitched along the outer edge of the pieces. Stitching through the tulle, the stabilizer and the layers wasn't difficult; but, the needle moving through all that sounded terrible! I used a fine gray polyester thread to quilt the street. I decreased the top tension to one and still the thread shredded. I had a bit of an issue with thread shredding using a neutral silk as I stitched the background. I decided what was making the thread shred was going through that heavy stabilizer. I used the same neutral thread to quilt spirals in the border and had no issues. It took me about three hours to quilt this project.

Finish #1 and goal #11

I trimmed the project and added a binding that was of the same fabric as the outer border. I machine stitched it to the project and then top stitched it in place. I used the number 71 foot for my Bernina to stitch it initially. This is a flat felled
foot. I like using it because I have better control of stitching straight. I pressed the binding; then used a little Elmer's glue and a hot iron to "baste" the edge in place. Then I used the #10 foot to top stitch it in place. I like the #10 because it has a blade that I can run next to the edge of the fabric and it helps me sew straighter.

Time to make this project was about 16 hours. Cost of the materials was $45. I might make another mosaic type quilt. I would try to use a lighter stabilizer or employe a different method of anchoring the pieces to the background. I'm still thinking about the tulle. It wasn't that difficult to work with; however, I'm not too excited about the end look of the project after using it.

This is finish #1 for the 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long and goal number 11 on my 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long list. I used 1/2 a yard of fabric from my stash bringing the total to 38 yards used from my stash. I have 12 yards to go to meet my goal of using 50 yards from my stash by the end of the year.

If you missed the first post about this project, you can read it here.