Fairytale Quilt

I am on a role!  I have several "flimsies" (quilt tops that haven't been quilted.)  So for my Finish-A-Long goals this quarter I decided to only include those.  Quilting is not as fun as piecing for me, so I tend to start more projects than I finish.

I started by measuring all the flimsies that I had.  Then I measured the batting that I had.  I often buy queen sized batting and then cut it up to use it for two or more quilts.  Then I sat down and figured out what flimsies would fit on what pieces of batting.  This process really motivated me to baste and finish one quilt after another.

One of my really old flimsies was this Fairytale quilt.  The fabric is from a charm pack by American Jane. I like the colors, but never really loved the cute bears and flowers.  I think I'm finally figuring out that I am drawn more to color, and so sometimes I buy the fabrics based on the color only.  But then I get home and don't love the fabric pattern.

As is often the case, I like the quilt a lot better after quilting it -- even with simple straight lines.  I hope I find someone to give it to.  Pretty sure my boys don't want it.  :)

I had a bit of an adventure quilting this one.  I had a piece of black minky for the backing.  I haven't done much with minky.  I don't love heavy blankets -- particularly for babies.  (Carrying baby and car seat weighs enough without an additional heavy blanket.)  SO I thought I'd quilt it without batting.

But when I started quilting, the black minky was pulling through to the top.  I looked online for some tips and tried a few things.  I changed my needle (one site said use a smaller needle, another said use a bigger needle.  I tried both and neither fixed the problem.)  Then I changed my thread from cotton to polyester.  This seemed to help a little bit.  But still the black came through.  In the end I unpicked the quilting I had done and re-basted with some batting.  Yay!  No more black fuzzies on the front.  I guess I had to have that batting in between to catch all the fuzziness.  If I use minky again, I may still try it without minky -- I'll just use a minky that more closely matches the quilt top.

So that was a long explanation.  Karen and Allyson, I hope you didn't think you needed to read all those details.  :)  It just kind of helps me remember my mistakes/discoveries.

This was on my list of goals for the Finish-a-Long. 

I am linking up to the Finish-a-Long party at She Can Quilt.