During the course of this week, I showed you how to make a memory quilt such as the one I made for my friend Carla’s mother as a Mother’s Day gift. The techniques I used, such as using a ruler and pencil to mark your strips for perfect alignment, were simple and easy with the OLFA rulers, rotary cutters, and mats. These tools made the creative process a pleasant one.

As a reminder, here are the tools I had fun using.

·         OLFA RTY-2/C – Splash Rotary Cutter 45mm

·         OLFA Tungsten Tool Steel Rotary Blade 45mm

·         OLFA 12¹⁄₂″ Square Frosted Acrylic Ruler

·         OLFA 6″ x 12″ Frosted Acrylic Ruler

·         OLFA 6″ x 24″ Frosted Acrylic Ruler

·         OLFA Square Rotating Cutting Mat

·         UNIQUE quilting Clever Clips Small

·         Sew Easy Freezer Paper for Quilting and Applique

Today’s post includes quick tips and recommendations on how I completed the project. 

Quilting

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most prolific machine quilter, and with a limited budget I can’t send out all my quilts to be quilted by a professional with a long arm machine. When I decide to quilt my own quilts, I keep it simple. There’s nothing wrong with simply quilting straight lines. The line can be marked as I did on this quilt. I quilted ¼” on each side of the lattice strips and around each photo. If I make a quilt I know will be used and washed often, I quilt it a bit more.

Trimming the quilt’s edge

After I baste my quilt, I always roughly trim the batting and backing to approximately ½” from the quilt top’s edge. Then once the quilting is completed, with the help of an OLFA ruler and rotary cutter, I trim the access batting and backing.

Binding strips

Before I sew the binding strips together, I draw a 45-degree line on each end of the strip. This is because, when I grab a strip to sew, I just need to find either end as they’re both marked.

Corners

I struggled for years with the corners when putting on binding. My friend Jim recommended I snip a little of the corner after I sew on the binding. This trick works nicely…no more struggles.

Wrapping the binding over the edge of the quilt

This is probably the easiest part of putting on a binding, but can be tiring for the fingers trying to hold it down. To make this job easier on my fingers, I use small UNIQUE quilting Clever Clips. I place them every few inches, and put them closer together in the corners.

Sewing down binding

I personally have no objections to anyone securing the binding edge to the quilt by machine. If you use the right color thread and take care sewing, it can give a nice result.

With the quilt quilted and the binding on, Mamma Delfina’s quilt is done.

As I showed you this week with this memory quilt, quilting doesn’t need to be complicated to be beautiful and appreciated.

This week I wrote about some of the tools I have and use to make quilts. Every one of them can make the process so much easier. Take a look at the available OLFA tools, there’s something for all quilting projects.

I hope everyone enjoyed this week’s memory quilt project. I look forward to seeing all the quilts everyone makes.

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: Marking the right spots for perfect rows | Strip alignment made easy