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Stitch, trim, sew: Final steps to making the ‘Something Fishy’ wall quilt

by Jean Boyd
written by Jean Boyd

Yesterday, I showed you how to prepare the applique pieces for Fish 4 using HeatnBond Featherlite iron-on adhesive. Now that you have all your fish blocks finished, itʼs time to stitch them down. This can be done by hand or machine. Suitable machine stitches are a blanket stitch or similar decorative stitch, a zigzag stitch or a straight stitch. You can also stitch by hand using a blanket stitch or a running stitch. I chose a hand-stitched running stitch and a Sulky Blendables thread to finish my blocks. This is a 12-weight thread in a variegated color that gives a nice texture to the finished blocks. Here’s a close-up view of the stitching on Fish #4.

A close-up view of an orange and purple applique fish on a turquoise background showing hand stitching on the edges and a spool of Sulky Blendables thread

Sulky Blendables thread used for stitching down the applique shapes

If you left extra fabric around your background blocks, now is the time to trim them to the following sizes.

  • Fish 1: 13½” x 15½”
  • Fish 2: 9½” x 9″
  • Fish 3: 8½” x 9″
  • Fish 4: 17½” x 7″

I used my Komfort Kut Rotary Cutter for this step.

An orange and purple fish appliqued to a turquoise fabric block with a quilting ruler on top and a rotary cutter to the right side of the block laid out on a cutting mat; Komfort Kut Rotary Cutter

Trim background fabrics to the correct size.

Here are the trimmed blocks all ready to sew together.

4 finished fish applique blocks in orange, green, and purple fabrics each on a turquoise background laid out on a white background.

Finished blocks ready to be sewn together

Sew Fish 2 block to Fish 3 block.

2 finished fish applique blocks in orange, green, and purple fabrics each on a turquoise background sewn together side by side and laid out on a white background.

Sew Fish 2 to Fish 3.

Sew Fish 4 block to Fish 2 and Fish 3 block.

3 finished fish applique blocks in orange, green, and purple fabrics each on a turquoise background sewn together with two smaller fish on top and a larger fish on the bottom.

Sew Fish 4 to Fish 2 and Fish 3.

Sew Fish 1 to these sewn units.

4 finished fish applique blocks in orange, green, and purple fabrics each on a turquoise background sewn together with a large fish on the left side, and on the right side two small fish on the top half and a long fish on the bottom half.

Sew Fish #1 to these sewn units.

Inner border

Cut 4 – 1¼” x WOF (width of fabric) strips.

Re-cut the strips to make 2 – 1¼” x 30½” and 2 – 1¼” x 17″ strips.

Sew a 1¼” x 30½” strip to the top and bottom. Press seams towards borders.

Sew a 1¼” x 17″ strip to each side. Press seams towards borders.

Purple inner border strips are placed around the center of a rectangular wall quilt made with 4 orange, green and purple applique fish on a turquoise background.

Inner border ready for sewing

Outer border

Cut 4 – 4¼” x WOF strips.

Re-cut the strips to make 2 – 4¼” x 32″ and 2 – 4¼” x 24½” strips.

Sew a 4¼” x 32″ strip to the top and bottom. Press seams towards borders.

Sew a 4¼” x 24½” strip to each side. Press seams towards borders.

4¼" wide purple outer border strips are placed around the center of a rectangular wall quilt made with 4 orange, green and purple applique fish on a turquoise background with a dark purple inner border.

Outer border ready for sewing

Now itʼs time to layer the backing, batting and quilt top to get ready for quilting. Be sure to use Odif 505 Temporary Adhesive for fabric to make this step super-easy!

Odif 505 is a temporary, repositionable, fabric adhesive used to temporarily bond fabric. Itʼs odorless and colorless and doesn’t gum up your sewing needles. And itʼs acid free and contains no Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Check out this great video that shows you how to use Odif 505.

A rectangular wall quilt made with 4 orange, green and purple applique fish on a turquoise background with a dark purple inner border, and a lighter purple outer border.

The ‘Something Fishy’ wall quit is finished!

After the quilting is finished, you’re ready to sew on the binding. Here’s my favorite way to sew on binding, but feel free to use your own method if you wish. For my method, you’ll need 4 – 3″ x WOF strips of outer border fabric.

I hope you enjoyed your undersea adventure this week as you created the ‘Something Fishy’ quilt. Hopefully, you also learned more about Odif adhesive products, HeatnBond Featherlite fusible webs, and of course we can’t get along without the wonderful Mary Ellen’s Best Press!

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: Fusing applique shapes with HeatnBond Featherlite: Light AND strong!

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Jean has been designing and publishing patterns since 1997. For the past several years she has been designing patterns for new fabric collections by Northcott Fabrics. Her work has been published in several magazines in both Canada and the United States. Jean holds a Fiber Arts Certificate in quilting and has taught extensively throughout Canada, including six national Quilt Canada conferences. She was named "Canadian Teacher of the Year" in 2003 by the Canadian Quilters Association and has won numerous awards for her quilts.

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