How to mount a quilted piece on an artist canvas

Yesterday I showed you how to make the blocks for your modern button quilt. Now, let’s put everything together to create this little quilt.

• Sew the blocks together, alternating block 1 and block 2.
• Sew a 6½” x 12½” black border strip to each side.
• Sew a 6½” x 20½” black border strip to the top and bottom.

• Press.
• Layer quilt top, batting and backing and baste or press together.
• The low loft Fairfield batting or FAIRFIELD Fusi-Boo^TM Fusible Batting are perfect for this type of project.
• Quilt as desired. I used some simple straight line quilting with a variegated rayon thread.

When the quilting is finished, it’s time to sew on the buttons. Did you know you could sew on buttons by machine? You probably have a button sewing foot in your box of sewing machine attachments. It looks like this.

Read the instructions in your machine manual for sewing on buttons – every machine is a little bit different.

Sew a button in the center of each block using the button sewing foot. Of course, you could also sew them on by hand if you wish.

If you’re sewing on a binding, you can do that now.

If you want to mount your quilt on a stretcher frame, here’s what you need to do:

• Measure the quilt and the stretcher frame.
• Trim the quilt so you have enough fabric to go around the back of the frame.
• Serge or machine overcast the cut edges.
• Staple the quilt to the stretcher frame, on all 4 sides and leaving the corners un-stapled for now.

• At the corners, trim off some of the lining fabric and batting, so the corners won’t be too bulky and will fold more easily.
• Fold the corners over the frame and staple in place.

You could staple another piece of fabric to cover up the back, but it’s really ready to hang on the wall just as it is.

Come back tomorrow and we’ll get started on another little button quilt using purple buttons from a “Bottle o’ Buttons” jar.