A Cat and (Apparently) Her Quilt

 

This quilt has been taped down on our living room floor, partially assembled, for 3 days. (By the way, no one in my family questions why its there.)


I took a smallish break from basting it to nurse a blister that had formed on my finger from the pushing the needle through all those layers, and we even left town for an overnight trip while it was living on the floor.
When I came back in town I realized Gracie had probably been laying on it pretty much the whole time we were gone. (Good thing quilts get washed in the end.) She seems to have taken ownership of this quilt. Maybe its because its new, maybe its just because. Whenever I work on it, she sits with me and watches. She’s smart, that one. Because it will definitely be cozy. The backing is cream flannel. I don’t usually back my quilts with flannel, and every time I touch the back I think about how nice it will be to curl up under in the family room this winter.

For those that may be wondering why its taped down on my floor? I tape the quilt back onto the floor (the living room floor has always made the most sense for this), then add the layers on top (batting, then quilt top itself). This is about an hour’s worth of ironing, smoothing, and checking for unwanted wrinkles. You can’t rush it. From there, I hand baste a running stitch with the ugliest, brightest thread I have (so I can see it later) to hold all three layers together smoothly. My vote is all for hand basting versus pinning, hands down. I have done several quilts using both methods and the thread basting (which takes more time) always makes everything easier in the end. A well-basted quilt can almost be treated like one piece of fabric because its quite secure. (Gracie also seems to approve of this method, that little thread is so fun to play with.) I hand baste starting from the middle and going out, making a “star” shape coming from the center, then I continue on, basting at right angles all around the quilt, sitting in the middle of it and turning clockwise around the quilt. On the back, it ends up looking something like this-
 
The weather is Seattle right now is reminding me that Fall is right around the corner. I’m going to go work on finishing that quilt. I really need to see something finished around here.