Layered and trimmed Mark and cut the sleeve Soluble stabilizer cut into ~3 Stitching and trimming - note the layer of stabilizer between the fabrics Clip the inside corners Press.  Isn't that a luscious paisley? insert here

This is the step by step of preparing the bog coat for long-arm quilting.  If you don’t know the basics of bog coat construction, you’ll need to bone up for this post to make any sense at all.  Because this post has a lot of pictures, they are thumbnail size.  You’ll need to click to see the enlarged version of the image.

Because the fabrics and batting I purchased were all pretty close to the same size, layering and trimming was pretty simple.  Press all three layers, stack them with the fabrics right sides together and the batting against the fabric that will be the main outside fabric.  Trim the selvages and square up the cut edges.  Once you have the stack of fabric and batting trimmed, pin the edges to keep everything aligned while you’re cutting and sewing.

Using 45″ width fabric , the 45″ will be the vertical measure.  Purchase the amount of fabric you need to go around your body or to go from wrist to wrist over your shoulder, whichever is longer.

For determining how deep to make the sleeve cut, I do not follow the standard bog coat construction.  Physically, I have more real estate in the front than in the back.  It’s a girl thing.  Instead, I measure from underarm seam to underarm seam across my back at underarm level and add 2 inches.  That’s the amount I leave intact across for the back of the coat.  The extra in the part that has been cut to make the sleeve I will put to good use in the front covering said real estate.

Insert stabilizer between the fabric layers on both sides of the sleeve cut and between the fabric layers at the front edges, matching the edge of the stabilizer to the edge of the fabric and extending the stabilizer ½” beyond the end of the sleeve cut.  Pin in place.  When the garment is turned right side out for quilting, the soluble stabilizer will be sticking out of those seams.

The goal isn’t so much giving the quilter something to grab as it is to prepare the seams for construction after the quilting is complete.  The bottom, front and neck can be bound.  Binding the yoke and under arm seams would create bulk and the result wouldn’t be reversible.  I’m hoping this technique will allow the fabric seam lips to be slip stitched together inside and out  to create a completely reversible quilted garment.

For the sleeve cut I’ve stitched from the outside edge in, then across ¼” from the end of the slit and back out the other side, as if sewing the box for a welt pocket.

The batting in the seam allowance needs to be trimmed away to reduce bulk.  I didn’t grade the seam allowance.  There’s only a scant ¼” of fabric in the seam allowance, not enough to trim and expect the seam to hold together.

Clip the inside corners of the sleeve cut stitching so the fabric lays smooth once the garment is turned right side out.  This is the same thing you’d do for a welted pocket.

Remove all the pins holding the layers together and turn the coat right side out.  Make sure your iron is set to no steam and press the seams.  Don’t touch the stabilizer with the iron, it can melt and distort.

And finally, before it goes off to the quilter, the pieces of stabilizer sewn into the sleeve cut need to be sewn together ¼” from the seam allowance.  This “repairs” the cut making the cloth entire and allows it to lay flat for quilting.  Sew these pieces together so the excess stabilizer sticks up on the side the quilter sees while working.  This gives a visual guide so no quilting is done beyond the seam.

When the bog coat comes back from Karen I will trim the sleeves to the right length, trim the front to match the yoke and hand sew the under arm and yoke seams before adding binding.  Because this coat is reversible I want to sew the seams to allow a button hole in the seam allowance to allow the bottom edge of the sleeve to be turned up into an accent cuff.

For the next bog coat using this technique I will trim the sleeves to ¾ length and the front to the proper length before sewing in the stabilizer.  Once the coat is turned right side out and pressed, I will baste stabilizer to the remaining raw edges using soluble thread to give the quilter something to grab.  No trimming should need to occur after I get the coat back from the quilter.  I want the next coat to have a cheetah pattern quilted in a border around the edges which can only be done if the garment is trimmed to size and completely stabilized.  I’ll have to mark the front and neck openings so the border continue around those edges.

ComeQuiltWithMe's coffin quilt pattern, a very large version (3"x4½") of the block I'm contemplating using

I’m working on a new quilt idea.  I’ve discussed it before, the koi pond repeat in some sort of watercolor technique similar to the sunset quilt.

I originally flirted with using the 2″ square dance block but have since veered toward a stretched hex (coffin, not honeycomb).  I’ve ordered some coffin shaped English paper pieces. They’re gonna take a while to get here because the shape isn’t a standard one for PaperPieces.com so they’ll have to draft it before sending it to the laser cutter computer.  Hopefully it’s not going to cost an arm and a leg.

This morning I had a flash . . . what if I created a stamp the size and shape I want.  I could stamp the image on the back of the material, do some pin matching and sew the seams by machine.  Y seams don’t bother me and I think I can pin and sew accurately enough to do the job by machine.  I wouldn’t have to trim super accurately, wouldn’t have to use a template, wouldn’t have to sew the blocks together by hand (English paper piecing).  Hmmm . . . You KNOW I’m gonna have to try . . .

So, ever the research queen, I’ve been looking at rubber stamps.  I found this really plain Jane website with rubber stamp construction info.  Next time I head into town I’ll pick up a blank stamp and see if I can carve what I need.  Before I do that I’ll draw a couple and try sewing and see what I get.

Everything I need . . .

I sent my Ichthy bog coat off today to the NW Quilting Expo.  I was going to drive it down but the drop off locations were both on the south end of Portland.  It just wasn’t worth it.  With insurance the shipping was $14.  I can’t drive there for that.

I swung through WalMart and got 4 lengths of inexpensive yardage for two quickie bog coats, one in pinks and greens and the other in fall colors.  I’m working on a technique by which the bog coat sandwich can be held in place in the longarm frame for quilting and can be easily assembled when the quilting is complete.  The resulting bog coat should be completely reversible.  We’ll see how well I do.

When I got the Ichthy bog coat back after the quilting I spent quite a bit of time picking quilting out of the seam allowances, then trimming out batting, basting down the seam allowances and appliquéing a strip of lining to cover the seam allowances.  My poor planning really bit me in the butt.  Yuck.  The finished coat is very smooth and a pro job, but I know I can make the quilting easier for Karen and the assembly easier for me by spending a small amount of time preparing ahead.  I want people who examine the construction to scratch their heads about how it was done.  <evil grin>

The picture shows the pink and green paisley and matching camo.  Also shown are the batting (rayon), water soluble stabilizer and water soluble thread.  I’m hoping the rayon batting will provide a better drape than my normal Warm and Natural quilt fav.  Warm and Natural softens with washing and use, but I’m hoping the rayon provides that softness right from the start.

And, in case you didn’t know, WalMart has batting in bolts.  Our local store has 45″ wide Warm and Natural as well as the 45″ wide rayon.  For this app, 45″ wide is perfect and being able to buy off a bolt lets me get only what I need.

The construction technique I’ve got floating around in my mind is a little complicated, so I’ll take pictures as I go and write a good description.

I finished the sunset quilt last night.  I’ll get a picture of it when it’s quilted and post it.  It’s beautiful.

Black is attached!

I’ll get this sewn on and get the borders added.  I’ll decide if I’m doing anything more once that’s done.

Ready to go to Karen

I spent yesterday getting borders on the nested pinwheel quilt.  It’s pretty and ready to go to Karen.  I’ll pick backing up when I go out on Monday.

Click to see the detail

I love Karen’s quilting.  She is so creative.  I never would have thought to add a quilted in fish for the appliquéd fish to chase.  That creativity is one of the things I love about Karen.

Update: LouAnn tells me my coat got a blue ribbon and an Honorable Mention, which I take to mean it’s the runner up for best of class.  That’s nice!  It wouldn’t have happened without Karen’s quilting.

The traveling fish

My bog coat is off and traveling.  Karen did a beautiful job on the quilting giving a quite spectacular result.  The coat is being judged at the local fair today and slated <fingers crossed> to go to the NW Quilt Expo next.

I learned a lot building this bog coat. I will construct the next one differently.  It won’t effect the look, just the ease of final construction.  The goal on the next is to be able to put the seams together with a slip stitch.  In this one I sewed the seams, picked out the quilting in the seam allowance, clipped away the batting, fastened the seam allowance open/flat with a basting stitch and covered the open seam with a strip of the coat lining.  It was tidy, but very work intensive.  I am WAY too lazy to go that route again.

No closure, but the binding's done

I wanted to make this one with no binding on the center front so there was no disturbance of the row of pinwheels. I didn’t make that happen. I will next time.

I need to purchase two things before starting the next bog coat.  I need soluble thread and wash away stabilizer.  I will pre-assemble the sandwich with exposed grippers of soluble stabilizer so Karen can quilt right to the edge of the front and the yoke and underarm seams.  I think I can make this happen . . .

Hunting lunch

My bog coat is back from quilting.  Overall I am pleased.  I’ll get it assembled and bound in the next week or so.

32 blocks remain

I’m on target to be done by Thursday.  I have 32 more blocks to complete.  At 16 blocks a day I should be done with this Wednesday.

I’m planning for a scarlet stopper and a multi-colored batik border.  We’ll see what we find when we get to Fabric Depot.  This isn’t anything special, it’s just a bed quilt.

Almost halfway!

Another vertical column or two and this quilt will be halfway assembled!  I’m more than halfway done, of course, because quite a few of the left hand blocks are done.  I’ve got three more big pinwheel fabs to which I must add green.  I don’t have enough yellow (or green) wedges cut, but I’m getting there!

LouAnn and I are planning a trip to Portland.  Her electric lawn mower isn’t working and we both need backing, batting and border fabric.

While we’re in Portland I want to pick up 2 50 liter bags of hydroton for my aquaponic grow beds.  Oregon Organiks is about 4 miles south of the repair shop and Fabric Depot is between the two.

If we time it just right we can catch lunch at Chang’s Mongolian Grill (same area).  That’s what I call smart planning!

Art deco stained glass window

The next quilt I’m planning to start is a big hand appliqué project, art deco thing based on a sliding stained glass window (separated the kitchen from the dining/living) I saw online.  I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while but got charmed away by the water color sunset and the obligation to finish the workshop quilt (nested stars).

An absolute jewel of a woman sent me a bunch of really good quality hand died fat quarters just perfect for this project.  I will use those to build the elements of the window on a champagne colored batik background.  I have all the material for this one (sans batting and backing), so it’s just a matter of execution.  It’s all hand appliqué and I may not be physically ready for it just yet.  I can get the machine basting of the layers done and work on the appliqué as my fingers and ability to sit still will let me.

Center of koi pond quilt

But my next-next quilt is in the planning stages.  I want to redo the koi pond center I did for the Guild web quilt using the sunset water color technique in 2″ square dance squares.  I’ve asked Charles (Brandy’s Quilt Products) for the new smaller template set.  I told him not to rush.  I’m still months away.  The art deco stained glass quilt has to get started first.  I may have to do them at the same time, pecking away at each.

I may change my mind and do this one in small honey comb blocks . . . you can see why I plan so far ahead.  By the time I get to the execution, I pretty much know what I’m doing and have all the fabrics collected.

I’ve added a page (at the bottom of Long Bits of Stuff) on cutting fabric using cardboard templates. I figured something out and wanted to share.

Pecking away . . .

This is definitely an “improve your technique” pattern.  I am getting better at getting clean points and matching pinwheel center points.  I think this quilt is just what I needed to clean up some less than ideal sewing habits I’ve managed to acquire.

At this point I’ve got 15 wedges that need to have green added.  I’ve got a bunch of the center parallelograms ready to install (green added).

I was working across the top and was going to work my way down but going up and down the ladder to get to the top was taking a toll.  I’ll go back to that in a couple days.  Until then I’ll peck away at the bottom half.

This is about 1/6th of the center of the quilt, a 24"x24" section.

This is going fairly quickly.  I’m working from the upper right corner completing blocks as I go.  The edge blocks take two different sizes of strips with a slanted end.

I like the quilt.  I think it’s pretty.

Basic nested pinwheel block, click to see the blocks assembled into a pinwheel

A couple years ago LouAnn and I attended the Aberdeen quilt show.  One of the entrants was a lovely nested pinwheel quilt we thought would be a good pattern for a workshop.  The quilt had big blue and green pinwheels and small green and yellow pinwheels on a dark background.  It looked complex but it was a single square.

After a bit of back and forth and discussion, we were able to convince Peggy Gelbrich to teach a workshop in that pattern for our Guild.  The pattern size for the workshop was a ~9″ block.  I wanted a smaller block in queen size.  Yeah, yeah, I know . . . ever the rebel.

Nested pinwheels

This is how far I got on the quilt top by the end of the two day workshop.  LouAnn and I pinned everything to a sheet and I put it away to bring out later.  This is later!

As you can see the background is black.  Rather than use pinwheels in two colors only, I wanted each pinwheel to be a different color.  Each of the large pinwheels is a different batik.  The yellow pinwheels are each of 6 or 8 bright yellows I had in my stash.  The small green pinwheels are all the same batik fabric.  The color distribution is complex enough to require working on a design wall.

Orange batik background fabric, dark green outside border, dark red inside border and gold flange

I pulled the sunset quilt off the design wall and have packaged it away with the black wedges, border and backing fabrics.  I’m short 4-6 more black fabrics needed to fill in the black section.  I’ll have to get by Sisters and pick up the little bits of fabric  needed for the last wedges and centers.  Until then, I’ve put this project away to work on another quilt I’ve had in the works for a while.  I’ll pick it up again in a couple weeks when I’ve collected the last of the fabric I need.

One section left to build

I got the purple stripe added to the quilt.  I love the dark purple against the dark green.  Lovely.

I picked up the material for the borders and backing.  I got a lovely shades of orange and green batik for the back and a great dark green for the border.  I wanted a fabric with all colors but Fabric Depot didn’t have anything that would work.  The colors were either too bright or too muted or not the right shades or in splotches too big in scale.

I also picked up a gold and a deep red.  The gold will be a flange around the center of the quilt, with the red acting as a 5/8″ stopper between the gold flange and the green border.

Dark green pinned on

The dark green is on.  It looks beautiful.  I’ve got the dark purple blocks constructed and (mostly) sewn together.  Maybe I’ll get that done today.

Dark green blocks are now ready to add.

I finally got the light green section done and the blocks for the dark green section assembled.  I’ll get them sewed together and joined to the body of the quilt top next.  The dark purple and black sections are still left to do, but I’ve less than a 100 blocks left to sew to be done!

I moved the quilt top up to the ceiling so I could work on the bottom and now the clothes line is visible near the top.

Laid out flat with all square dance blocks attached.

The bog coat is ready to go off to quilting.  Wadly’s going to pick up a Warm and Natural bat today.  I have a nice piece of soft yellow batik for the lining though I probably should use navy.

I basted a strip of material in the center front to hold the edges together for quilting.

A fish with character.

The fish on the back is almost done.  I have to finish appliquéing the material to the tail before I can appliqué the fish on the back.  My fish has character!  <grin>

The fish isn't done - more appliqué still to do - but this is where it goes.

The fish is just pinned on, but it gives a feel for what the back’s center piece will look like.

I've used my 4" Square Dance pinwheel template for the border. The navy edge adds a nice finish.

I’ve been participating in a bog coat project with other members of our Guild.  I’m running my plan on this one by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go along. <grin>  Is there any other way?

I have my bog coat basted/pin together to give a glimpse of what it looks like pre-appliqué.  I won’t cut the neck opening until the coat has been quilted.

I’m to the point where I have to get the appliqué done.  I’m planning to use some eclectic fish patterns inspired by concrete stamps.  Should be fun . . . and bright!  <grin>

I’m preassembling the appliquéd fish.  When I’m ready to apply them I’ll undo all the basting and set all the blocks aside while I fasten the appliqué onto the coat body.  That’ll reduce the bulk I have to hold.

Karen’s going to quilt it for me (that’s the plan) and she’ll add other under water elements to fill out the tropical sea theme.

The bottom two rows are the last of the orange blocks

Now that the planting and planning for the new plant wall is winding down I’m getting back to working on my sunset quilt.

When I pull the top off the design wall to sew the rows of orange blocks on I’m going to resew a portion of the sun.

If you click the image to enlarge it you can see there’s a bit too much slack in the lower right quadrant which causes the sun to lose its roundness.  That may seem like a nit-picky thing, but that part of the sun doesn’t appear to be behind gauzy clouds.  It’s a small detail, but it’s going to drive me nuts if I don’t do something about it.

Having a picture helps me see which blocks need to be swapped or rotated.  See the second row from the bottom?  The farthest left block and the 3rd from the left have the same material at the top.  I need to rotate one of those to break up any impression of a pattern.

So I’m putting together the blocks for my sunset quilt, sewing them into strips.  As I work I elate.  This section is SO pretty!  I get a sections done and I say “Oh!  This one’s the prettiest yet!”.  <sigh>  I’m addicted to color.

I’m working on a new quilt.  You can follow the progress on the Sunset Quilt page (right menu).