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.