Baby Jane Twister Quilt

Yes, another twister quilt! Out of all the quilts I've shown my non-sewing friends, twisters are always the most popular. The following quilt was commissioned by a former co-worker whose friend just had a baby girl. This quilt was finished at the end of August 2013, but I couldn't reveal it because it was a gift. I had a week to work on this quilt and it was exhausting! Who know that working on a single quilt was more tiring than working on 15 quilts at one time? ;D I am very thankful for both my proximity to Fat Quarter Shop and their fast order processing time, because I was able to get this quilt started and finished very quickly!

Twister Quilt | 48"x48" | Baby Jane and Kona Snow

This is the first pattern I have repeated and I was able to implement all the "Lessons Learned" from the Twister at the Reunion Quilt.  I used Eric and Julie Comstock's Baby Jane fabric and I just love the vintage look of it. It is such a sweet line of fabric! I made the last baby twister quilt with a couple of charm packs, but I bought the whole fat quarter bundle for the making of this one. Baby Jane is about half cream colors, which would have blended into the Kona Snow background. With the fat quarter bundle, I was able to pick and choose which prints to use for the twisters. There is also the added benefit that I have some fabric left over for myself!

The first quilt top is made out of 85 printed 5"* charm squares* and 85 white 5"* charm squares. The white border is made from 5"* strips of fabric and the red border (Scarlet Hop and Skip) is made from 3.5"* strips of fabric. The first quilt top is a 74.5" square. I used the June Tailor Twist n' Stitch ruler to cut the twister blocks from the first top. The twister blocks are 3.5"* squares and the final quilt top is a 48.5" square.

*Unfinished sizes

The main backing piece is Baby Jane Happiness Multi.  The name is paper-pieced using ...from blank pages...  My First Alphabet pattern. I am not 100% sure about the exact color of the solid, but it is possibly Bella Solids Aqua. I could not find a chevron print that was a close match to the aqua, so I made a pattern and paper-pieced my own chevron panel. The quilt ended up the perfect size to fit four of the Scarlet Knick Knack "panels," so I used that print as the bottom fabric.

The batting is Heirloom® Premium 80/20 Cotton Blend. I quilted with a 2" crosshatch and Aurifil 50wt White.

I had to rip quite a bit of quilting out on this one, because of two silly mistakes:

1. About half-way through quilting I realized there was a giant space between the "L" and the "Y," which made the name appear as "ADDIL YN."  It is something I should have caught before I pieced the back, but I didn't see it until after I quilted over the name!  I ended up ripping out the quilting and taking out the tiny piece of spacing fabric between the two letters (While managing to keep the quilt mostly basted. lol).
2. After washing the finished quilt, I saw what looked like two giant red bleeds on the white fabric. It was not a bleed, but some fraying pieces of fabric that ended up underneath the white background. Fortunately the threads were close enough to the edge that I could somewhat easily undo the binding and quilting to remove the offending threads with a pair of tweezers. I will definitely be more diligent about checking for loose threads from now on! (EDIT 1/6/2014: kelly o! left a great comment about using a tiny crochet hook to reach through the top and grab those missed threads. LizzyO Quilts has a fantastic tutorial that illustrates this method!)

This is the first quilt that I pre-washed every single piece, including the batting. As you can see in this post-wash picture, it still turned out very crinkly. I have made quilts with absolutely no pre-washing that have turned out less crinkly! If anyone has any insight on this, let me know! My current theories are that the fabric isn't fully shrunk because I use the delicate cycle or it is just the nature of the Heirloom batting. I like the crinkly look, but I am never sure how non-quilters will feel about it.

I usually don't choose my binding until the end of quilting, since I usually change my mind after seeing the finished quilt. With this quilt, it was obvious from the beginning that Scarlet Cross My Heart was the perfect choice! I love stripe binding! When piecing the binding, I made sure to join it so it looked like there was no break in the stripe pattern. I got SO lucky in the end, because my final binding join matched up perfectly.

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With the leftover fabric from the quilt, I made a complimentary pillow, with a simple envelope backing. I think the "Scarlet Knick Knack" print is so sweet and I really wanted it to be the focus.

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This is the seventh and last quilt finish for 2013. I hope to have many more quilt finishes for 2014. I definitely have enough finished quilt tops to make that happen! :D

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF, which is hosted by Quokka Quilts this week