To Cheer You!!

I am tickled to tell all of my readers that a quilt that I made for a special lady has been picked to be a part of Madame Samm's November banner over at Sew We Quilt!!

This is the story that I sent along with my quilt photos.....

The story of my quilt is no different than hundreds of quilts as it was made to warm the heart of a very dear person, a teacher and friend of mine. Mrs. Rebecca Massey was my cheerleader sponsor in Jr. High School and also taught both of my children in 3rd grade. I have learned the utmost respect for this wonderful lady over the past 39 years. This summer she was injured and was taken off of her feet for a few weeks and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. There is nothing like a warm and cozy quilt to melt away any worries and heal the biggest of boo-boos.

It took me 2 weeks to make the quilt and get it sent on it's journey from North Carolina to Alabama. (I moved to NC in 2003 but Bama will always hold my heart!) I received the fabric on August 21 in an order from the Fat Quarter Shop. I had ordered a jelly roll of the same Westminster fabrics, Parisville by Tula Pink, for a quilting retreat that I am going to in November. We are going to do a jelly roll race competition. Upon inspection of my order, I realized they had sent a 27 piece Fat Quarter Bundle of the fabrics instead of the 26 piece jelly roll. Well, we all know how big of a difference that would be in cost! I quickly picked up the phone and called to let them know they had made an error and sent the wrong pre-cut. They apologized many times and said they must make it up to me for their mix up. I assured them that it was not necessary to do this but they would have it no other way. To make a long story short, I came out smelling like a rose when they were finished "making it up to me". They went above and beyond! So while I waited for my jelly roll to arrive, I started cutting out this quilt from the fat quarter bundle for Mrs. Massey. If someone can be so good to me, how can I not, myself, pay it forward.

Quilt name: To Cheer You!

As all of my friends know, I am a rather long winded kind of person. I love to talk and sometimes it can take me a while to tell a story. The story of this quilt is told over the course of 3 posts on my blog. I condensed all 3 posts in to one so you can see and read about the making of the quilt all in one place from the beginning to when it was ready to mail to Alabama. You can read the story below...

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This excerpt taken from a post here...

This is my latest haul from the Fat Quarter Shop! I have to tell you they have the most awesome customer service EVERRRR!!  I originally ordered the Little Golden Books prints and a jelly roll for the Jelly Roll race at the retreat.  I bought a jelly roll off of their sale page at 50% off.  When my package came they had sent a Fat Quarter Bundle instead. I called them immediately because everyone knows that Fat Quarter Bundles cost a whole heap more than a jelly roll.  They apologized and apologized and wanted to make it up to me! WHAT!!  I told them there was no need in that but they kept insisting.  

I kept the Fat Quarter Bundle and they sent me a different jelly roll because they were out of the ones on sale.  The one on sale that I ordered only had 26 strips.. the one they sent me had 40 strips!!  OK.. I had paid 11.00 for the one on sale... The one they sent was NOT on sale... and all I did was pay for the Fat Quarter Bundle, which was half off too!! You CAN NOT beat that kind of customer service ANYWHERE people! They are awesome to deal with! And always giving back to the quilting community through sponsored blog giveaways! You don't have to look hard to find a blogger doing a sponsored giveaway from the Fat Quarter Shop! When merchants give back like that, I will always do business with them first!

Just look at my yummy fabrics! Thank you Fat Quarter Shop!

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This excerpt taken from a post here...

I have been busy over the past couple of weeks, sneaking in an hour here and an hour there, working on this quilt top. I was inspired to make this quilt while on a visit to Sew4Home's blog and seeing this really cute baby quilt!

If you regularly read my blog you will remember this post  where I gave the Fat Quarter Shop a shout out for awesome customer service over a mix up on an order I placed with them!  I came out smelling like a rose when it was over so I wanted to do something special for someone else with some of the fabric that they gave me.

I also have missed the past 2 weeks on tutorials so I decided to mix in a small tute just for you!  I will show you how I apply my borders to keep them from having fullness and walking with me when I try to longarm quilt the top.

First off you need to take 3 measurements across your quilt top.  Decide if you are going to apply your side borders first or your top and bottom borders first.  In this case, we are going to apply the top and bottom borders first.

1. Measure across the top edge of your top, measure through the middle from one side to the other, and measure across the lower edge. (the 3rd line drawn represents the lower edge of the quilt...I thought I got the entire quilt top in the photo but I didn't...sorry)

2. Now..add all 3 of these numbers together.... and then divide by 3.  The number you get will be the length you cut your top and bottom border strips before sewing them to the quilt top...and in my case the length I will need once I finish piecing my strips together for my borders.  Here is my top border, pieced, measured and ready to sew on to the top edge of my quilt.

3. Next... You will need to find the center of your border strip by folding it in half and then mark it with a pin.

4. You will want to find at least one more reference point between the middle and the outside edge of the top, on both sides of the middle,  so now we will bring the left edge of the border strip over to the pin in the middle. We will finger crease the fold to mark the halfway point of the outer edge and the middle pin and add another pin at this reference point.

 Now we have 2 pins in place!

5. And to find the last reference point bring the right side of the border strip over to the center pin.  And as before we will finger crease the fold to mark the halfway point of the outer edge and the middle pin and add another pin at this reference point.

Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 to the top edge of your quilt top.

6. Now we are going to pin the border strip to the quilt top! With right sides together, match your pins on your border strip to the corresponding pins on the top edge of the quilt top and pin them together!

7. It is time to sew your border strip to your top! You may have a little fullness from one pin to the other and the way I tackle that is to pick up the quilt top and border strip where a pin has joined the two together and slightly..very slightly...tug toward myself to erase any fullness there may be while I sew down to the pin.  Do not manhandle this slight tug or you may stretch your border out of shape.

Be sure your top edges are flush and even and begin sewing!

Tug ever so slightly if needed to erase any fullness!

8. Press the seam allowance toward the border strip once you have the entire border strip attached!

Repeat steps 3 thru 8 to apply the bottom border strip to your quilt top!

Now it is time to add your side borders!!  This is done in the exact same way that you applied your top and bottom borders except now you have the top and bottom borders to add in to the equation!  You will take the same 3 measurements as you took before but you will measure from the top edge of the border strip to the lower edge of the border strip!

Remember to add all 3 measurements together and divide by 3 to get the length your border strips should be!

Repeat steps 1 thru 8 to apply the left side border and the right side border! And then you have a quilt top ready to be quilted and your borders will be straight and have no fullness in them!

How do you like my variation of the quilt on Sew4Home's website?  I actually had a sloober doober but decided instead of using the seam ripper, I would use it as a design opportunity! ha! Can you spot the slip-up?

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial of how I apply my borders.  There are as many ways to do things as there are quilters so I am not saying my way is the "only" way.  It is just how I do it and it works for me.  I just hope that I can help someone else with my little tips and tricks.

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This excerpt taken from a post here...

This is the top I showed a few days ago!  I had to change out the leaders on my Gammill longarm because it had gotten stretched out of shape and was causing pleating on the backs of my customer work! I loaded this after putting on the new leader just to be sure the problem did not lie with the bottom leader!  I finished quilting it last night using a pantograph and did the binding this morning!

BTW: Leaders are fixed! NO MORE PLEATING!!  I so hate to frog!!

This is going to a very special lady this week!!

And here she is!  

Mrs. Rebecca Massey, all wrapped up as snug as a bug in her quilt!

Thank you so much Madame Samm for choosing my quilt as part of your November banner and allowing me to introduce you to Mrs. Massey! :)

I am linking up over with Amy's Creative Side and the Bloggers Quilt Festival!