A Little Crazy Quilt Eye Candy!

I've gotten a little behind on things like email and blogging lately!  I've been doing some organizing, cleaning out, straightening up and so on.  Getting the house ready to the best of my ability to hold crazy quilt classes here. 

My husband is in the process of painting the hallway upstairs.  When the tree hit our house back at Christmas of 2009, it cracked some of the drywall upstairs.  As many of you know, I went into a horrible state of depression a week later and it wasn't until now that I've been able to focus on getting him to fix the drywall and and repaint for me.  I'll paint the trim as soon as he has the walls painted.  It's hard to keep him in the house this time of year.  He loves to be outside and I can certainly understand that but I asked him to focus that ADD mind of his and try to get the painting done by the end of this coming weekend.

My next project is to repaint the bathroom which I've been planning on too since before the nightmare depression hit me.  So that's next on my list when the hallway is done.

As you know, my Marie Antoinette Crazy quilt is completely done now.  Well, I still need to make a quilt label for it which I'll do tomorrow.  Once I get it hung on the wall, I'll share a final presentation with you.  I also bought a rod today for my Button quilt which will hang in the bedroom over my husband's dresser.  I need to make a quilt label for that tomorrow as well.  When I have that hanging on the wall, I'll share another photo.

I have been doing a little stitching and worked up these two little crazy quilt door pillows:

Wait till you see how I finish these!  They'll be a little different than the way usually do my door pillows.

In other news, I've just finished up another round of horrible Zoloft withdrawals.  Every time my Dr.drops the dosage, it's 8 weeks of pure concentrated hell.  I didn't really plan on talking about depression too much anymore but I'm thinking, that maybe it would be helpful to someone if I just talked about the withdrawals, the symptoms and coping skills for getting through it.  Is anyone interested in me writing about that?  Please leave comments for me and let me know.

For now, I'm off to fold laundry.  Yeah, that's what I live for!  LOL!!!

1925 Bakers Chocolate Recipe Book

Ya'll know how much I love to bake!  And I love anything vintage as well!  I've been collecting vintage baking booklets for quite a few years now.  I find them for a few dollars here and there in my flea market and antique shop travels.

The prize in my collection is this 1925 Bakers Chocolate Recipe Booklet.  It's loaded with recipes for chocolate and cocoa:

I've made a Free PDF file of this little Chocolate Book available in my Cottage Boutique.  Enjoy!

How To Assemble A CrazyQuilt - Step 7

There's one final step in finishing a crazy quilt.  We need to hold the front of the quilt to the back of the quilt.  The best way I've found to do this is to sew buttons onto the back:

I simply sew a button on the back of the quilt at every intersection with the exception of where the sleeve is.  My stitches on the front of the quilt are hidden behind the trim.  These buttons also add extra support to the quilt.

I hope you have found this tutorial for finishing a crazy-quilt helpful!  I will have a final presentation of my Marie Antoinette crazy quilt for you next week.  Before I hang it, I want to show a few friends in person.

Be sure to see the entire tutuorial for How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt!

How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt - Steps 5 and 6

On to steps 5 and 6 of How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt.

Step 5

At this point, we're going to add the sleeve for hanging the quilt.  It will be done entirely by machine so no hand sewing will be necessary.

First, you'll want to trim away the excess foundation fabric as I've done here:

If you find you need a helper, one your cats will always be more than willing.  A little too willing!  LOL!!!  This is Simba!  He always helps me assemble my crazyquilts.

To make the sleeve for my quilt, I cut a piece of the backing fabric about 2 inches narrower than the width of the quilt.  The length will be determined by the width of the rod used for hanging.  In my case, my quilt rod is 1 1/2 inches around so I cut my sleeve approx. 9 inches in length.  Yes, I make my sleeves much bigger than I need:

Fold this piece in 1/2 lengthwise and sew up the side seams:

Turn this piece right side out and press the seams.

Top stitch the raw edges along the top of the sleeve:

Next, you're going to want to cut your backing fabric the same size as your quilt.  I use a heavy Quilter's Cotton on the back of my crazy quilts:

At this point, you're also going to want to make sure your quilt is square and the edges are straight.  If you made sure your squares were square and straight and when you sewed the blocks together, your quilt should be square and straight.  The edges might just need a little trim so do that now.

Next, pin the sleeve, with the raw edges at the top of the right side of your backing fabric.  Pin, pin, pin!  Use a 1/4 inch seam allowance for this step.  When you have the raw edge sewn down, top stitch the bottom edge of the sleeve onto the backing fabric close to edge.

Remove all pins and press the backing fabric.

Step 6

With right sides together, pin the quilt top to the back making sure that your sleeve is at the top of the quilt:

Pin, pin, pin!!!!!  Pin the top of your quilt to the back of your quilt.  You'll be sewing this like a pillowcase.  You will have to leave a large opening at the bottom of your quilt for turning right side out.  I start at the bottom, sew about 6 inches, turn and sew all the way around until I get back to the bottom and then sew only about another 6 inches.  Again, I use a 1/2 inch seam allowance on crazy quilts.

When you're done sewing, remove all pins and trim the corners so they don't bunch up then carefully turn your quilt right side out.  Press the seams and then hand-sew the opening closed using a blind stitch.

I will have the final step for you soon.  In the meantime, be sure to see the entire How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt Tutorial.

How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt - Steps 3 & 4

Steps 3 and 4 in the Crazy Quilt assembly process are both optional.  In the case of my Marie Antoinette quilt, I wanted to sash my blocks with a pretty pink trim..  This has to be done at this point.  If you choose to use trim to sash your blocks, add that now:

I hand sewed the trim on down the seam lines.

Step 4 - Adding Borders

Again, this step is optional.  If you choose to add borders to your crazyquilt, this is how I do it.

First, you'll have to decide on how wide you want your borders.  I wanted 3 inch borders on this quilt and since I'm using 1/2 seam allowances, I cut my fabric strips 4 inches wide.

There are several ways to sew the borders on but I chose the easiest for this quilt.  I added the side borders first and then did the top and bottom borders.

Lay your first border face down on your quilt.  Line up the edges and pin, pin, pin!

Repeat the process on the other side border.  Now you can sew them down.  If you're wondering how to find your 1/4 inch or 1/2 seam allowance when the markings on your sewing machine are covered up by the foundation fabric, what I do is to measure and mark my seam allowance:

I use an air dissolving pen but you can use a pencil if you'd like.  Mark you seam allowance every 2 inches and keep your marks small.

When you have both the side seams sewn down, remove the pins and press your seams.

Next, pin those first 2 borders down onto the foundation fabric, then add your top & bottom border repeating the process:

Again, remove the pins, press your seams and pin those borders down to the foundation fabric:

Trim any excess border fabric and then top stitch the edge of the border to the foundation fabric.  You just want to sew it down along the outer edge.

At this point, I chose to hand sew more of my trim around the seam where the borders meet the quilt blocks:

If there is anything else you would like to sew on to your quilt, now is the time!

In Step 5 & 6, I will show you how to add a sleeve for hanging and how to add the "pretty" back at the same time.

Be sure to see Steps 1 and 2 of my How To Assemble A Crazy Quilt on my Tutorials Page.