The Bias Tape quilt, part 10: Finished

We’ve all experienced the happy satisfaction that bubbles up after finishing a quilt and with The Bias Tape quilt, I had it in spades.

The day after putting the last stitch in the label, I took the quilt to work to show our CEO, and he loved it. He listened with interest as I explained what bias tape is, how it’s typically used, why I made a quilt with it and about the laser cube. As well, he enjoyed looking at my progress photos.

He and I got into a routine of show-and-tell about two years ago after I took my Wizard of Oz quilt to the office. Not long after that, he purchased an online drawing course and periodically started bringing his drawings (or his laptop with photos of the drawings) to the office to show me. He would talk about the different concepts presented in the course and we would chat for 10 – 15 minutes about drawing.

Empty cards and old labels – check the prices!

We’ve had conversations about proportion, techniques, tools, color, and framing. (He especially liked the links I sent him to Karen Brown’s Just Get It Done Quilts color series.) It’s been fun to learn about a medium I’ve never tried and watch his progress, as well as to have an audience for mine.

It still surprises me a little about how this sharing of our individual creative pursuits evolved so organically, given that we are boss and employee. But as time went on and our exchanges became more regular, it almost became part of the routine – not only eagerly welcomed but expected – not every day or even every week, of course, but enough where both of us would notice if it stopped.

Another empty card (front and back)

Now that this quilt is DONE, I have to acknowledge John’s contribution. Without his help, this quilt never would have become a reality, and I am deeply grateful to him for the weekend he gave up to help get the lines drawn on the top. I think he is almost as pleased with it as I am.

So, after taming the voice in my head nagging me to do something with all the leftover bias tape I inherited, I’m wondering if it’s realistic to feel guilty about the tape that remains?

No answer necessary – I’m already dialing for professional help over that question.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 9: Binding

This quilt needed almost nine yards of binding, and I started by considering these 1-inch-wide leftovers from the bias tape stash. As much as I wanted to use them, I didn’t – for a couple of reasons. The visual in my head of a scrappy binding made of three shades of blue, bright pink and taupe wasn’t pretty.

If there had been more colors available – maybe.

The other reason was that I couldn’t tolerate the feel of the tapes. When you’re used to nice soft cotton, anything with polyester starts to feel like the plastic that it is.

Since most of the handling of a quilt happens around the perimeter, rejecting the tapes was an easy call.

I turned to the stash of solid fabrics I’d purchased for the math pillowcases Rhonda and I made for Ross and his two college roommates.

Any of them would’ve worked, except maybe the light gray, but my go-to color is always blue, so I chose this:

Naturally, I picked a fabric that had been used for a math pillowcase, which meant there was ZERO extra yardage available in the event of a cutting mistake.

After auditioning various binding widths, ¾” looked best, which required a strip width of 3½”. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough yardage, so the strips were cut just shy of the 3⅜” mark on the ruler; I felt lucky to get it.

That sliver on the right is all that remained after cutting the binding strips. The width of the narrowest section of the sliver measures less than ½”.

After the strips had been sewn together, I used dressmaker’s tracing paper to mark a sewing line one-quarter inch from the raw edges of the binding.

To retain the squareness of the top, I decided to baste the binding into position, matching the ¼” marking on it to the perimeter lines drawn on the top.

I used the walking foot to stitch the binding to the quilt, mitering the corners.

Once the binding was on, I tied off the quilting thread tails, wove them through four or five stitches and clipped the excess.

I approached the trimming of the quilt with a large amount of caution to ensure that there was enough batting and backing to fill the binding when it was turned to the back. Long story short, I trimmed it once, all the way around followed by a tiny sliver trim all the way around.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 8: Marking and quilting

I decided early on not to do a lot of fancy quilting on this project because the colors and criss-crossing of the bias tapes provided sufficient impact, thereby negating the need for it. Still, I’m always concerned about my quilts having enough quilting so they don’t fall apart over time, let alone after the first spin in the washing machine.

John modified his CAD drawing of the quilt top, creating two layouts showing straight line quilting in the diamonds created by the bias tapes:

Version #1

Version #2

The first version with more quilting was my preference, but I chose the second version because I really wanted to finish this project in the same year it was started.

With the quilting plan set, it was time to mark the top. John offered a helpful suggestion which was to mark the center point of each diamond on one side of the tape in each direction:

Quilting the top turned out to be the easiest step in the process:

• walking foot
• 9 stitches per inch
• 2 to 3 minor tension adjustments
• 50-weight cream colored cotton thread in the bobbin
• 50-weight cotton to match on top – and there it was – another hurdle to clear: finding thread colors to match the colors of the bias tapes.

Despite a healthy supply of thread colors accumulated over the years, I ended up buying more online – ugh! – because the nearest quilt shop in my area stocks an anorexic supply of 50-weight cotton thread colors, none of which matched.

Cream colored thread was used in the bobbin.

Ordering thread online is a balancing act and an exercise in patience because there is no way to match color by looking at a picture of a color. The key is to make sure you get enough colors in the range you need without over- or under-buying. Still, I leaned toward the former, hoping to avoid placing a second order and paying another shipping charge. For example, out of the six different green tapes on the top, I had thread to match only two of them. Here are the 11 greens purchased in the attempt to match the other four.

I briefly considered using nylon thread and quilted about three feet of one of the tapes with it. In addition to not looking great, I was especially concerned about its ability to hold up once the quilt was washed since it was not only securing the bias tapes to the top but also responsible for holding the quilt layers together. It was an easy decision to eliminate it as a thread option.

I started quilting the tape originating in the upper left corner, working to the right so the bulk under the machine gradually decreased. Once both sides of the tape had been stitched, I switched to white 50-weight thread on the top to quilt inside each diamond.

After doing this for two or three rows, I would stop to tie knots and bury thread tails. Fortunately, I had enough matching thread on hand to be able to progress while waiting for my thread order to arrive, so there wasn’t too much downtime during this portion of the project.

One hugely positive outcome from all the color matching of thread to tapes was that I emptied a lot of spools and a ton of bobbins. Additionally, it offered the perfect opportunity to organize my thread.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 7: Product

In the 1980s, when big hair was in vogue, I’d go for a haircut and always have to remind my stylist not to use any mousse – product, as she called it – in my hair. I didn’t like the way it made my hair and scalp feel and worried about it drying out my hair or inflicting some other version of damage, so I actively avoided it and eventually found a new stylist who would remember my preference for no product.

Applying product to a quilt top gives me similar anxiety so I debated a lot about how to secure the bias tapes to the top. I wasn’t convinced that pinning the tapes to the top would reliably keep them centered on their respective pencil lines. Additionally, what would it be like to handle the quilt sandwich once basting pins were added? Thread basting was out, too – may as well hand tack the tapes at that point.

After much consideration, I realized that the only sensible solution was to use product – in this case, fabric glue.

Roxanne’s Glue-Baste-It is advertised as water-soluble, clear-drying and pH neutral, characteristics that go a long way to boost my trust in using it. I ordered a 2-ounce bottle, took a deep breath, and dabbed.

Starting in the top left corner of the top and working down and to the right, a sequence and rhythm to applying dots of glue quickly emerged.

• Glue a tape’s under position before gluing the tape that crosses over it.

• The maximum length along which to successfully apply glue and then press the tape onto it is about four to five inches.

• Work in sections, letting the glue dry completely before moving the top to work on the next section.

• Be conscious not to pull the tape when pressing it into the glue.

• Rinse the cap and applicator thoroughly after every use to ensure the free flow of glue when working on the next section.

I did have to tame one of the tapes that seemed a little more fragile than the others – the purple one that took extra time to iron after it was washed because the folds were weak. It was one of the last ones to be glued and had begun to flatten out again, so I pressed the folds back into place and finished gluing.

Securing the tapes with a pin at the beginning and end of the line they covered was the right decision, especially when one side of the top was puddled on the floor while gluing tapes to the opposite side (my cutting table is only 30 inches wide). The tapes never unwove (if that’s a word).

In all, close to 40 yards of bias tape was glue basted to the top. Impressive or insane?

The Bias Tape quilt, part 6: 1 engineer + 1 laser cube = 50 straight lines

The next weekend, John helped me mark the top, and thank goodness for his help because it was a two-person job and took most of the day.

The first step was to draw the perimeter lines onto the white solid fabric used for the top by centering it over the 72″ x 84″ painter’s tape rectangle to use it as a guide – easier said than done.

To start, I drew a vertical chalk line down the middle of the center panel.

The center chalk line became the reference point for the first side border. From that line, I measured to the left 36 inches (half of 72), top to bottom and connected those marks with a 4″ x 36″ Omni Edge ruler.

Left side

I wanted to repeat the procedure to draw the border to the right of the center line, but John insisted on using the painter’s tape rectangle as the guide since he spent so much time making sure the corners were perpendicular. I was skeptical, but when you have access to free engineering consulting services, you listen to the consultant.

Right side

Aligning the left perimeter line on the top with the outer edge of the blue tape on the left, the other three perimeter lines were drawn on the fabric. Then I marked the two long sides in 7-inch increments and the two short sides in 6-inch increments, still having no clue about how to mark the diagonal lines.

The challenge was to draw a smooth, continuous, diagonal line across the top without wrinkling the fabric or taping rulers together – the longest diagonal measuring more than 110 inches. John decided that a laser line tool would be a giant step in the right direction and made a trip to Home Depot to get one. I wasn’t exactly sure how this would help, but since I had nothing concrete to offer, I trusted my consultant.

He bought a Ryobi laser cube for $15.00 and it worked like a charm. After some trial and error, he figured out the best way to handle the cube with the least amount of fussing. The laser cube works on flat surfaces. Unfortunately, fabric is not flat all over; the smallest ripple can interrupt a laser line. To counter this, John raised the cube by setting it on top of a small box and placed a few business cards under the back end of the cube to tilt it forward to angle the laser line onto the fabric.

The cube-box-card assembly was placed on my 4″ x 36″ OmniEdge ruler so he could slide it to the next mark without reassembling the three items every single time.

He also used a business card at the opposite end of the line like this:

Once the laser line was in position, I veeeery carefully, stepped onto the fabric, executed the lowest squat possible and veeeery carefully aligned my Omnigrid yardstick along the laser line. Starting at one end, I veeeery carefully ran a pencil along the edge of the yardstick, veeeery carefully sliding my way down the laser line to the opposite end.

Penciling the shorter lines turned out to be a relief because they did not require setting foot onto the fabric. For sure, this was not the most fun quilting prep day ever, but it was exciting to realize that a giant hurdle had been cleared with all the diagonal lines drawn onto the fabric.

Next, it was time to lay all the bias tapes into position, weaving them over and under across the top.

I made sure that at least an inch or so of each tape extended beyond the perimeter lines on both ends of the line and secured them with a pin so they would not move out of position when the top would be moved to my cutting table for the next step.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 4: Laundry day

Now it was time to do laundry. A fair number of those bias tape packages had to have been around since I was in junior high school and needed freshening up.

It took most of one day to wash and iron all the tapes, but the routine quickly presented itself: While one group of tapes was soaking, the previously laundered group of tapes was being ironed.

Some of the tapes held their creases quite well during washing.

Others nearly flattened out like this purple one. Most were somewhere in between.

Most of the seams needed to be ironed open/flat again as well.

One other thing I did to incorporate the widest possible range of colors into the top was rework these 1-inch-wide tapes into half-inch tapes.

Not sure why, but to my surprise, of all 46 tapes used, these five held up best during washing.

When all the tapes were washed and pressed, I laid everything out on the floor again to make sure there was enough length for each diagonal and to confirm color placement. I did end up adding a couple more colors to the mix, removing some duplicates in the process, and was surprised at how much better it looked.

To stay organized, I recorded all the colors onto a printed copy of the revised diamond layout. Taking close up photos of sections of the top resulted in so many photos it was difficult later on to match any given photo with its position in the layout. Sometimes, good old-fashioned pen and paper work best.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 3: Rearranging the furniture

The next day, John and I pushed the dining room table and chairs to the wall to make space on the floor for a blue painter’s tape rectangle measuring 72″ x 84″.

John helped to make the tape lines as perpendicular as possible so the corners would be at a true 90-degrees. I am so lucky to be married to an engineer.

With the rectangle in place on the floor, each tape length was then marked at 6-inch intervals.

Let the fun begin!

I started with the longest tapes at the corners and worked out, alternating sides. In my excitement, I failed to correctly position the very first tape, a cumulative mistake, causing all that followed to fall into the wrong position on the opposite side.

Check the red lines on the original diagram below and notice how the tapes that start at a corner do not end up in the opposite corner.

As I got to the shorter lengths of tape, John was hovering in the background with furrowed brow because the layout wasn’t looking right. I, on the other hand, was overly focused on color placement and maximizing the lengths of each tape across the diagonals.

Wrong indeed!

John quickly drew the layout that was on the floor in his CAD package to get a truer sense of what had happened. You can see how the loss of a true 45-degree angle looks especially bad at the corners!

What to do? John studied his drawing a few seconds more and announced the fix: re-mark the 84″ sides at 7″ intervals and voilà! That 84 is divisible by 7 was a stroke of immense luck; it saved us from having to redo the long sides of the blue painter’s tape.

The revised layout with its ~50-degree diamond was a huge improvement.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 2: Making a mess

The first step was to figure out how much bias tape there was and how big a quilt could be made with it.

On a Friday night in early April, I rifled through the two drawers of bias tape leftovers in this little chest my paternal grandfather made for my grandmother and began sorting.

After my grandmother died, my mom consolidated all her sewing supplies into this chest, adding her own to it, plus those from her mother, my maternal grandmother.

Eliminated from the sort were all the packages of blanket binding, woven edge rayon, acetate taffeta, ultra-narrow tape, twill tape, anything white, and rick rack.

Here is a partial pile of bias tape available for the quilt. This is finally becoming real . . . .

Next, I used blue painter’s tape to create a 60″ x 60″ square on the floor and then began laying the bias tape inside it to see if there was enough to fill it and / or to make it bigger.

Sure enough, there was plenty to make a bigger quilt, so I increased the size to 72″ x 84″.

The Bias Tape quilt, part 1: The voice in my head

For a few years now, a little voice in my head has been nagging me to do something with the leftover packages of bias hem tape inherited from my mom and grandmothers.

There’s almost enough here to open a five and dime.

Can you blame the little voice for pressing me into action?

I wanted to use as much as possible, meaning that regardless of the colors, excluding white, they would all be included, however that would look. Who doesn’t love a rainbow?

But what design? I wondered about weaving the entire top and experimented by making this little table mat:

I used lightweight, double sided fusible interfacing to stabilize and control the bias tape strips on a base of solid white cotton. Once positioned and pressed into place, both edges of each strip were secured with a straight stitch using invisible (nylon) thread. I loved the look but rejected the idea of an entire top backed with interfacing because I knew it would end up stiff and heavy.

Another time, I considered making 12-inch blocks with a pick-up-sticks look:

Again, I liked the look, but it seemed wrong to chop up the longest lengths of tape in my stash. As well, the visual of multiple rows and columns of pick-up-stick blocks was overly busy and dizzying to look at – so no.

Over time, the voice in my head would go dormant but never completely away, periodically goading me to figure it out. Still liking the idea of using whatever length strips were available and wanting a woven look, I considered this:

Yes, this would look cool, but how to execute it? Machine appliqueing a lot of bias strips to a ground cloth would cause it to pucker seriously, shrink, and become hugely distorted. Some sort of stabilizer would be needed that didn’t include a polyester fusible. Hand applique was out of the question.

More time passed as a solution failed to emerge. The answer finally presented itself one day while watching online quilt videos. The video’s hostess cut I-spy circles for a kid’s quilt, glue basted them to a quilt sandwich, and then quilted the circles into place through all three (four, if you count the circles) layers. How magically genius . . . creating the design on the top while simultaneously quilting the top. This was my long, sought-after answer, and I could finally start the project.

The Bias Tape quilt: introduction

I made a quilt this year, the likes of which I don’t think has ever been attempted in the quilting universe. Now that it’s finished, I understand why. Fun, varicolored, unconventional, even a little ecofriendly, the idea for this quilt was long simmering on the back burner, waiting for all the particulars to be thought through before jumping in.

Access to a drapery workroom would’ve been monumentally helpful. Absent that, nearly every step of its execution required tenacious deliberation; so much of what needed doing I had not done before. Learning curve: steep.

I simultaneously considered and rejected the idea of submitting the quilt for publication, quickly realizing that no sane person would attempt the project. I attempted it because of blind enthusiasm, an enabling husband, and because I didn’t know any better at the time.

Still, I’m beaming with pride over it, glad I made it and amazed that I finished a quilt in the same year it was started. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing how I tackled this unique project and hope that you will enjoy reading about it. Happy new year!