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Alaska lap quilt



When I made my Alaska quilt a little while ago, I was disappointed to not be able to use any of the fabrics that I actually bought in Alaska!  There was possibly going to be another stumbling block, too, to using them in a different quilt...I don't like using very many identifiable prints in my work.  But these fabrics are all Alaska themes, so darn it, what to do?

I finally settled on making a little lap quilt that would allow me to stitch it up quickly using my machine, which I rarely do in my art quilts, to feature the actual prints, and to basically finish the whole thing in one day!


1. I started by tearing strips of the fabrics to approximately 4 to 6 inches wide and the whole length of each fat quarter.  I arranged them, layering outward from a center strip and overlapping by about a 1/2 inch.


2.  I evened off the ends and pinned the strips in a few places to a piece of natural cotton batting.  I used 1 1/2 inch wide masking tape to measure off a batting border and cut the batting along the outer edge.




3. Next, I layered a backing piece of fabric underneath the upper part of the sandwich and pinned everything down well, including a 1/2 inch margin around the outside of the top, which will not be quilted.  Quilt the sandwich with a large zig-zag stitch.  Pull the threads to the center, next to the batting and knot each pair.



4. Cut the backing 2 inches past the edge of the masking tape.  Iron a crease in the border, folding it up and over the taped batting and mitering the corners.  Remove the tape and press again.  Tuck the border under the free edge of the top, and zig-zag stitch along the raw edge of the top, veering off to stitch up and down each mitered corner as well.



Copyright 2013 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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Comments

Cherie Burbach said…
You did this in a day? Wow. Beautiful.
Cyndi L said…
Two days, technically. I picked out all the fabrics at the end of one day and put them in order. Then the next day I did all the construction. It really is easy and I used my machine, so it went really quickly.
Cherie Burbach said…
I know it would take me a lot longer to do! But it's good to know it's possible, especially if you're organized.
I'm also impressed that you did this beautiful quilt in basically a day.

The masking tape is a helpful tip for a lot of projects! Thanks.

I bet you'll find the design much more appealing once the weather gets bitter cold. The colors are patterns look just perfect for the cold.