On the First Day of School the Mommy Got to SEW!

My boys [and 15 year old daughter] all went to their first day of school Tuesday :)

....my first day alone (for more than an hour or two) in more than 20 years!

I tried to break one of my rules and not get dressed.

I cleaned up the house.

...I lasted in my jammies until about 10 when I couldn't stand it anymore.

I showered, got dressed and got to sewing :)

First off, I needed to make the back for the Top Secret Quilt.  Hmmmmmm... I knew that I needed a MineCraft Creeper on the back.  

This is a MineCraft Creeper

I knew that I had NO $$$ to go buy more minky.  What ever shall I do?  So, I just did what every self respecting fabric stashing cheap-skate would do, hit the scrap pile!  I found 3 pieces of minky that fit perfectly on the back and the colors were perfect too :)  Yippee for me!!!

So the next problem to be surmounted was how to affix the Creeper face to the back.  I decided to just applique it with a wide zig zag stitch.  It's not great, but it's on :)

The center minky is spring green with white polka dots and a creeper face :)  The left panel is cream minky and the right panel is pale yellow.

Now the big dilemma was how to baste the Top Secret Quilt.  Should I get brave and try using the 405 spray?  And, how would the spray basting work with minky on the back?  How do I do it with minky backing vs. regular quilting fabric?  I looked all over blogland and didn't see any thing :(  So, I just put on my big girl panties and went with my gut.

I decided to pin the minky to the carpet just like I do when I pin baste.

Once the back was pinned to the carpet, taut but not stretched, I got the beach towels out and bordered the quilt with them to protect the carpet from over spray.  I also opened all of the doors and windows because everyone on line said the fumes are horrible (I didn't think they stunk at all).

Next I laid the batting on the back, smoothed it down and then spray basted the batting down, one side at time and a little section at a time, starting in the center.  Then I did the same thing with the top of the quilt; smoothed it, sprayed it a section at a time.  It worked BEAUTIFULLY!  I think I may have used WAY too much spray, but the quilt sandwich is secure :)

Now for the quilting.  What fmq pattern to use?

I settled on what I call "pixelated" fmq.

It looks like an old 8 bit video game :)

The spray basting held everything together PERFECTLY!!

No puckers anywhere!!!

Of course, my name, the year and my daughters name is hidden in the quilting :)

Here is the quilt all ready for binding tomorrow!

I am off to bed with DH :)