Today I started working on Annie's Bubbly Babies quilt.
This pattern can be made for either a boy or a girl.
This pattern can be made for either a boy or a girl.
I chose pink fabrics.
Eight of the center squares will be textured with Texture Magic. We want to end up with 6 1/2 inch squares, so the pattern's directions say to start with a 9 inch square of both the fabric and the Texture Magic. (To allow for 30% shrinkage).
On the first piece I drew 1" grids. Place the Texture Magic on the back of the fabric and stitch on the lines.
Mr. Cactus wanted to see how this new product from Superior Threads works, so I made him sit down at my machine and stitch a few blocks.
*If our children are reading this, don't be alarmed. Dad participated with only a little bit of whining at first, and then he got over it quite fast.
We stitched various patterns on the back of Texture Magic. This one we did in a wavy design.
On another we placed the grids closer together at 1/2" apart.
Some were stippled, and some had straight lines. I wanted to experiment to see how the fronts would look with different textures.
A regular iron can be used for steaming Texture Magic, but should NOT be touched to the fabric. Just hold it about an inch away from the surface and let the steam do the work.
I prefer to use an actual steamer. The steamer can touch the Texture Magic.
Mother Superior (Heather Purcell) tested a lot of steamers and felt this model did the best job.
The Power Steam Pro can be purchased through Superior Threads.
Within a few seconds after applying steam, the fabric starts to curl and shrink.
After about 20-30 seconds the fabric will start to lie flat and you know you are done.
Oohhh...very nice!
Mr. Cactus said watching Texture Magic shrink could be addictive, like popping bubble wrap.
He kept wanting to try it over and over.
You can see how much each piece shrinks. The bottom piece is 9" unsteamed.
The top piece has been shrunk 30% in every direction.
All 8 blocks are now completed with Texture Magic. They are soft and crinkly and fun to touch. I wish my pictures would show more accurately the fun textures.
I will trim them to 6 1/2" blocks and then they will be ready to be set into the baby quilt.
Tomorrow: Bubbly Babies Part 2.
Hey, we should've done a quilt a long together. I hope to get the pattern in the next couple days.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! Now I was glad to hear you say it remained soft, a big plus for the product in my book. Did you pay your assistant?
ReplyDeleteThat is going to look so cute on a quilt. I love how it turned out. Neat to see the step by step instructions on how to do it. Must be easy and fun if your husband would help:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for walking us thru it~ I'm glad you said it remained soft too~ I was wondering about that. :-) That is going to be a really cute quilt!
ReplyDeleteI could easily see the fascination!
ReplyDeleteIt's an amazing product!it's so nice that your husband tried it.
ReplyDeleteMicki
What fun! But what is even more fun is that you got your hubby involved. I think there would be tons of whining at my house for sure.
ReplyDeleteHow cute. I love this post. It makes me smile. It is kind of like making shrinky dinks with our kids when they were little. It was always so fun to put them in the oven and watch them mutate!
ReplyDeleteI just bought some of that Texture Magic too. But it's so expensive I'm apprehensive about experimenting with it. The half yard package that I bought was $13 and, as you say, it will be considerably less yardage when prepared. If you add in the price of the printed fabric you're talking something in the price vicinity of Ultrasuede!
ReplyDeleteWould you mind showing how the various swatches that you quilted differently turned out? Thanks in advance.
rainey
How fun to get Mr. cactus to help!! Fun post!
ReplyDeleteThose pictures of Kent are cracking me up! LOL Some things just intrigue the guys, huh?
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I love popping bubble wrap, so I think I would really enjoy watching texture magic puff-up!
ReplyDeleteNedra the texture magic looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteso you do not sew the blocks until you are done using the texture magic?
How do you sew them if other blocks do not have the texture magic? Will you have to trim the untextured ones to size of the textured ones?