Everything Is Coming Up Rosie: Finish Friday: Totally Wicked

Well... I can FINALLY share my "top secret" project I've been working on over the past few weeks (ahem....months).

This one is for my mother-in-law who is a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan. She even refers to herself as the "Wicked Witch" and threatens to "send her flying monkeys at us." I bought the panel months ago and then found the matching fabrics to go with it. I had no clue what pattern to do, but then found the "Totally Wicked" quilt by Quilting Treasures online and it was perfect!

The top was fairly easy to assemble, but I did realize after I had started that, according to the pattern, the finished quilt size was going to be a bit on the small side (44" x 52"). I wanted this one to be something big enough for her to cuddle under, so I added a 1" green border, and then a 5" black-print border. The final size (before washing) was 56" x 64" which I thought would be a good size.

I'm getting much better (and faster) with basting, so I had no trouble putting this one together. The backing is plain black and I used unbleached cotton batting due to the white fabrics (didn't want them to look "dingy" by using natural batting).

Then came the fun part... Quilting!

I had NO CLUE how to quilt this baby. I didn't want to do too much over the panel in order to prevent from distorting it, so I went with a simple cross-hatch and used a Hera marker to draw the lines (no, I don't quilt that straight without help. Lol). After the panel was quilted, I just did stitch-in-the-ditch around the diamonds in the border, and then along the borders themselves.

Oh, I forgot to mention... I really didn't want to use any color thread for the quilting that would make the panel look awful, so after doing some research online as well as getting some tips from the Missouri Star forums, I went with some YLI Wonder Invisible thread in the top and just black Superior Omni thread in the bobbin. I honestly was expecting some troubles with tension and breakage, but "Rosie" (my Viking Eden Rose 250c) did a wonderful job with absolutely no problems!

I started the quilting a few weeks ago, but then got sidetracked with a bunch of little projects (here and here), so it got put on the back burner. With the intended due date of Mother's Day, I finally had to kick it into high gear and get it done. I cranked out the rest of the quilting, and then the binding followed soon after.

Since I added the extra border, I didn't have enough fabric to do the original binding on it. I went in search of a suitable replacement and found some Black & White Striped fabric by Timeless Treasures on Etsy and it was a perfect fit! Totally reminds me of the socks the witch was wearing when the house fell on her!!

Finally, it was DONE! Just needed a label and it was ready to go. I made up a label on my embroidery machine and even did some cool applique on it!

The applique ruby slippers came from AppliqueGuru on Etsy, and I found some cool red sparkly fabric at JoAnns on one of my recent trips. The fonts used were ones that I had on my computer and was able to digitize them using the Viking 6D QuickFont program. Took 3 tries to get it to look good, but it was totally worth all the effort. Added some of the extra binding to the edges and I am so pleased with it!

"Totally Wicked" Details: