A Two-Faced Pumpkin Quilt Facing Tutorial (and Modern Winding Ways finished)

Modern Winding Ways is finished. 

Quilted, faced (invisibly bound) and hung. 🙂 And de-fluffed with several passes of a sticky clothes-lint roller. Crikey, does black fabric show batting lint or what!!?! So, that is it – my June Island Batik Ambassador challenge crossed off the list. Happy days. 

If you’d like to follow the whole design and construction journey for Modern Winding Ways, you can find out more about the design stage here and the flimsy stage here. Today we are just going to have a little look at how I finished it. Including a quick tutorial on how to face a quilt, with a bonus little side project. 

Ummmmm….  I said “face a quilt”….. not “put a face on a quilt”.

A two-faced quilt?….. sinister…… Or should that be a pumpkin with a face on his back side?…… ? *snigger* 

Don’t mind me. Long week, small children. Just roll your eyes and join me for the Two-faced Pumpkin facing tutorial. An easy facing method to make you smile. And if you’d like to make a Two-faced Pumpkin table protector like mine as a practice piece, then be my guest. Everything you need to know is here. The fabrics for both projects featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik.

But first…..

Modern Winding Ways – a quick look at the finishing touches on my June Island Batik Ambassador quilt

To quilt Modern Winding Ways, I used straight line ruler quilting in the black background, with the parallel lines about 1/2″ apart. I used an “almost black” blue rayon thread (Madeira brand – no affiliation) to add a bit of interest and shine to these areas. Jet black is really not my favourite colour. So, while I love the vividness of the Elementz batik colours against the black,  I still wanted to soften the dark areas just a little without greying them out.

I also quilted the embroidered winding ways medallions by adding another round of rayon embroidery thread over the top of the exisiting decorative stitching. So the texture of these areas is distinct from the surrounding background, but they still sit flat.

To finish the edges of the quilt I added the aforementioned facing. I was super pleased with how this went, as it was a first for me.

So pleased in fact, that I have organised you a little tutorial so that you can do it too if you like. (And so that I can do it more easily again too next time without having to re-invent the wheel). 🙂 But as I mentioned on Tuesday, demonstrating tutorials on black fabric is hopeless, so I came up with a quick project to better be able to show you how it’s done.

The Two-faced Pumpkin project – or How to Face a Quilt

Step 1 – Complete your quilt and trim up the edges.

I am not going to write up detailed instructions for this part, as you’ll likely be wanting to face your own quilt, whatever that project might be. 

But I needed a demo quilt sandwich, so I have come up with a quick project that you can also make as a practice piece if you wish. The Two-faced Pumpkin table protector.

Why a pumpkin at this time of year?…… well, actually, it is early winter here, so they are quite seasonal locally……. warm soup…..mmmmm. But, truth be told, the process went like this. I thought: “A facing method that makes you smile should be put on a smiley faced project. Then you’ll remember where to come back to to find the tutorial when you want it”. However, when I looked through my Island Batik scrap basket, there was no yellow batik that would be satisfactory for a smiley face. And while smiley faces don’t “have” to be yellow…… they kind of do, don’t they?

Anyway, I pulled out a pieces of light orange Elementz batik instead, and immediately the combination of the colour and the smiley face concept made me think of carved pumpkins. So a smiley faced pumpkin appliqué it was then. I used the orange and a green batik from the Island Batik Elementz collection for the pumpkin appliqué and two 10″ squares I had remaining from the Island Batik Blue Moon collection I used to make my sewing machine cover. A dark purple for the quilt top and a blue wheat design for the reverse side.

Optional Step 1a – create a pumpkin appliqué and layer up a practice quilt sandwich, quilt and trim

If you want to make your own Two-faced Pumpkin quilt pad, here is the pdf file for the raw edge fused appliqué shapes. Place down the stalk and righthand vine appliqués first and add the pumpkin face on top. Finally add the lefthand vine, tucking the end under the stalk if you wish. Make sure they are centred in a 10″ square of fabric. Once your appliqué is complete, layer over two pieces of batting and a piece of backing fabric. Quilt as desired. I followed the contours of the branches on the purple batik.

Here’s the quilt sandwich ready for our two-faced pumpkin smiley facing tutorial. It is double batted because then I can use it as a table protector later. And if you can face a double batted quilt, you can face just about anything!

Step 2 – Add facing strips to the sides of your quilt or the Two-faced Pumpkin

Cut two fabric strips 2.25″ wide and the exact length of your quilt sandwich. The fabric I used here is also from the Island Batik Blue Moon collection.

Pin these strips to the front of your quilt along the side edges, right sides together. Sew the lengths with a 1/4″ seam.

Step 3 – Secure the facing strips with stay stitching

Press the seams open.

Turn your quilt or pumpkin on it’s front face and carefully clip the batting out of the corners without snipping the seam stitching. It is ok to cut the backing fabric if you wish (I didn’t), but don’t cut the facing or front fabrics.

Turn the quilt/pumpkin pad right side up again and stitch a line about 1/8″ inside the facing so that it secures the facing open. You can use a matching thread if you like. I needed you to be able to see this stitching so I have used a contrasting thread. This process is called stay stitching.

Step 4 – Finish the side facings

Fold the facings lengthways back on themselves to the batting line. Press. The facings should now be 1″ wide as viewed from the front of the quilt.

Roll the facings under the quilt so they cannot be seen from the front. Secure with pins and press with a steam iron.

Hand stitch facings in place with ladder stitch (or whipstitch, but ladder stitch is tidier).

Step 5 – Add facings to the top and bottom of your quilt or the Two-faced Pumpkin

Repeat the process for the top and bottom sides of your quilt. However, this time, cut your 2.25″ facing strips to the width of your quilt plus 1″ each.

Stitch the top and bottom facings on as for the side facings. Press open and stay stitch. There is no clipping to be done on the corners this time.

Now you will need the tiniest bit of Elmer’s washable school glue.

Dabbed on the corners like so.

Wrap the ends of the facings over the corners and press with a hot iron to secure. (If you don’t have any glue, you can use pins. It is just more fiddly).

Fold the facings lengthways in half towards the edge of the quilt as for the side facings.

Now, decide how you would like to treat the corners. You can leave them flat like this.

Or you can mitre them like this. If you want to mitre your corners, snip away the excess turned-under fabric for a neater finish.

Pin down both facings and hand stitch into place with ladder stitch.

Done! Congratulations, you now have a quilt with facing on the back side.

This technique worked for me on a 10″ square quilt sandwich just as nicely as it did on the crib-sized Modern Winding Ways quilt. It should be suitable for just about any-sized project that you care to finish with a facing.

I’m off-my-face happy with this new skill in my arsenal. And with my Modern Winding Ways quilt finish. I’ll be looking at modern quilt design a little differently from now on, now that I am not bound by binding….

It’s probably best I head off now. Go face the rest of my weekend….. Hope you have a good one!  🙂

P.S. In your face at these links this week 🙂 Cooking Up Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Quilting Room with Mel, Freemotion by the River, The Inquiring Quilter, My Quilt Infatuation, Quilt Fabrication

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