The second week of Journey to Nebula saw the completion of the Seaside quilt pattern by Jaybird quilts.
Here is my take on Seaside. Not very ocean-y but wavy nonetheless. 
The pattern was for a table runner, but I made two place mats instead. I was able to use my scraps. So you can see I used red moda grunge, solid red kona, dots, and even a little red linen canvas. So happy this was a scrap buster project.
Here are a few things I learned.
Pressing not Ironing. If you're familiar with quilting, you know that pressing is an up and down motion of your iron, while ironing involves sliding the iron across your fabric. Since these diamond pieces have bias edges, it is critical that you press and not iron. Ironing will stretch your diamond totally out of shape.
I must confess that pressing is not my strong suite, so I had a little help from Flatter. Flatter is a starch substitute spray, which was just enough to give my diamonds a little more stability. Best Press is another good option, but I just happen to be out of it at the moment. As an added bonus, both come in delicious scents which makes time at the pressing station a little more enjoyable.
The pattern designer suggested you press the seams open. This is not unusual in quilting, but its something I also do less frequently. So again, doing so every so carefully as to not stretch the fabric, was harder that it sounds. So I used my little do-dat. Seam opener thingy...oh you know, that little gadget that helps you press seams. If you know its proper name, please let me know in the comments.
This was much more helpful as its raised and lends itself to pressing, without disturbing the rest of the piece. Although this step took longer than I would have liked, it is helpful when joining the rows. Which leads me to the next lesson learned.
Pins are your friends. Joining the rows should form a "V" shape. The perfectionist in me wanted my points to match up perfectly. Initially, I tried the no-pin method as the designer suggested. Unfortunately, this ended with a seam ripper at hand. So, I turned to ye ol' faithful friend, the pin. Once I started pining, my points matched up much better. Yes, pinning is a personal choice and there is no shame in pinning. Better safe than sorry (or seam ripping in my case).
Overall, I'm so glad this was a skill building project, that it was a stash buster, and that now I have Fourth of July placemats for next year.
Journey 2 Nebula was meant as a learning opportunity in preparation for the Nebula quilt, and it certainly was a learning experience.
What do you think of a Christmas themed fabric for the next project?
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