Ticker Tape

If you asked me a year ago what a ticker tape was, I probably would have said something about parades in New York City for celebrities in the early part of the twentieth century, given to the likes of Bobby Jones, Jesse Owen, Theodore Roosevelt or Amelia Earhart.  The confetti in these celebrations literally came from the ticker tape machines used to deliver stock updates to brokerages.  Then I saw this.

Oh, yeah - ticker tape quilts.  I made my first one yesterday (yes, doll sized, but still completed in mere hours).  Mae needed a little blanket before she went off to live with my goddaughter!


I think there are probably as many ways to make a ticker tape quilt as there are quilts out there.  Here are some examples in the flickr group and Rachel over at Stitched in Color even has a Bottled Rainbows quilt along going on.

Mine was pretty easy to make. I  just cut a white piece of cotton 20 x 18" and a piece of batting and backing fabric about 1" bigger.  I basted them by using 505 adhesive spray (available at fabric stores) and then started to lay out my pieces.  I knew I wanted a series of rectangles/squares, no odd shapes.  I have a bag for scraps that are too tiny to piece with.  Once I had it covered I carefully removed one quadrant at a time, sprayed the adhesive and then put it back in place on the quilt.  The awesome part of this quilt is you quilt and piece simultaneously,  so I tacked these pieces on while free motion quilting through all layers.  Some people quilt only around each piece, but that is too much stopping & starting for me, so I just made continuous boxes like so (they're all connected):


Here is the quilt all finished before I washed it, bound in some AMH Good Folks:



And here it is all crinkly and soft:


So much fun!  I got to use lots of my favorite fabrics and little scraps.  Now I need one for me.  Can't decide if I want a big quilt or another little one to hang on the wall in my sewing room.

Comments

  1. Love it! And I love your quilting shortcut...that sounds a lot faster.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks, it was very fast! Not a perfect look, but hard to tell unless you are real close

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this look and how you put it together. Will the edges of your pieces fray? I'm new to this and find I'm really liking the quirkier quilts and the bright colors on white fabrics. This one is visually appealing and I can imagine it bigger. Meanwhile, what a great idea for a fast and fun gift for a doll or small child!

    ReplyDelete

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