Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The right way to fold a quilt
Found these easy directions on how to fold a quilt from Becky on Piece O' Cake Blog.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Practice quilt finished
It's taken me awhile to get this quilt on the blog. This is an old quilt I bought a couple of years ago. Some of the seams were mismatched and in some places the quilt had extra material so didn't lay flat. This was a perfect quilt to experiment on my new quilt table. It turned out so nice that when Kristin came home she asked to take it back to Madison with her.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Y-seam construction
Y-seam construction is used when 3 seams meet in 1 place in the quilt block, forming a “Y”. The example below includes 2 diamond shapes and a triangle which is sewn to each diamond.
1. Mark small dots at the seam line corners on all 3 pieces to be joined.
Mark dots.
Mark dots.
2. Pin and stitch the first seam, stopping your stitches just before entering the dot, and then backstitching. Stitch up to the dot, as close to it as possible. (Make your stitch length smaller, if necessary.) Open the pieces. Finger press the seam allowance away from the seam of the next piece to be added.
Pin and stitch.
3. To join the third piece, line up the corner dots and stitch as before, backstitching before entering the dot. Do not stitch into the previous seam allowance. Open the pieces.
Pin and stitch.
4. Stitch the remaining seam, ending just short of the dot at the “Y”. Open and press.
From Mastering Precision Piecing
This method is described in Mastering Precision Piecing, by Sally Collins.
- From the Tech Editors
1. Mark small dots at the seam line corners on all 3 pieces to be joined.
Mark dots.
Mark dots.
2. Pin and stitch the first seam, stopping your stitches just before entering the dot, and then backstitching. Stitch up to the dot, as close to it as possible. (Make your stitch length smaller, if necessary.) Open the pieces. Finger press the seam allowance away from the seam of the next piece to be added.
Pin and stitch.
3. To join the third piece, line up the corner dots and stitch as before, backstitching before entering the dot. Do not stitch into the previous seam allowance. Open the pieces.
Pin and stitch.
4. Stitch the remaining seam, ending just short of the dot at the “Y”. Open and press.
From Mastering Precision Piecing
This method is described in Mastering Precision Piecing, by Sally Collins.
- From the Tech Editors
How to mark designs on borders
I found this tutorial on http://www.dreamweavers-quilts.com/quilt-epiphany/2009/03/13/marking-border-quilting-designs/. I wanted to remember this process to make future quilts easier to mark. This is the Swanky quilt, which is about 24″ x 29″ and the border stencil is 2″ wide. For a first try at this method of border marking, use a small-ish quilt, so that the borders aren’t really long. Here’s my slap-dash method for border marking:
Mark a 45° diagonal line in each border corner, and a line in the middle of each side.
Lay the stencil on the border (start with a short side on the quilt) to get a guesstimate idea about how the design will fit. This stencil came pretty close to fitting well on this border, but the stencil was just a bit to short to really fill the space from the diagonal line to the middle line on the border.
Start marking in the center of the border, centering one of the stencil motifs on the center line you drew on the border. Mark the first “repeat” of the stencil design.
Since the stencil is actually a bit short to fill this space, I moved the stencil about 1/16″ to the right (toward the corner) before marking the next repeat, to add in some length to the design so that it will fill the space better. You can see in this picture how much the stencil was moved after each repeat was marked. The design will now fill the space and turn the corner in a visually pleasing way.
To mark the longer side, lay the stencil on the border and match the corner design at the diagonal line.
Take a look at where the stencil design will fall at the middle line of the border, and decide how best to mark the design so that it flows well and looks continuous. In the example, the design ends at a fairly odd spot, kind of in the middle of the repeat.
To fit the border, the design will either need to be lengthened the same way it was for the first side, or shorten the design by about the same amount. Since the design was lengthened on the first side, do the same for the second side, to keep things as consistent as possible. The design will not meet in the center of the longer side of the quilt at the same place as it did on the short side, but as long as the design flows together, it’s not a problem.
Begin marking at the corner and mark toward the center line, moving the stencil toward the center line slightly between each design repeat. I moved the stencil about 1/8″ between each repeat this time, so that the design would fill the longer space and end at a logical place in the middle of the border.
To fill in the blank spaces from the stencil and connect all the lines, make the lines flow together smoothly, redrawing them slightly if necessary. Mark all the borders of the quilt so that they match and the design flows continuously around the quilt.
Mark a 45° diagonal line in each border corner, and a line in the middle of each side.
Lay the stencil on the border (start with a short side on the quilt) to get a guesstimate idea about how the design will fit. This stencil came pretty close to fitting well on this border, but the stencil was just a bit to short to really fill the space from the diagonal line to the middle line on the border.
Start marking in the center of the border, centering one of the stencil motifs on the center line you drew on the border. Mark the first “repeat” of the stencil design.
Since the stencil is actually a bit short to fill this space, I moved the stencil about 1/16″ to the right (toward the corner) before marking the next repeat, to add in some length to the design so that it will fill the space better. You can see in this picture how much the stencil was moved after each repeat was marked. The design will now fill the space and turn the corner in a visually pleasing way.
To mark the longer side, lay the stencil on the border and match the corner design at the diagonal line.
Take a look at where the stencil design will fall at the middle line of the border, and decide how best to mark the design so that it flows well and looks continuous. In the example, the design ends at a fairly odd spot, kind of in the middle of the repeat.
To fit the border, the design will either need to be lengthened the same way it was for the first side, or shorten the design by about the same amount. Since the design was lengthened on the first side, do the same for the second side, to keep things as consistent as possible. The design will not meet in the center of the longer side of the quilt at the same place as it did on the short side, but as long as the design flows together, it’s not a problem.
Begin marking at the corner and mark toward the center line, moving the stencil toward the center line slightly between each design repeat. I moved the stencil about 1/8″ between each repeat this time, so that the design would fill the longer space and end at a logical place in the middle of the border.
To fill in the blank spaces from the stencil and connect all the lines, make the lines flow together smoothly, redrawing them slightly if necessary. Mark all the borders of the quilt so that they match and the design flows continuously around the quilt.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Heart string quilt
I like this looks of this quilt. This is made by Mary Johnson from Minnesota. Her blog http://maryquilts.blogspot.com/
Her directions to make this quilt is at http://maryquilts.com/strings-hearts/
Her directions to make this quilt is at http://maryquilts.com/strings-hearts/
How to make a pillow case
Banish percale forever! Pillow case tutorial by Jona Giammalva
Making your own pillow case is so easy and fast and the outcome is so much nicer than store bought cases! Here's how I made mine:
I used 3 fabrics: the pink is 41 x 25 inches, the blue is 41 x 10, and the red
is 41 x 1.75. I'm just going to refer to the fabrics by their colors even
though you will probably want to try different colors for yours (but if you
want to copy this one then that's okay too!).
Fold the red and blue fabrics in half and press.
Fold the red and blue fabrics in half and press.
Use a 1/2 inch seam allowance and stitch the red strip of fabric to the edge of the pink fabric (matching raw edges).
Now pin the blue fabric on top with the red fabric sandwiched in between and raw edges even.
Stitch in place (I usually flip it over and follow the previous stitch line just to keep it all even).
Now clean your edges by serging or zigzagging and press your seam out nicely. The red strip should be pressed towards the top (the blue fabric). Looking good!
Now fold the whole pillowcase in half and pin the edges together. Take your time to make sure all the seams match up and especially that the top matches up evenly. Use lots of pins if that makes you feel safer (it's not a sign of weakness and don't let anyone tell you that it is!).
Now stitch from the top down past the seam with the red strip. I use my regular machine to start the seam because I can get the edges to match better this way (they tend to shift apart if I use my serger to start the seam). At this point I remove it and use the serger to finish it. If you are using your regular machine just go ahead and finish the seam all the way down the side and then across at the bottom (then zigzag your edge).
Trim your threads and press the seam to the side. On the right side of the fabric topstitch along the side of the seam so that your seam allowance is stitched flat in place. I only do this through top part of the pillowcase where the sloppy seam would show (but now it's not sloppy because you've stitched it down, yippy!).
Making your own pillow case is so easy and fast and the outcome is so much nicer than store bought cases! Here's how I made mine:
I used 3 fabrics: the pink is 41 x 25 inches, the blue is 41 x 10, and the red
is 41 x 1.75. I'm just going to refer to the fabrics by their colors even
though you will probably want to try different colors for yours (but if you
want to copy this one then that's okay too!).
Fold the red and blue fabrics in half and press.
Fold the red and blue fabrics in half and press.
Use a 1/2 inch seam allowance and stitch the red strip of fabric to the edge of the pink fabric (matching raw edges).
Now pin the blue fabric on top with the red fabric sandwiched in between and raw edges even.
Stitch in place (I usually flip it over and follow the previous stitch line just to keep it all even).
Now clean your edges by serging or zigzagging and press your seam out nicely. The red strip should be pressed towards the top (the blue fabric). Looking good!
Now fold the whole pillowcase in half and pin the edges together. Take your time to make sure all the seams match up and especially that the top matches up evenly. Use lots of pins if that makes you feel safer (it's not a sign of weakness and don't let anyone tell you that it is!).
Now stitch from the top down past the seam with the red strip. I use my regular machine to start the seam because I can get the edges to match better this way (they tend to shift apart if I use my serger to start the seam). At this point I remove it and use the serger to finish it. If you are using your regular machine just go ahead and finish the seam all the way down the side and then across at the bottom (then zigzag your edge).
Trim your threads and press the seam to the side. On the right side of the fabric topstitch along the side of the seam so that your seam allowance is stitched flat in place. I only do this through top part of the pillowcase where the sloppy seam would show (but now it's not sloppy because you've stitched it down, yippy!).
Friday, January 9, 2009
Casino carpet designs - future quilts
So many times a quilt idea is taken from everyday objects. While in Vegas the last couple of winters, I took a numbers of pictures of the beautiful carpets in the casinos. Someday I hope to use one of these images in a quilt.
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