One Piece at a Time

Piecing Tips and Tricks: Quilt-In-A-Day Rulers

I don’t know if it is the former engineer in me or what but I am a sucker for specialty rulers. These two are some of my favorites. Maybe it’s because I started quilting because of Quilt in a Day and I actually got to meet Eleanor Burns.

Anyway, here are some tips you can use to make the parts to Jingle Pieced Block #1 using the Triangle Square Up ruler and the Flying Geese ruler.

For Half-Square Triangles, cut 2 squares 5” x 5”. Place them right sides together and draw 2 diagonal lines.

Sew 1/4” from each line.

Cut apart on drawn lines and 2 1/2” from each side.

Before you do any pressing use the Triangle Square-Up ruler and aligninf the 2” mark with your seam, trim your HST unit.

Flip over and trim your corners.

Now, press to the dark fabric for a perfect little HST unit.

For Flying Geese, cut a 6” x 6” square of the fabric that will be your triangles and a 4 1/2” x 41/2” square of the fabric that will be your rectangle. Line them up so the are centered and the right sides are together.

Draw a diagonal line.

Sew 1/4” on both sides of the diagonal line.

Cut apart.

Press toward the larger triangle.

Now, line these 2 squares up so that the smaller triangles are on opposite corners and the right sides are together.

Draw a diagonal line and stitch 1/4” on both sides of the line.

Cut apart.

Clip seam right in between both the previous seams.

Press so that the rectangle (goose) is flat like this:

You will have two of these. Now you can use the ruler to line up the goose and trim away.

You will make 4 each time with this method so it is handy when making blocks like Jingle Pieced Block #1.

Piecing Tips and Tricks

Before we get started here I just want to point you to two really great videos that will really help with your pieced blocks.

THIS lovely lady is Beth Hayes, Editor-In-Chief of McCall’s Quilting (i.e. my boss, the best boss ever). She has done this really great video on pressing for our website that you can have a look at here:

mccallsquilting.com/mccallsquilting/articles/pressing

And THIS lovely lady is Kathy Patterson, Senior Editor of McCall’s Quilting. She has done another super video talking about using an accurate 1/4” seam allowance that you can see here:

mccallsquilting.com/mccallsquilting/articles/An_Accurate____Seam_Allowance

Be sure to check these out, they really help with piecing!

Now for some Half-Square Triangles (HST)

The sizes here are what you will need for Jingle Pieced Block #1, but the technique is a good way to make these units all the time using a variety of sizes. I will have a download with general techniques at the end of this post.

Start with two squares.

Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the lightest of the 2 fabrics.

Place on other square, right sides together.

Sew 1/4” from the drawn line, this is where a 1/4” patchwork foot is really handy.

Sew 1/4” on other side of line.

Cut along the drawn line.

Press toward the darker fabric.

You will have 2 half-square triangles (HST) when you are done.

I like to clip my little corners off.

Now for some Flying Geese

Start with 2 squares and one rectangle.

Mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of both squares.

Place square on one end of the rectangle, right sides together.

Stitch ON THE DRAWN LINE.

Cut 1/4” away from stitching and discard those little corners.

Press toward the corner triangle.

Repeat on opposite side to make 1 flying goose.

OK, those are the standard ways of making these units. Check back tomorrow for a little tutorial on how to make them using a couple of my favorite rulers from Quilt In A Day.

I've made a little cheat sheet for these techniques that you can download:

Download Half-square Triangles and Flying geese

Beautiful Baskets Part 2

Now that you have you basket all beautifully woven It’s time to add the handle and top and bottom. All these pieces are made from the two ½” bias strips I made from the basket material.

To make the bottom I cut a strip long enough to cover all the bottom vertical pieces PLUS enough to tuck in ¼” on each side. I then placed these over strips and glued them down.

To make the handle I used one long ½ bias strip and glued it along the line I traced from the pattern. Since this strip is thick I did two separate lines of glue to secure it. Once it was glued I trimmed the excess fabric from the handle.

The next step was to use the last piece of ½” bias stem to cover the tops of the basket’s vertical strips.

To secure the basket, I first appliquéd the basket sides down along the end vertical pieces. I slip stitched the outside and the inside of these end pieces.

The bottom of the basket can then be appliquéd down.

For the top, I first appliquéd the handle then the basket top.

I found that this was secure enough to hold it while I appliquéd the other flowers on. The strips move around a little but nothing that would cause any problems since they are packed in fairly tight. If you find the strips moving too much while you do any other appliqué you might want to sew more of the strips down.

Check back tomorrow for a chance to win some Perfect Stems from Karen Kay Buckley!

Beautiful Baskets Part 1

Several years ago I picked up a pattern from a local Colorado quilt pattern company called Curiosity. If you want to see some really lovely patterns check them out, as far as I can tell they are still in business. They had the most beautiful appliqué patterns, many of them done with baskets. They have some nice directions for weaving fabric baskets that can be found here. I was really afraid to try this until a few weeks ago because I thought it would be hard. Boy was I wrong. It’s very simple and really really fun. This method for baskets can be adapted to just about any basket you find on an appliqué pattern.

For the basket in my Miss Betty pattern I used ½ yard of fabric. From this I cut and made 10 bias stems, ¼” wide and two bias stems ½” wide. After making these I traced JUST the pattern for the basket onto my background fabric.

Next, place your background onto some suitable pinning surface. Start at one side of the basket drawing and pin a strip along the edge.

 Continue pinning at regular intervals until you have all the vertical strips done.

Now using the remaining strips and starting at the bottom, weave a strip in and out of the vertical stems as shown. Weave each strip in the opposite way as the previous strip to get that basket look.

After you have done a few of these, tuck the strips down so that they are packed fairly tight.

When you have woven most of the horizontal strips, cut the ends so they can be easily tucked under the side vertical strip.

Using the fabric glue of choice, secure these ends. Repeat on the other side.

As you can see here, I wove most of the basket and glue basted it. I then did the final horizontal strips and secured these. Finally, when all the weaving was done, I secured the vertical strips with some fabric glue. I didn’t bother to tuck these since they will be covered with the basket top and bottom.

Come back tomorrow to see how it was all finished!

Sawtooth Border Tutorial 4

Now that we have our first sawtooth border sewn on it’s time to make the larger one. To give myself plenty of room to appliqué (because if I’m making it, it just HAS to HAVE appliqué) I am giving myself 4 inches for the blank border. Since my “sawteeth” finish at 1” x 2” that means an extra two “sawteeth” on either end.

 You will need to create 4 of these

using 16 dark rectangles and 17 light rectangles for each side. Assemble the border just like the first one but start with the light/background fabric.

Once you have these 4 borders you will once again need to make 2 short borders and 2 long borders.

To make the short borders mark a diagonal line across the wrong side of the 1 ½” squares of dark fabric. Sew and cut the excess as you did before. Do this on both sides of the border pieces.

To make the long borders you will need to add rectangles of the dark fabric in the same way we added rectangles of the background fabric in the previous border.(Sorry forgot to take that picture but you guys get it, I know you do)

Here I have roughly placed my borders so I can measure for the next step.

Now I do the same thing I did when I attached my first sawtooth border. I measure the shorter border at 34 ½”. I then measure my block with the border attached and it measures at 26 ½”. Technically I will need to add a 4 ½” strip to get this all to fit but I’m going to add more and cut it down just like before in tutorial 3.

I will spare you the gory details because you can see the method in the previous tutorial. Here is the block with both sawtooth borders attached.

Sawtooth Border Tutorial 3

I’m happy to report that all the snow is gone from my front yard and we are expecting a sunny spring day here. I don’t mean to be whiny but this has been a LONG winter here and even I am sick of the snow. I’m not too excited about the heat though so I should stop complaining.

Today I’m going to show you how I attach the sawtooth borders that I made to my block.

The first step is to measure the length of the short border. Mine measured at 25”. My block is a 19” square. Just to be safe I’m going to add a little extra fabric to my border and cut it down to the right size. To do this I cut three 4” strips. Out of one of these strips I cut two lengths 19” long. I sewed these to opposite sides of my block and pressed the seams toward the border. Then I measured the width of the block and the two attached borders and it was 26”. I then cut a 26’ length out of each remaining 4” strips. I sewed these on the other sides and pressed toward the border. Now my block looks like this.

Now I need to cut this down to 25” so I can sew the sawtooth border on. I need to cut the border 3.25” FROM THE SEAM between the border and the block. I know, I know it’s a little confusing so here is a picture of me doing it.

And here is a sketch.

When I do this I make sure that I have my ruler aligned so that I’m measuring 3.25” from the seam as I cut. This helps me block the square and cut an accurate border at the same time.

Oh, by the way, it REALLY helps to have a really big square ruler (how many times can you use really). I use mine all the time and It’s definitely worth the price so start saving if you don’t have one. Seriously, it will make your life so much easier.

So now all I need to do is attach the two short sawtooth borders to opposite sides and press toward the plain border. Then I attach the long borders on the remaining sides and press toward the plain border. Take care when attaching the long borders so that the sawteeth line up at the corners.

Sawtooth Border Tutorial 2

I will post the winner of the Fat Quarter Bundle later today. I haven’t had nearly enough caffeine to enable me to use the random number generator. Sad but true, nerdy people can struggle when there isn’t enough coffee in the house.

Lucky for me I wrote the tutorial yesterday when I was properly caffeinated.

For the first set of sawteeth I used the method I described yesterday to create this.

You will need to create 4 of these using 12 dark rectangles and 11 light rectangles for each side.

Once you have these 4 borders you will make 2 short borders and 2 long borders.

To make the short borders mark a diagonal line across the wrong side of the 1 ½” squares of background fabric. Sew and cut the excess as you did before. Do this on both sides of the border pieces.

To make the long borders mark a diagonal line like you did in the border construction. Sew and cut the excess as you did before.

On the opposite side you have to mark the diagonal as shown. Sew and cut the excess as you did before.

Here I have roughly placed my borders so I can measure for the next step.

Next time I will show how I join these borders to the star using a “coping” strip.

150th Blog Post GIVE-AWAY and Sawtooth Border Tutorial #1

Today is my 150^th blog post and to celebrate I’m giving, yep that’s right GIVING away this fat quarter bundle.

Pretty isn’t it? The fabric line is Prairie Paisley by Minick and Simpson from Moda. It’s from 2008 so if you want a nicer picture go here to check it out. To enter the contest, leave a comment telling me your favorite quilt block name. Sometime tomorrow I will pick a winner using my handy dandy random number generator.

Now, on to adding sawtooth borders to the feathered star block I made earlier this year.

The first disclaimer, I am not an expert on doing these borders. The second disclaimer is that this does waste fabric…sorry. I have come up with this method because it allows me to be reasonably accurate and not get hopelessly confused. I’m sure other people do this way better than me, all I can say is that this is what works for me. That being said, here we go.

Here’s what you need.

1 to 1 ¼ yards background fabric

½ to ¾ yard of the dark sawtooth fabric.

I strongly recommend an Add-a-Quarter ruler for my method. If you don’t have one a smaller quilting ruler works just fine.

Cutting:

From the light fabric you need to cut 116 rectangles 1 ½”x2 ½” AND 4 squares 1 ½”x1 ½”. Set the remaining fabric aside for the border we will appliqué on.

From the dark fabric you will need to cut 116 rectangles 1 ½”x2 ½” AND 4 squares 1 ½”x1 ½”.

Here is how I start:

The first step is to mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of the light fabric from one corner to a mark 1 ½” up on the opposite side as shown.

Place this rectangle on top a dark rectangle as shown. Make sure the sides and corner line up.

Sew on this drawn line like this

Then use a ruler (I’m using my Add-a-Quarter ruler) to cut ¼” from the seam as shown.

After this press like this

Next we repeat this process with a dark rectangle marked like this.

And press like this.

So that’s a glimpse at the process. Check back tomorrow for specifics on the first border.

The Most Amazing Discovery

Warning…post for appliqué nerds.

As you can see in the above picture I make all my appliqué shapes beforehand. One very wonderful time saver has been using Roxanne’s Glue Baste to pre-assemble my appliqué elements and then to glue baste the whole block together before I begin stitching. I have used Roxanne’s Glue Baste for years and I have always had one GIANT complaint.

That thin needle applicator ALWAYS gets clogged, even if I carefully wash it out after each use. The other day I discovered these in my bathroom drawer.

For those of you who do not have children with braces these are the handy dental floss gadgets that your children will never use to floss their braces. Well, let me tell you, they are great for getting your glue baste un-clogged. Just thread them through the applicator. Lucky for me, I have tons, since my kids no longer have braces but I’m pretty sure they are available at most grocery stores.

Helpful Tools and a Resource

 

Since I do most of my appliqué by making all my shapes beforehand using starch and an iron it is really important to have a convenient ironing surface. Seriously, who wants to stand at an ironing board for multiple hours when you can sit listening to your ipod and press fabric into flower petals. I made this ironing board a couple of years ago and it has saved my back. You can make it too, here’s how. At your local home improvement center they usually have sheets of particle board. I think I found a 24”x48” sheet. You can often have them cut it for you so I had mine cut into two 24” squares. These can then be covered with a layer of batting and a layer of fabric. Just cut out pieces about 32” square. I used a spray baste to bind the batting to the board. After that I stretched the fabric firmly around and stapled it on the back. If the staples don’t go in all the way use a hammer to pound them in. When this cover gets messy from too much starch just replace it with another square of batting and fabric.

Also, I have added another site to my Favorite Websites list. Karen Kay Buckley is an amazing quilter and teacher. Her web site is full of inspiration and her shop has a wonderful and very complete selection of tools for appliqué. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class from her, DO IT. She is a really Great teacher and you will learn so much.