Category: Uncategorized

One of the last details  sewn onto a quilt is the binding.  Loosely defined, “binding a quilt” is any method the quilter uses to encase all three edges of the quilt top, batting, and backing.  In most circumstances, this refers to the narrow strips of fabric that are used as binding, but there are other ways to finish a quilt top.  In the next couple of blogs, we’re going to explore the difference between single-fold and double-fold binding, regular binding verses bias binding and when to use each, knife-edge finishes, and some alternate binding options.  I will show you my “mathless” way of finishing a binding and how I sew my binding onto my quilt top.

I will also be upfront and tell you what this blog is not about.  It is not about sewing the entire binding on by machine.  I will be completely honest and tell you, that yes, I do employ this method on charity quilts and children’s quilts.  Those quilts are destined to be washed quite a bit and binding sewn completely by machine tends to hold up better to this abuse.  However, I don’t think this binding is as pretty as what I call “half-and-half” binding (it’s sewn on by machine and then finished by hand) and frankly, I’m not as good at all-machine-sewn-binding as I need to be.  If you want to investigate that kind of binding, there are lots of YouTube videos by quilt artists that really can rock this method.

 

This blog also does not take into consideration Art Quilts.  Not that I don’t like and admire Art Quilts, because I do and have made a few.  But Art Quilts, by the nature of their genre, always do not employ what is considered “traditional quilt guidelines.”  Sometimes these quilts have a backing, batting, and top, sometimes they only have a backing and top.  Sometimes they employ what would be considered binding, and sometimes they don’t.  I’ve seen Art Quilts with the edges burned, glued with sequins and seashells, and sometimes the edges have been left to fray.  All of those methods (and numerous others) can be used in Art Quilts.  But this with blog, I’m taking into consideration mostly traditional quilts with most consistently used binding methods.

 

The object of binding (whichever method is employed), is to hold the edges of the quilt top, batting, and backing together to keep them from fraying or coming apart.  The most commonly used binding is the double-fold binding (also called French Fold Binding) and that’s the first kind of binding we’re taking a closer look at.  This method is so frequently utilized most quilters take for granted when you talk about “binding a quilt” that this is the technique used.

The binding strips are cut at 2 ¼-inches to 2 ½-inches in width either on the crosswise grain or lengthwise grain of fabric.  That’s several differentiations, so let’s talk about when I use what.

 

If the quilt sandwich (quilt top, batting, and backing) is thin, I may opt to use the 2 ¼ -inch width.  This situation can occur if I’m using flannel or a cotton sheet as batting (for a quilt that can be used in warm weather).  With this circumstance, a 2 ¼-inch binding is perfect.  If a traditional batting is used (all cotton, 80/20, wool, or silk), I use the 2 ½-inch binding, as that additional ¼-inch is a little easier to work with.  Sometimes (especially when I’m quilting an applique quilt), I use two batts, which makes the quilt sandwich even thicker.  In these circumstances, I may cut the binding 2 ¾- inches wide.  But 99 percent of the time, the 2 ½-inch wide binding will work just fine.

 

The use of the length-wise or cross-wise grain is the next consideration.  There are times when you cut the binding on the bias, but those situations are rare and will be discussed later.  Most quilt patterns will instruct you to cut the binding on the cross-wise grain, sew the strips together at a 45-degree angle, and bind your quilt with those.  That method works well with most quilts.  However, there are circumstances when you may want to consider cutting the binding on the length-wise grain – such as if the borders are heavily pieced or if the quilt is show-bound.  A binding cut on the length-wise grain is not as “stretchy” as binding cut on the cross-wise grain and can give more stability to a heavily pieced border.  Binding strips cut on the length-wise grain are longer and have fewer seams, which can give you some advantage with a show-bound quilt – most quilt judges are going to examine bindings closely to make sure that they are full, and the seams are smooth – the fewer the seams, the fewer the chances of getting dinged on your binding.  Regardless of whether it’s a length-wise or cross-wise cut binding, you want the binding strip about 25 inches longer than the perimeter of the quilt sandwich.  That extra length will allow for mitering the corners and sewing the binding tails together at the end.

To make either type of binding, cut your strips, and join them at 45-degree angles.

Trim to ¼-inch seam allowance and press open (this reduces bulk in the binding).

Fold in half, wrong sides together, and press.

Now I am going to share my method of binding.  This method works for me…it’s neither right or wrong.   It’s a method I discovered a few years ago and it’s called the binding pocket.   It’s easy, requires no math, it’s fast, and I really like it.  Take your quilt sandwich and your binding to the sewing machine.  If you have a walking foot, this is a great time to use it as well as your needle down feature.  And at this point, I am assuming you’ve squared up your quilt top and trimmed off the excess batting.

 

1. Open up one end of your binding and fold it on the diagonal.

2. Give it a quick press to secure the fold, and then trim the excess fabric below the fold to about ¼-inch (no less than this, and maybe a thread or two more).

3. Starting about one-third of the distance between two corners (I typically start on the right side), align the right edge of the opened binding along the side of the quilt and pin.

4. Fold the strip length-wise again and pin-mark it 1-inch or so beyond the point where it becomes two layers again.   Sew (using a ¼-inch seam allowance) to the quilt beginning at the right-angled tip and sewing through only one layer of the strip.  Stop at the pin-mark, take a few back stitches or use the automatic tie-off feature and cut the threads.

5. Lift the presser foot and refold the binding lengthwise again, aligning both edges of the strip evenly with the edges of the quilt. Check the initial seam to make sure it extends well underneath the folded, angled binding edge that now rests on top.

6. Start sewing where the first seam ended. Keep sewing until your reach ¼-inch from the corner of the quilt sandwich.  Back stitch or tie off.  Cut the threads.

7. Fold the unsewn tail of the quilt binding straight up, positioning it so that its right edge is parallel with the next side of the quilt to be bound. Coax the lower edge of the strip to form a 45-degree angle.

8. Fold the binding down, leaving the top of the fold flush with the edge of the quilt top behind it and its raw edge aligned with the next side of the quilt. The 45-degree angle should be intact under the fold.

9. Pin the quilt binding to the side of the quilt or align it as you sew (I’m a pinner…). Begin sewing at the top of the edge and sew the length of the side of the quilt.  Continue sewing until you come to the next corner, stopping ¼-inch from the edge, as you did prior.  Treat all the corners the same way.

10. When you’ve worked your way around the quilt and are nearing the starting point, stop the sewing machine with the needle in the down position. Trim away the excess ending tail, leaving enough length to tuck into the opening created by the starting tail.

11. Realign the quilt binding with the quilt and sew through all layers to finish attaching it, ending with the seam just past the beginning of the first seam.

12. Use a blind stitch and matching thread to secure the angled fold to the tucked-in strip.

This method produces a little bulk where the binding strips are joined, but the bulk is not excessive, and I find it lays down pretty well with a shot of steam and a hot iron.  This method is quick, easy, and there are no worries about cutting the binding tails too short or at the wrong angle.

At this point, let me talk about the thread used to sew on the binding.  Most quilters, when they’re piecing, use white, beige, gray, or black thread in this process – which ever color thread blends in well with the fabric being sewn.  This allows us to keep sewing and not stop every little bit to change out the top thread and bobbin.  However, when you’re sewing on the binding, make sure your top thread matches your binding.  And most of the time I use a different colored thread in the bobbin than I do in the top of the machine.  I’ll explain why I do this a little later.

Take your quilt top to your ironing surface.  Working from the front of the quilt, press the binding out.  Fold to the back and slip stitch into place.

And that’s it.  This is how I bind at least 90 percent of my quilts.  It looks good, and I’m happy to say that I’ve never got dinged on my binding with any quilt I’ve entered in a show.  (Not to say that this won’t happen in the future….)

More on binding treatments next week!

 

Until then, Quilt with Excellence!

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

 

 

Still talking about bias tape this week.  However, I promise this is my last words on the subject.

Another bias tape tool that I really like is bias bars.  These come in varying sizes. Some are made of metal and some are made of heat resistant plastic.

The bars usually come in sizes 1/8 inches, 3/16 inches, 1/4 inches, 3/8 inches and 1/2 inches and are 12-inches long.  The bias bars work a little differently than bias tape makers.  With these, you’re actually making a small tube, verses making tape.  To do this, you take the width of the bias bar and multiply it by 5.  So, if you’re using the ¼-inch bias bar, you’d cut your fabric strip 1 ¼-inches wide (1/4 x 5 = 1 ¼)

After you’ve cut the strip, you’re going to sew it into a long tube.  With the wrong sides of the fabric together, sew the strip together with as narrow a seam as you can.  Park yourself at the ironing board again (notice a theme here…) and insert the bias bar into the tube.

It’s important that the seam be on the flat side of the bar, not on either side.    Press the fabric while the bar is in the tube, moving the bar down the strip as necessary, pressing the seam open (if you can) or to the side.  If the seam allowance underneath the tube looks a bit bulky, you can trim it a bit before pressing.

Here’s where some specific traits of the bars come into play.  The plastic bars are thicker, so if you don’t want the bias strips to lay completely flat, these may be just what you need.  The metal bars are thinner, hold heat better, and produce a somewhat flatter bias strip.  Neither of the bias tape made with either type of bars will be as flat as the bias made with the makers.  But personally, I like the somewhat raised effect.  Very little applique is completely flat, and the stems make from bias bars seem to look better than the kind made from bias tape makers. However, if the curves are tight, the kind made from the bias tape makers may be easier to work with.

So two gadgets you may want to have in your sewing box…bias tape makers  and bias bars…but what if this happens…what if you’re at a Sit-and-Sew, or Quilt Bee, or Quilt Retreat, or Quilt Class and you need bias tape?  You look through your tools only to discover you left your bias tape maker or bias bars at home!  Now what do you do?

You could ask to borrow one from a friend.  You could wait until you get home and make it.  Or you can use your pressing surface and two straight pins to make the bias tape right there!  Sound impossible?  Nope. It is not.  You can do it pretty quickly, too.  This will be the double-fold bias like the bias tape makers produce.

Here’s how this works…

First, cut your fabric strips double the width of the bias tape you need, just like you do when you use a bias tape maker.

Next, insert pins in your ironing surface as pictured.  The ends of the pins need to go into the ironing surface.

Fold your fabric strip in half and then fold the edges inward toward the middle.  Press a few inches of the strip and then begin to feed under both pins.

The edges will begin to fold into the center as you gently pull the fabric through, beneath the pins.  As with the bias tape maker, press as you go.  While this method isn’t fool proof (sometimes the fold on one side will become bigger than the other), it does work well if you don’t have access to bias bars or a bias tape maker.

All of this works really well except for the scenario when the bias tape needed is less than an eighth of an inch.  Now I know what you’re thinking – that’s really small.  It is and there are some applique patterns that will call for stems and tendrils that narrow.  At this point, some quilters will make the 1/4- inch bias tape and fold it double.  That can work, but if the stem or tendril is really curvy, that method gets bulky and difficult to handle, much less needle.  This is how I handle that situation.

First, I take a fabric marker and draw out my tiny stem.  Then I cut a strip of fabric on the bias, that is twice the width of the needed strip.  So, if my stem is a scant 1/16-inch, I cut it 1/8-inch wide.

Place the stem fabric, right side down, along the drawn line on the background fabric.  At this time, you can choose to sew the stem down by machine or by hand.  Personally, I think that it’s easier to sew it down by hand.  That narrow strip of bias for the stem can be difficult to feed under a pressure foot.

After that is sewn down, fold it over and press.  Then applique the other side using the needle turn technique.

 

There you go… this hasn’t been a “flashy” blog with lots of bells and whistles, but it’s some great basic information about a technique you’re going to run into if you applique a lot.  If you know several different ways to make bias, you have different methods to choose from depending on the look you want and the difficulty of the curves you have to make.

Throughout my years of quilting, I have found it extremely helpful to know more than one way to execute any technique.  The more “tools” you have in your quilting tool box, the better your quilts will look.  Bias tape may  be perfect for one quilt, but totally unsuited for another.  Instead of tiny stems driving you up a wall, you know how  to sew those things correctly the first time around.

Next week, we are beginning a two-part blog on binding — the last thing that’s sewn on before the quilt is done.  And like bias tape, there is more than one way to bind a quilt. Thanks for hanging with me this year as we’ve diligently reviewed the basics.  All of this will make a lot more sense next year, I promise.

 

Until next week, Quilt with Excellence!

Love and Stitches, Sherri and Sam

 

 

 

At some point in your quilting experience, you may have to deal with bias tape — especially if you like to applique.  Stems and vines are generally constructed out of some type of bias tape.  For those that like to make Baltimore Album quilts, I’ve seen tiny, tiny bias tape used as rigging on boats.  So, bias tape has a place in the quilting world, just as it has in the garment making end of sewing.

At this point, do not want you to confuse bias tape with bias binding.  Bias binding has its own job to perform and that is to cover the edges of the quilt once the quilting is completed.  Binding is just one of the many ways to finish the edges of a quilt and I plan on writing a couple of blogs about different ways to finish your quilt before the year is out.

Bias tape is a different animal.  It’s versatile and can easily be made without a lot of fancy gadgets.  It can be single-fold or double-fold – although most quilters use the single-fold (the exception to this is bias tape made with bias bars … and we’ll get into that later).

Let’s start with what bias tape is, since we know it isn’t bias binding.  This is single-fold bias tape.

One side is flat and the other has two folds on the sides, but no fold in the middle– hence the name singe-fold bias tape.  There is such an animal as double-fold bias tape, (see illustration near the beginning of this blog) but that’s primarily used in garment construction, not quilting.  You can make your own bias tape, or it can be purchased in packages.

The packaged bias tape comes in a rainbow of colors, but I will be honest with you…while plunking down a few dollars for something that’s already made can seem like a great time-saver, in the long run, it may not work.  Pre-made bias tape is generally used for garment sewing, so it’s not made with quilters in mind.  And in my opinion, the fabric used to make this tape is inferior to a lot of quilting fabric.  My strong suggestion is this:  pull from your stash and create your own bias tape.  If you’re making stems and leaves, the same shades of green used for the leaves can be used for the stems.  Scraps of black fabric can be used for tiny bias that can serve as rope on a block that has swing sets or boats.  Brown can be used for vines, tree trunks, and limbs.  And if you’re using the same fabric in the applique as you are in the pieced blocks, just purchase about an eighth of a yard more.  The colors will coordinate and give your quilt a great finished look.

So how do you make your own bias tape?  It’s not hard. There are gadgets out there to help and then there are ways you can make it without anything but a few basic quilting tools.  We’re going to start with bias tape makers.

These little tools are bias tape makers. They can make bias tape in widths ranging in size from a quarter of an inch to two-inches wide. These are very versatile pieces of equipment to have in your sewing box.

Making bias tape with these is really easy.  I use the ¼-inch tape maker the most, as it makes really wonderful vines and stems.  Directions come with the makers, but they’re written on tiny pieces of paper that’s easy to misplace, even if you’re super organized.  However, if you simply remember that you multiply the size of the maker by 2, that’s the width you cut your fabric strips.  So, if I’m using my ¼-inch maker, I cut my fabric strips ½-inch wide (1/4 x 2 = 1/2).

Before you cut your fabric strips, decide if you need to cut them on the straight-of-grain or on the bias.  Straight-of-grain strips will give you some curve, but if the applique pattern calls for really tight, small curlicues and curves, a bias cut will be better.  The bias handles tight spaces much more effectively.

After the decision is made to either to cut the strips on the straight-of-grain or bias, you can either sew the strips together as you do quilt binding — to have one really long piece of bias tape that you can cut off in the size you need as you go along — or you can make several smaller pieces of bias tape.  Personally, I think making the smaller pieces is easier.  Getting the seams to go through the bias tape maker has always been a bit tricky.  I’d just rather not deal with them.

With your rotary cutter or a pair of scissors, trim one end of your fabric to a point.

Turn your iron on, find your spray starch, and park yourself at the ironing board.  With the right side of the fabric facing the surface of your ironing board, feed the strip through the tape maker.  There is a slot on the bottom of most tape makers where you can see the fabric moving through the maker.  If the strip needs a little “encouragement” to move through the bias tape maker, I’ve used a pin or awl to help move the material forward.

Once it gets through the end, use the little handle on top of the maker to start sliding the tape maker backwards.  Before pulling the fabric through the maker,  I use a shot of spray starch on the material.  As the fabric is pulled through the maker, press it with a hot iron.

The starch will help the folds will stay pressed into place.  If the material “hiccups” a little, re-adjust the fabric in the bias taper maker and keep going.  Chances are any little blemish can be manipulated with needle and thread, covered with an applique piece, or will be cut off when you trim the bias tape down to the size you need.

When an applique pattern calls for a lot of bias tape – the pattern is loaded with stems or vines or such – I try to make all my bias tape at one time.  I do this for a couple of reasons.  First, making bias tape is not my favorite thing to do.  Making it all at once gets it all done at one time and over with.  Second, it does save time when I am appliqueing.  I don’t have to stop, cut more fabric, run it through the bias tape maker, and then sit back down to applique.   I can just keep stitching.  To store the bias tape, I simply wrap it around an empty paper towel cardboard center and pin or clip it into place…

Or use another storage method as shown.

Next week we’re going to move ahead with bias tape and I’ll show you a few other ways you can make this wonderful stuff.  Then it’s on to binding treatments, peek-a-boo blocks, and we’ll end the year with my annual “State of the Quilt” blog.

Until next week…continue to Quilt with Excellence!

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

This week we’re continuing our discussion on fabric, and now I would like to discuss fabric value with you.  There are a couple of ways fabric value can be defined.

The first definition, and honestly this was probably the one that immediately popped into you head, is money – the value of your fabric.

This type of value is important. For me fabric is a lot like shoes – you get what you pay for.  You buy cheap fabric, and your quilt may not look as well as you’d like it to.  While I do not ever promote breaking your budget when purchasing fabric, it is a good idea to purchase good fabric.  It doesn’t have to cost $20 a yard to be quality fabric.  However, there are few aspects of the material you may want to examine before it finds its way on the cutting table and your debit/credit card takes a hit.

The primary question you want answered is what is the thread count?  If you’re like me, most of the time when thread count is mentioned, you’re thinking sheets.  And for sheets, the higher the thread count, the better the sheets.  Sometimes the thread count advertised on sheets is 1,000 – meaning there’s a 1,000 threads per square inch.  Quality quilting fabric is not quite that extreme.  If you examine a square inch of quilting fabric, you will notice there are threads running vertically and horizontally.  The best quilting fabric will have approximately 70 threads per square inch.  This fabric will be easy to needle but will hold up to wear.  Anything lower than 60 threads per square inch may fray, fall apart as you’re constructing your quilt, and stretch off grain.

Here’s where the price difference comes into play.  Fabric that’s sold at Big Box Stores tends to have a lower thread count than fabric that is sold in the LQS or on quilting fabric websites.  That’s why the Big Box Fabric is the less expensive option.  I’m not saying all their fabric is lower quality, but I am saying be careful if you’re purchasing the fabric for a quilt that is show-bound or destined to be a family heirloom.  You may want to save your pennies and then splurge at a quilt shop, either brick-and-mortar or on-line.

On the other hand, sometimes that Big Box Fabric is perfect for a quilt.  If you’re making a quilt for child, and that quilt is destined to be literally played with until it’s in pieces, go for the less expensive fabric.  As a matter of fact, you may want to make two of these kinds of play quilts, so when one is loved-up, there will be another waiting in the wings to take its place.

Big Box Fabric is also perfect for beginner quilters.  Do you remember making your first quilt?  If yours was anything like mine, that first quilt top took some serious abuse.  First quilts have seams ripped out, blocks taken apart and resewn, tips of points cut off, and lots of mismatched corners. That first quilt is not a thing of beauty, but it is a critical learning tool.  It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend hundreds of dollars on that first quilt.

And there are some quilts I make that don’t merit expensive quilting fabric.  If it’s a lap quilt to wrap up in while I read or watch TV, you’re going to find fabric left over from Hancock’s mixed in with fabric from remaining bolts I purchased from Dragonfly before it closed. Those quilts are not heirlooms nor are they show-bound.  Those quilts are made to be used, cuddled with Sam in, and more often than not, they will be baptized with coffee and wine.  It would make no sense to construct them out of high-end fabric.

But there’s another aspect of value that comes into play with fabric, and that’s the color value.  Value in this aspect means how light or dark a fabric is in relation to the surrounding material. An understanding of contrast (color value) is an important quilt making skill that helps quilters decide how to arrange patches of fabric to either blend or create divisions with each other.

There’s an easy way to get started being comfortable with color value.  Grab some different color swatches – they can be charm squares, squares from your stash, or even paint chips (as long as they’re cut apart and separated from their color family).  Try to arrange these from the lightest to the darkest.  Step back and look at them.  Can you see the color value subtly shift from lightest to darkest?  If there are colors that stand out in this flow, re-arrange the swatches and try again.  This is harder that it sounds, and it takes a while to get the organization correct.  It’s easy to do this kind of sorting when you’re working with swatches from one color family.  Throw in multi-colored swatches and the process gets a lot more complex.  This is because another characteristic is thrown in the mix:  color warmth.  Color warmth changes the contrast or value.

Let’s look at this a bit closer.  On most standard color wheels, there is a line that separates the colors.  Those on the right of the line are the cool colors (blues, greens, blue-greens etc.) and those on the left are the warm colors (red, yellows, oranges).  Cool colors tend to recede, and warm colors seem to “pop.”  To show you how this works, let’s take a look at the same quilt block in different colors.

It’s easy to see that the block made of all cool colors tends to recede back into the white background.  Likewise, the block made from all warm colors tends to push forward from the background.  In the blocks made from warm and cool colors, the reds and yellows catch your eye before the blues and greens because while the cool colors are receding, the warm colors are “popping” off that background big time.

With solids, it’s easy to determine if the fabric falls into the cool category or the warm category.  However, if the fabric is a multi-color print, such as a focus fabric, things get a bit more dicey.  Certain places on the material may definitely read warm and others may tend to lean towards the cool palette.  So how can you determine if the fabric is warm or cool? There are a couple of ways, and we’ll get to those in a minute, but if the warm and cool colors are pretty evenly distributed, and you need the focus fabric to read cool, place it near blues, greens, or blue-greens.  If you want it to read warm, place it near reds, yellows, and oranges.

At this point let me also say something about a couple of colors on the color wheel that can be wonderful to work with but can cause some issues – purples and lime-greens.

Purple is made from red and blue, both warm and cool colors.  Lime-green is comprised green and yellow, again both warm and cool colors.  If you place either near a warm color, they will read warm.  If you place either near a cool color, they’re going to tend to run cool.  If you’re using either color in the quilt, be careful about placement.  If you need them to be consistent as a warm or a cool, the immediately adjacent material is very important.

In most quilts, you want a balance between warm and cool colors.  There are exceptions to this, but most quilt designs are made with a mix of color values in mind – both warm and cool, and contrast values. Contrast values are lights, mediums, and darks.  Sometimes (and this is more often in older quilt patterns), you’re instructed to purchase so yards of dark, so many of mediums, and so many of lights.  The “light” yardage can be pretty easy to figure out – whites, beiges, ecrus, tans, and pastels.  However, the medium yardage and the dark yardage can get pretty murky.  And if you purchase too many mediums, thinking you’ve gotten darks, your quilt will look kind of muddy – too many fabrics of the same contrast value.

So, let’s discuss how to avoid a muddy mess and make our color selections pop.  First, there’s what I call the squint test.  Layout all your fabric and take several large steps backwards and squint at your choices.  Sometimes this is all it takes to see if you have too many fabrics of the same color value or which color doesn’t really go well with the other material.  Eliminate, add, step back, and squint again.  I have to admit this technique takes some time to get really good at, but keep practicing. It gets easier the more you do it.

Another idea you may want to entertain is taking a trip to your local hardware store and purchasing a peephole – the little magnifying glass that let’s you see who’s at your front door.  When the fabric is viewed through the peephole, it looks far away, so you may be able to pick the contrast up easier than squinting at it.  The plus side to this is that the peephole is small enough to throw in your sewing bag or purse, so when you’re fabric shopping, you can pull the peephole out and use it.

Another tool that is small enough to keep with you in your bag is this:

This is a color evaluator.  When you look at your fabric through this red filter, all of the material will show up in tones of gray – light grays, medium grays, and dark grays.  This is helpful when you’re making sure you have enough medium and dark fabrics.  And this is a great tool to have, but there are two that I like even more, and both are probably already in your home.

The first tool works if you’re pulling from fabric that’s already in your sewing room – and that tool is your printer/copier.  Cut 2-inch squares from each of the fabrics you’re auditioning for your quilt.  Glue or tape these onto a piece of copy paper and make a black and white copy of your swatches.  The black and white copy will immediately let you know if the fabric you thought was a dark is really a dark or a medium.  I’ve used this method for years and it’s almost fool-proof.

The second tool is your mobile phone.  I cannot imagine there is a phone on the market now that does not take pictures.  And I bet your cell phone goes everywhere you do.  So, use this to your advantage.  Line up your fabrics either in your sewing room, on your computer screen (if shopping on line) or at your LQS.  If you’re shopping on your phone, screen shot the fabric and save it to your photos.  Go to your photo app, open the picture you want, and edit the picture to black and white (on the iPhone 8, this is the silvertone setting).  From there it will be easy to see the contrast value of the fabric.

 

 

This careful placement of color and contrast values can make a quilt soar far above normal.  The easiest quilt to see this in is Storm at Sea.  The placement of darks to lights to mediums make this quilt seem to move while it’s standing still.  Tumbling Blocks quilts also use color and contrast value to their advantage to give a 3-D effect.

The best advice I can give you when planning color and contrast values is this:  Study quilts.  Look at them carefully.  Notice that when you put a medium fabric next to a white, it’s going to appear as a dark.  If you put that same medium near a dark or another medium, it will appear as a medium.  The placement of fabrics on a quilt top is just as important as the fabrics you pick out for your quilt.  And the placement can radically change the appearance of your quilt.  Notice the three tops below:

 

These are the same quilt pattern, but I’ve changed the placement of the color and contrast values in each.  A different look is achieved in each placement.

It’s hard to believe it’s November already and we’re quickly winding down 2018.  In many, many ways, this year has tried my soul more than any year since 2005, when my father passed away.  I find myself mentally, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted.  Quilting – that pull of needle and thread – and quilters – my BFFs – have comforted my soul and spirit more than anything.  If you’re my quilting friend, thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.

 

We’ve got a few blogs left that will cover bias tape, bindings, and a few other odds and ends before we say good-bye to the year of Quilting with Excellence.  I’m excited about 2019 and what I have planned for my blog and for us.

 

Until next week, Quilt with Excellence!

 

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

 

Today we’re talking everyone’s favorite topic…fabric.

I’ve written some pretty exhaustive blogs on fabric…whether or not to prewash it, how to chose it, where to buy it.  In short, this “Material Girl” has hit the inventory at the LQS, Big Box Store, and On-line Shops pretty hard and in much detail.  However, since this is the Year of Quilting with Excellence, and we’ve had a real emphasis on the basics, I’m revisiting this top to talk about color choices, scale, and volume.

The easiest way to begin to pick out fabric for a quilt is to find a focus fabric and plan everything around it.  This is the easiest way, but not the only way.  As you live your journey as a quilter, you may find you change this up a little.  Sometimes you will find a solid color fabric that your drawn to and plan your quilt around it.  Solids are not always considered a focus fabric in the quilting world, so this is a little different.  At other times, you may find a fabric you’re completely in love with, but not have enough of it to use in the quilt.  You can pull colors from this fabric to construct your quilt out of, and not use an inch of that much-loved material.  In short, there is more than one way to plan a quilt and none of them are wrong.  But if you’re just beginning to quilt (or are still getting your “quilting legs”), having a focus fabric is a great way to begin.

To start, let’s define what focus fabric is:  It’s (generally) a multi-print fabric that has several colors in it.

It’s from those colors you pull your supporting fabrics and plan your quilt.  In the past, the focus fabric was primarily used in the sashing and borders as a way to pull the quilt together.  While that’s still generally encouraged – especially for beginning quilters– I urge everyone to also sprinkle that focus fabric in blocks.  If you’ve quilted a while, you’re pretty comfortable at finding a focus fabric that appeals to you.  However, if you still have “newbie” status, take a look at fabric collections.

These are generally all placed together either in brick-and-mortar stores or on websites.  Most of the time these will contain one or two fabrics that can be used as a focus fabric, as well as all the supporting fabrics you need.  This is a great way to begin to learn what makes a good focus fabric and how to find additional material to go with that to construct a quilt.  Kits and precut selections are also wonderful choices to use to get your feet wet in fabric selection.

For those of you that have taken my beginning design class, you may remember that you really only need five fabrics to make almost any quilt. And for those of you who haven’t taken my beginning design class, there it is – the critical information you need.  Five fabrics – that is all.  You need a focus fabric, a neutral, two tertiary or analogous colored fabrics, and a complementary colored fabric.

Since we’ve already defined what a focus fabric is, let’s define the other four categories of colors.

Technically, neutral fabrics are those falling into the color realms of white, black, ecru, beige, tan, or gray.

The neutral fabric is kind of like the mortar that holds bricks or cinder blocks together.  Neutral fabrics don’t really get a lot of attention, but they’re the glue of the quilt.  They make the quilt flow and ebb and allow a resting place for the eyes as they travel over the quilt.  Quilts without these tend to make me a little edgy because I have no idea where to look first.  It is interesting to note at this point, that the definition of neutrals (white, black, tan, ecru, beige, or gray) is changing a bit.  Several quilt designers have opted for other solids as the neutral if it enhances the quilt better.  For instance, I recently completed a quilt that pink was the neutral.  And the pink wasn’t a light shade that trended more toward white, either.  It was a true pink.  If a different color works better than a “traditional” neutral, don’t be afraid to use it.

Tertiary or analogous colors are those colors that are side by side on a color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange.

 Complimentary colors are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.  

Within these fabrics (especially if you’re working with material out of one collection), there will probably be several different scales (size of designs on the material).  Generally, these tend to be a large-scale print, a medium-scale print, a small-scale print, a geometric or stripe, random dots (or something resembling random dots) and solids.  Rule of thumb, for variety and interest, you want to choose one large scale print (often this is the focus fabric) and let the supporting fabric be the medium- and small-scale print, geometric/stripe, and solid prints.  Sometimes two large-sale prints in one quilt look too much like they’re fighting each other for your attention.

Now is also a great time to mention the use of low-volume fabric.  Low-volume refers to the color value of a piece of material.  These are generally light-colored fabrics with a secondary design in a different color (so we’re not talking about white-on-white prints, etc.) but the secondary design has lots of space between the designs.

These low-volumes can make wonderful background fabric for applique designs or can even serve as your neutral.  The trick is to make sure they’re placed near a bright secondary fabric to make sure they don’t look washed out.  These fabrics are used in a lot of modern quilts and are really fun fabrics to work with.  I think they especially work well with half and quarter-square triangles.

The last thought I want to leave you with today is this:  Don’t be afraid to choose your own fabrics.  Starting with kits, pre-cuts, block-of-the-month clubs, and fabric lines is a great place to begin to learn what material will work together to make a great quilt.  But don’t stay there.  Take what you’ve learned and then try out your own fabric sense.  You won’t shoot 100 percent right out of the gate, but over time you will develop your own fabric preferences and your quilts will take on your creative vibe, not some other designers.  And the ability to choose your own fabric will help you wisely purchase for your own stash and use it up.

 

Next week, a little more about fabric…

 

Until then, Quilt with Excellence!

 

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

 

 

Do you press, or do you iron your seams?

I know I’ve covered this topic before.  We discussed it a few years ago, but that was on an old Blog Spot.  Since we’re hitting the basics really hard this year, I feel like we need to re-visit pressing and ironing, since the difference between the two is very important.

In any quilting area, there will be an ironing board or surface and an iron.  Quilters know it’s important to press the seams as you piece.  This action makes the points on triangles sharper and the block lie flatter.  Overall, it really improves the look of the block, the look of the quilt, and the quilting process.  Quite often, the terms “press” and “iron” are used interchangeably with quilters and quilt instructors.

So which one is right, and what’s the difference between the two?

Ironing is what you do to a wrinkled, already constructed garment if anybody still irons in this day of dryers with build-in steam units.

Your shirt is wrinkled, you iron it.  You move the iron in a back and forth motion over the fabric, usually using steam and sometimes fabric starch, to get rid of the wrinkles.  Remember: Ironing is a back and forth motion.

Pressing is an up and down motion.

The iron is not moved over the surface in a back and forth direction.  To do so would stretch the fabric and distort the bias.  Pressing is the action used in quilting, even though the terms ironing and pressing may be used interchangeably.

Now that we’ve cleared up the definition between the two terms, let’s ask some pressing questions:  Does it matter how you press?  Which direction should you press the seams?  Is there anytime at all you should iron when you’re quilting?

Let’s answer that last question first.  And that answer is “No, not really.”  Even if prior to cutting, the fabric is wrinkled due to storage or the fact that you’re a pre-washer and you’ve washed your fabric and it’s dried with wrinkles – don’t iron it.  Press it.  The back and forth motion of a heavy iron can pull the fabric off-grain.  It can stretch the bias.  Press it.  Don’t iron it.

Now, for a more detailed topic…which direction should you press the seams?  There are a couple of important ideas to keep in mind with seams.  First, you want them all as uniform as you can get them.  Second, you want them to lie as flat as possible – this makes your block look better and makes the quilting process so much easier.  In order to get the seam to lie flat, press the seam closed first.

This helps to set the stitches and flattens the fabric.

Most quilt pattern directions will instruct you to press towards the darker fabric to prevent “shadowing” – the darker fabric showing through the lighter.  This is usually the process, but there are times you press towards the lighter one.  I just finished a quilt top where this was the case.  Quilt designers may do this so that the seams will “nest” together nicely and  will match up in the block without too much trouble.  “Nesting” is the term used to indicate that the seams are staggered, meaning side-by-side patchwork pieces have seams facing the opposite directions.  This reduces bulk and increases accuracy.

 

Seams are pressed to the side, towards the darker fabric most of the time.  And the really good quilt pattern directions will tell you which way press your seams.  However, there are times when the seams are pressed opened.  The tip of the iron or a stiletto is used to help open up the seams and then they’re pressed open.

 

After they are, flip the piece over and press from the right side to flatten out everything nicely.  We will get into when it’s best to press to the side and when it’s best to press the seam open in just a bit.

Either pressing the seams to one side or open work well until you hit intersections, such as the ones in a four-patch.  With those, there is both light and dark fabrics on the diagonal from each other.  Either way you press that seam, either open or to one side, the dark fabric will show through on the light.  When this is the case, it’s best to twist the seam gently so that a tiny four-patch forms in the center.  This allows the fabric to be pressed in opposite directions at the intersection.

Now we will deal with some details…

Should I use steam when pressing?  There will be as much discussion over this as there is whether you should pre-wash your fabric or not.  Some quilters swear by steam and others swear at it.  For me it depends on the circumstances.  If I’m pressing a seam without a lot of intersections, I generally use a dry iron and maybe a shot of starch.  But if it’s a seam with a lot of intersections, I have found that a shot or two of steam helps everything lie down nicely and reduces bulk just a tad.  It’s a personal preference.  Try it both ways and see which way works best for you.  No quilt police are going to show up and arrest you in quilted handcuffs.

What’s the best iron?  You can spend as much on an iron as you would on a low-tech sewing machine.  And there are some pressing systems that cost hundreds of dollars.  Those systems are generally designed for garment makers or folks that make vinyl designs to go on garments or bags.  They’re not really made for pressing seams.  Likewise, there are some irons out there that cost a couple hundred (or more) dollars.  Some quilters swear by a certain brand of iron – likewise, some swear at them.  My personal preference is whatever is the cheapest at Target.  There is a reason for this – I am hard on irons.  They get knocked off my ironing surface and thrown in a bag to go with me to classes and sewing retreats.  If I abuse it to the point of death, no great loss on the debit card – I just go back and buy another one.  My favorite iron?  My cordless Panasonic.

It has a point on both ends and it heats well.  The only down side is that the water tank is smaller than my regular iron.  My pet peeve with nearly all irons nowadays?  That freakin’ automatic turn-off thing.  I get it.  It’s a safety feature.  But I wish there was someway I could control it so that the iron stayed on longer than five minutes.  I hate waiting for the thing to heat up again.

Why is my seam all wonky?  You’re putting too much pressure on the fabric when you press.  You’re just trying to get the wrinkles out or get the fabric to lie flat.  You’re not trying to kill it.  Or you’ve gotten it off-grain because you’re ironing and not pressing.  If this becomes a frequent problem, and you don’t mind marking on your ironing surface, take a permanent marker, pen, or pencil and draw a straight line down the center of the surface.  Line your seam up with this when you press.  Guaranteed non-wonky seams every time.

Okay…you’ve hinted that there are times we need to press the seams open and press them to the side.  Care to enlighten us a bit more? 

Sure!  Here are some times that you will want to press those seams to one side…

1. If you plan to quilt your top by stitching in the ditch.  With the seams pressed to one side, when you stitch in the ditch, the needle will go through the seam thread and catch the fabric.  This will protect your seam.  If you pressed them open and stitched in the ditch, the quilting would only catch the thread in the seam.
2. If you need the seams to nest. Nested seams rest nicely with each other and allow them to match up pretty perfectly.  It provides stability for your seams.
3. Which brings us to the next point, the time factor. Since the seams are more stable, they tend to hold up longer.

So, what are the reasons for pressing the seams open?

1. The block will lie flatter.  Not only  will the block lie flatter, but the quilt top will lie flatter.  If there are a lot of intersections in the block and in the quilt, you may want to consider pressing the seams open so that the quilting process will be easier, whether the top is quilted on a domestic machine or a mid- or long-arm.
2. If there are a lot of points, such as in half-square triangles, the points will be sharper. With points, if the fabric is pressed to one side, it can distort the points because the fabric pulls to one direction.  When the seams are pressed open, this distortion is eliminated.
3. Again, it makes the quilting easier. I never gave this a thought until I began quilting a lot of my own stuff.  Pressing the seams open reduces bulk and allows the needle (no matter what machine is performing the quilting) to glide over the top with ease.  There are no “bumpy” spots to hang your needle on.

Over time, you will determine which method works best in the situation you’re in.  And sometimes, it’s a mix of both.  But the great thing about this is, if you decide to change it, there are no seams to rip out! Just warm up the iron and press it the other way!

There will be no blog next week, as I will be meeting with 27 of my closest quilting friends for our annual “Drop Everything and Just Quilt!” Retreat.  I promise pictures.

I’ve already started packing!

Until week after next, Quilt with Excellence!

 

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

We’ve covered a lot of quilting ground this year.  By now, I hope you’re changing up quilt patterns to suit your tastes or better yet, designing your own quilts.  You’re fearlessly “mathing” the borders and setting triangles and doing all kinds of things that six months ago you never dreamed of.

I can imagine quite a few of you out there are like me.  You work full-time.  As much as you’re dreaming about either A) retiring or B) somehow creating a successful, income-driven profession fueled by quilting, neither of those are happening right now.  Most days I’m doing really well if I can come home, throw something on the table that resembles dinner, do laundry/dishes/some housework, and then spend at least a half an hour in my quilt studio.  That time is something I look forward to all day.

And then my sewing machine decides that it wants to audition for a role in The Exorcist.

You know what I mean…it doesn’t want to sew right, it keeps coming unthreaded, or the stitches are just awful.  When you have a limited amount of time to sew, and your machine is acting like a spoiled brat, it can eat up not only fabric and thread, but minutes of your time.

Yes, I have multiple machines and the easiest thing to do would be to move my chair from one machine to another, but that doesn’t eliminate the problem – one of my sewing machines is still acting possessed.  So, what I want to do with this blog is deal with sewing machine tension and other issues that can seriously impede your quilting time.

The first thing I check if Big Red (my primary machine) gives me issues is the thread path.  Is she threaded correctly?  I’ve sewn on her so long, I can practically thread her in the dark and may have a time or two, but still I check this first because if I don’t set the thread cleanly in the thread take up, it will slide out and cause issues.  Nine times out of ten, this is the problem.  A quick re-thread and we’re ready to go again.  Also, be sure to thread your machine with the presser foot up.  This opens the tension disks you maneuver the thread through.   When the presser foot is lowered, these disks close around the thread, keeping it in place.

If the thread take-up or the tension disks aren’t the issue, I examine the needle.  The needle should be checked for two things.  First, are you using the right needle for the job?  Jersey and knits use one type of needle.  Denim another.  And 100% cotton fabrics another.  Make sure the type of needle used is the right one for the job.  And then check to make sure the needle is in good shape.  Sometimes a burr or a bend is visible to the naked eye and that is the problem.  Sometimes it’s not.  Change your needle (and safely dispose of the old one).  This may solve the issue, especially if the issue is skipped stitches.  An old, dull needle or a needle with a bend or burr can’t penetrate the fabric completely and that will result in skipped stitches.  And FYI, you should be changing that needle after eight hours of sewing, unless you’re using titanium needles, then you can double the time.

 

If Big Red is still giving me problems, I check the bobbin and bobbin case.  My Janome has a built-in bobbin case with a drop-in bobbin.  I’ve only had issues with my bobbin case once in the 10 years I’ve had Big Red.  But if you use a machine with an insertable metal bobbin case, examine the case – especially if it’s been dropped on a hard surface.  The case could be damaged.  If the case is fine, check the bobbin.  Again, if you’re using a metal bobbin, and it’s been dropped on a hard surface, it could be damaged, so try a different bobbin.  If you use the clear, plastic bobbins like I do, make sure they’re not cracked or chipped.  And with both types of bobbins, make sure the bobbin is wound correctly and evenly.

Use the same weight of thread in the bobbin and on top of your machine.  It can be different colors … even different brands… but sometimes that can be the issue.  The only time I can get away with using a different weight in my bobbin than on top of my machine is if I’m using Superior Threads Bottom Line.  That thread tends to play well with everyone – even Loretta the long arm.  If you’re using cheap thread, try a different brand.  Some machines (well, all of mine) do not like cheap thread.  I can use a spool of one of the brands that’s found at big box discount stores, and all of my machines reject it.  Go for a long, staple cotton or high-quality polyester.  Cheap thread has caused many a machine hiccup.

Next, clean your machine.  Follow your sewing machine manual and clean the bobbin area and any other area that the instruction book directs you to do.  Oil it as directed and then try again.  Also…let me throw in here that when you clean your machine, there’s only so much you can do.  If you’re using your machine several times a week, then at least once a year you should make an appointment with a machine tech who knows how to deep clean and oil your machine.  Sewing machines are like cars – the more attentive you are at maintenance, the few problems you’re going to have and the longer it will last.

But what if you check all of the above and you still have issues?  What if the seam looks puckered or there are these horrible clumps of thread on the back of the fabric?  If either of those are the case, then your machine (and probably you, too) are having trouble with tension.

Above is an illustration of balanced seam tension.  The bobbin thread is not seen on the front of the seam and the top thread is not seen on the back of the seam.  Both threads meet and interlock in the middle.  If you’re not sure if the tension is correct on your machine, here’s an idea that I use.  I wind my bobbin with one color thread and use a different colored thread on the top of the machine – anything but white in either one.  Then I place two squares of white material, right sides together, and sew a seam.  By using the two colors of thread, I can readily see if my tension is okay.  No bobbin thread seen on the top?  The bobbin tension is good.  No top thread seen on the back?  Top tension is good.  My machine is working fine.

But what if it looks like this:

In this case, either A) the top tension is too loose or B) the bobbin tension is too tight.  When you purchase your sewing machine, the top thread tension and the bobbin case tension are preset by the factory. Most of the time that pre-set tension will work just fine with whatever you’re creating.  But if you’re working with some funky thread or you’re sewing several thicknesses together, this tension issue can happen.  Always try to adjust the top tension first because that’s the easiest.  The higher numbers on the tension dial or LED screen tension screen indicated higher (tighter) tension.  Increase that number a little at a time and try sewing a seam.

If you do this and you still can’t get balanced tension, reset the thread tension back to normal and have a look at your bobbin case (and this is only for the machines that have a front-loading bobbin case).  Remove the bobbin case and make sure it’s threaded correctly.  Holding the thread, release the bobbin case release the case over a padded surface.  If it falls a couple of inches, the bobbin tension is fine.  If it doesn’t fall at all, then the bobbin tension is too tight.  On the side of the case is a tiny screw.  Using a screw driver, turn the screw about a quarter-turn to the left to loosen it.  Reinsert the case and try another seam.

Depending on what fabric and thread you’re sewing with, this may be all that needs to be done.  Sometimes it’s a combination of fine-tuning both the top tension and the bobbin tension to make the seam balanced.

 

Now….what do you do if your seam looks like this?

In this case, the top tension is too tight, and the bottom tension is too loose.  If this is the situation, again, adjust the top tension first.  But this time instead of turning the tension dial or LED tension screen to a higher number, move it to a lower one and try a seam.

If that doesn’t work, try holding the bobbin case by the thread again.  If the bobbin case falls several inches, then the tension needs to be tightened.  Take the screw driver and turn the screw on the side of the case a quarter-turn to the right.  Do a test seam.  And again, you may have to play with both the top tension and the bobbin tension to make everything balanced.

 

There are a couple of things to remember at this point.  First, if you’ve tried and tried to get a balanced seam and can’t it’s time to take the machine to see the tech.  There are adjustments the tech can make that you can’t.  And secondly, if you have to adjust the top tension or the bobbin tension or both, remember to reset them to the factory settings when you’re through.

 

Throwing in an FYI here – the times I have to play with the tension the most is if I’m sewing on a densely woven fabric (such as a batik), a loosely woven fabric (such as homespun), or I’m quilting on my domestic machine – batting can add drag to the top tension, depending on the loft of the batting as well as the batting content.  Cotton batting tends to “grab” the thread more than polyester or a blend.

 

I know I can’t relieve all of the tension in your life, but I at least hope I’ve helped with your sewing machine tension.  To me there is nothing more frustrating than looking forward to spending time in my studio and then my machine starts auditioning for The Exorcist. 

 

Until next week … Quilt with Excellence!

 

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

Okay, let’s review…

 

At this point in the year, you’ve learned a lot about piecing and applique.  You’ve learned probably more than you ever wanted to about borders. And last week, I threw everything up in the air when I introduced the concept of setting your quilt on point.

You should be really excited now and itching to design your own quilt.  And you should do just that.  You’ve really got just about everything you need to dig into your stash, sew up some blocks, and lay that sucker out just the way you want and not how the pattern dictates and be completely successful with the process.  You’ve lost your fear of quilt math, realizing that it’s simple multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.  You can throw terms like Golden Ratio and Quilter’s Cake around with all the confidence in the world.

So, allow me to muddy the waters just a bit more…

At one time or another, you’re going to have some wonderful quilt blocks that you want to set on point.  You dig through your fabric or make a mad dash to the LQS or your favorite on-line shop and get the material for those setting blocks and setting triangles.  You get home, begin to lay everything out and are hit with one cold, hard fact…

That fabric you loved in the store or from your stash for the setting blocks and triangles just ain’t singing the same tune it did on the cutting table. It doesn’t add that “zing” that you thought it would to your blocks.  You may have just ran your debit card up $20 or $30 and you certainly don’t want to toss the fabric away and make another purchase.

What can you do?

Why don’t you piece your setting triangles and/or blocks? Or alter the basic layout?

Whoa….there’s a new concept.

Yes, you certainly can piece the setting blocks and/or triangles, just as you can anything else on your quilt.  And you can alter that on-point layout that was in the last blog.  The results will take you from a quilt that is nice, to one that has every WOW factor in the book.

Let’s play with the layout first.  By changing the layout just a little, you can dramatically change your quilt top.  You can alter a simple on-point layout from this:

To this:

With the above illustration, I’ve colored the setting triangles different colors to make it easier for you to see what I’m doing with this.  While the nine-patch blocks are the same from the quilt last week, did you see what I did with them?  Instead of separating them with setting blocks, I sewed them together and only used one set of large setting triangles on the right- and left-hand side.  These are shown in blue.

 

Now let me draw your attention to the top and bottom, right and left-hand corner triangles shown in green.  Those aren’t small at all, like they were in the first on-point quilt we worked with.  These are large – larger even than the large setting triangles.  These are double corner triangles.  So how do you use Quilter’s Cake to come up with the measurements to cut these triangles?  It’s not hard, I promise.  Since we’re still working with 12-inch finished blocks, take the 12-inches, divide it by 1.414, then multiply that by 2 and add 7/8-inch for the seams. So, on a 12-inch finished block, the equation would work like this:

12 ÷ 1.414 = 8 ½-inches

8 ½-inches x 2 = 17

17 + 7/8 = 17 7/8-inches.  You would cut your square 17 7/8 inches and cut it in half once on the diagonal.  The difference with these corner triangles is that you would make two for each corner.

The math isn’t hard…don’t be scared of it.  When I taught chemistry and physics to a bunch of gangly high school students, I always told them numbers were your friends.  Words can lie, but numbers (if interpreted correctly) cannot.  They will always tell you the truth.

Now let’s take those layouts and play with fabric.

Take a look at this quilt:

This is a great on-point quilt.  It has some nice colors; the points of the stars aren’t chopped off.  Piecing-wise, this is very nice.  I do want you to notice one thing.  The same fabric is used in the background of the star blocks, the setting blocks, and the setting triangles.  There is nothing wrong with this approach.  With this color-way, the blocks seem to “float” across the top of the quilt.  And again, let me emphasize, there is nothing wrong with that design.  Sometimes that is the look you’re going for.

But, if you want to go for a bit different look, without piecing those setting squares and/or setting triangles, then make the fabric do the work for you.  Look at the same quilt, keeping the fabric in the star blocks the same, but changing up the fabric in the setting triangles:

Or changing the fabric in the setting blocks instead:

Or by adding sashing and cornerstones…

And altering the sashing and cornerstones a bit….

If you don’t like the empty blocks beside the stars (if you or your quilt artist has great quilting skills, this would be a great place to showcase some feathered wreaths), throw in another block:

Sometimes all you need is a quick fabric change up to make your quilt really sizzle.

When you’re piecing a quilt, the options are endless and once you have a good grasp of the quilt math and some confidence in choosing fabrics, the sky is literally the limit when it comes to either changing the design of a quilt pattern or designing your own.

Don’t be daunted.  You can do this.

Throwing in a different quilt block where a plain setting block is one thing, but now I want you to think about piecing the large setting triangles.  Let’s look at this design I came up with using Fossil Fern fabrics.

Wouldn’t this quilt look wonderful if we could work in some piecing on the triangles?

Now what about piecing the setting blocks?

There are so many secondary patterns going on in this quilt it boggles my mind.  And with the pieced setting triangles, you’ve just made your border, so it’s a win-win.

My final thought before we wrap up setting triangles is this:  Don’t settle for ordinary.  Let your imagination and creativity work overtime in the simple design elements of a quilt.  When a quilter is putting together a quilt top, it’s easy to get caught up in the blocks – whether they are pieced or applique or a bit of both.  That’s well and good.  But don’t stop there and don’t let the pattern dictate every element of your design.   Carefully consider the borders and sashing, the setting blocks and setting triangles, as well as the corner triangles. Use those to enhance your center and make the whole quilt a one-of-a-kind design.

Make it yours.

And make it sing.

Until next week, Quilt with Excellence!

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

We’ve dealt with borders for the past few blogs, and most of the quilts that we looked at while discussing all our border options were horizontal-set quilts – that is the quilts were made of blocks, all lined up in rows both horizontally and vertically.  However, now I want you to think about changing the quilt top up a little bit – not with anymore borders, but with putting the quilt blocks on-point.

What does on-point mean?  It means that instead of horizontally setting the block, it’s turned and is set in the quilt with the corners in a vertical  and horizontal position instead of a horizontal position.  So, instead of this:

It’s this:

Which means, instead of the quilt looking like this:

It could look like this:

This on-point option is a very simple one, and like most quilt design options, the quilter is only limited by his or her imagination.  I want to discuss the options, so that you can let your imagination run wild, but first I want to walk you through the basic steps of how you construct an on-point quilt.

Let’s say you have a wonderful idea for a quilt, or you have a great pattern, but for some reason you just aren’t diggin’ the whole horizontal and vertical row thing.  I can understand that.  While I’m not opposed to that layout (indeed, some quilts will not work unless they’re laid out that way), I do love me an on-point quilt.  There’s more movement in it and there are just so many options available.

But how do you go about making that change?

It’s not hard, I promise…but just like borders, you have to do the math.  So, let’s take this process from the top.

Let’s say you have a stack of 12 ½-inch unfinished squares and you decide to put them on-point in a quilt top.

Notice that there are spaces for your blocks as well as spaces for triangles.  These triangles are called setting triangles and they look far more complicated than they are.  In this layout there are two sizes of triangles.  Along the sides are larger triangles and at the top and bottom right- and left-hand sides are smaller triangles called corner triangles.  The plain blocks that fit in between your pieced blocks are the same size.  That’s not hard to figure out.  But what about those triangles?  How do you figure out how big to make them?  And do you cut them out as triangles or is there someway you can cut out a square and then sub-cut it into triangles?

The answer to the first question is there is a math equation you can use and the answer to the second question is yes!  Let’s start at the beginning, working with the above layout.

First let’s play with your blocks, and for the sake of this example, let’s  say you’ve got nine 9-patch blocks that are 12 ½-inch unfinished.

That means the plain squares set between the 9-patch blocks will also need to cut 12 ½-inches, unfinished.

But what about the triangles?

 

There are couple of important details to remember about triangles before we begin the math.  First, one or more edges of nearly all  triangles will be cut on the bias; therefore, handle them cautiously and be careful not to stretch the bias.  The large triangles in an on-point quilt will be quarter-square triangles – that is, we cut four of these triangles from one square of fabric – and it’s important that the long edge of these triangles (called the base) is cut on the straight-of-grain of the fabric.  If the base is cut on the bias, you’re going to run into all kinds of problems—it will stretch, and you’ll never get the quilt to lay flat.

The smaller triangles at the right and left corners, top and bottom, are half-square triangles – they are produced by cutting out a square and then sub-cutting that square on the diagonal.  These must have their short-sides on the straight-of-grain.

If you’re thinking ahead, you’ve been hit with a couple of facts that maybe causing you some concern at this point:

1. The blocks are 12 ½-inches unfinished.
2. When the blocks are set in the quilt, the blocks will be 12-inches, finished.
3. In order to cut the large triangles, we need to know the long measurement, but we only know the short (12 inches).
4. In order to cut the small triangles, we need to know the short measurement, but only know the long (12 inches).

What’s a quilter to do?

Learn a new formula, that’s what.

I introduced you to the Golden Ratio (1.618) in my blogs about borders.  Let me now introduce to what is called Quilter’s Cake (mathematicians have pi, we have cake…) 1.414.

For the large, setting triangles –

Step One:  Take the finished size of the block and multiply it by 1.414

12 x 1.414 = 16.968 round this up to 17.

Step Two:  Add 1 ¼-inches for seams.

17 + 1 ¼ = 18 ¼

Thus, an 18 ¼ – inch square will produce four of the large triangles you will need for the above quilt (shown in coral color in the illustration).  There are eight large triangles, you get four triangles per square, so you would only need to cut two 18 ¼-inch squares and then sub-cut those by cutting them twice on the diagonals.

Now let’s talk about the small corner triangles, which are colored green in this illustration:

There are four of those, and since these are half-square triangles, we know we only need to cut two squares, but we need to know what size to cut them.

For the small corner triangles –

Step One:  Take the finished size of the block and divide it by 1.414.

12 ÷ 1.414 = 8.4865629.  Round this up to 8 ½ -inches.

Step Two: This time add 7/8-inch for seams.

8 ½ + 7/8 = 9 3/8-inches

Cut two 9 3/8-inch squares and cut them in half on the diagonal one time.  Each on-point quilt always has four corners (well…all quilts have four corners), so you always need only four small corner triangles.

Chew on all this information during the week.  Next week we’re going to let our imaginations go crazy with those setting triangles and blocks.

Until next week, Quilt with Excellence!

Love and Stitches

Sherri and Sam

We have talked a great deal about borders – how to properly construct them and some design options.  At this point, you may be asking yourself, “Why is this crazy lady so obsessed with borders?”

Blame Susan.

One of my partners-in-crime has a history with other quilt guilds – she’s belonged to different ones in the different states she’s lived in and has even been President of some of those guilds.  She’s been around a lot of different quilters and quilts and has quite a few quilt shows under her belt.  We were attending a quilt show together (along with several other of our friends) when she whipped out some slips of paper and told us, “Write down the name and number of the quilt that you think has the best border treatment.”

I certainly wasn’t going to contradict Susan when she was on a mission.  I took my slip of paper and made notes.

Afterwards, she explained to me that she felt that sometimes when quilters get to the borders, it’s almost as if they give up.  Instead of transferring all that work, attention to detail, and creativity to the borders, the quilter just puts plain borders on her or his work of art just to be done with it.  “It’s almost like they just gave up,” she explained.

While I had never thought of it that way (I just assumed they were following the directions), I did realize that I disliked plain borders most of the time.  As I stated earlier, if you or your longarm artist have some serious quilting chops, plain borders can be made into a work of art.  Otherwise…they’re just plain.

Think of borders as a blank canvas.  All your creativity can be poured into them.  Just because the quilt instructions call for wide strips of fabric with no piecing or applique doesn’t mean you have to stick to the directions.  Always remember that quilt directions are suggestions, and as long as you can do the math, you can design them just about anyway you want.

However, with any design you chose for your borders, and however you plan on sewing them on, you’re dealing with long seams and lots of bulk.  It’s always important to have lots of room to support the quilt as you’re sewing, so the top won’t pull to one side.  If this happens, all you’re doing is battling the weight of the quilt and the seam won’t be straight.  But did you ever stop to think how much easier it would be if you could put the border on as you’re sewing the quilt squares into rows?  Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could think of the border as other blocks at the beginning and ending of your quilt rows?  That way as you’re sewing the rows together, your borders would automatically be put on!

Can this happen?  Is this a possibility?

Yes.  And this is where my “Nonborder Borders” come into play.  This is not my idea.  Other quilt instructors such as the Pizza Girls, Cindy Williams, and Carol Doak have also had this idea.  Let me explain generally how this works, and then go into a little more detail.  Take a close look at this quilt:

This is a variation of Storm at Sea.  This is a beautiful quilt, and a Storm at Sea is on my bucket list of quilts.  There is a lot of movement and constructed in shades of blue and blue-green this would be a truly wonderful quilt.

Now, let’s pull in a bit and take a close look at one of the rows.

Can you see how part of the border is attached to each row?

Here’s a more detailed version.  Can you see the two Snail Trail blocks attached to the main block?

                                                      

 

This is still a pieced border, but it’s pieced in such a way that the border can be treated as the first quilt block and the last quilt block on a row.  When all the rows are completed and sewn together, the border is already on.  Word of caution here…it is absolutely vital with this process that you square everything up each step of the way.  Because the border goes on with the rows, there is no final squaring up prior to attaching the borders as it is in a “normal” border treatment.  There is no measuring the length and width of the quilt center to get an average, so you know how long to cut the border length.  So, while this is a great method, and makes life so much easier, just be careful to make sure you’re squaring up each step of the way.

If you plan ahead, you can use this technique on almost any pieced quilt border you want to make.  It takes a little forethought and sometimes you have to do some minor design changes, but to me, it’s worth it.  I suffer from fibromyalgia that affects my back and neck (mostly), so anytime I don’t have to wrangle with the heavy bulk of a quilt top and borders, life is easier for me.  And if you like the look of traditional borders, where the borders are a darker color than the center, you can still do that with this method – just change your fabric.

 

 

Let me encourage you to play with this technique.  Draw out your ideas on graph paper or use the Electronic Quilt software (my personal favorite) to sketch out some ideas.  There are two additional resources I would like to leave you with for this technique.  The first is Cindy Williams.  If you’re on Facebook, she’s there under the name of The Math Whisperer.  She has a simply wonderful book called Perfectly Pieced Borders that may be available through her blog.  She teaches at different retreats and quilt shows.  If you’re ever in a venue where she’s lecturing or giving workshops, do yourself a favor and take one or three from her.  I had the awesome opportunity to take two classes with her in Pigeon Forge in 2015.  And she’s one quilt instructor I’d jump at the chance of taking classes from again (something I can’t say about every class I’ve taken….).

 

The next resource is Carol Doak’s Creative Combinations: Stunning Blocks and Borders from a Single Unit.  These blocks and borders are paper-pieced but are easily adaptable to this “Nonborder Border” technique.

 

Once again, my usual disclaimer:  I am not employed by Cindy Williams or Carol Doak.  I have used their products and have discovered that their products and their customer service is stellar – if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t get my stamp of approval.

 

The year is quickly winding down.  I want to start a series on setting triangles, bias bars, and tension before we say good-bye to 2018 and the Year of Quilting with Excellence.  I already have next year’s theme in mind and you will see where all this emphasis in the basics will come into play.

 

Until next week, Quilt with Excellence!

 

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Sam

PS – For those of you  who know I live in North Carolina, we are hurricane ready!  Just finished my third trip to the store and Bill and I have bread, peanut butter, and water.  Sam has an extra disposable litter box and extra cat food.  This isn’t our first rodeo with hurricanes, but Florence is the biggest we’ve ever had to deal with.