Chevron Quilt

I'm starting on this chevron quilt for my granddaughter--solid black and solid brights. I just haven't gotten to the oranges, reds, purples, and yellows!

Instead of using charm squares, I am using a couple of layer cakes and can get 8 HST blocks super fast.  Here is a video that shows this technique, but I hate marking with a pencil, I skip that step and just iron 2 diagonal "marks" in my color fabrics...then sew on either side of the crease.

Here is the video.

Half square blocks from a layercake.

Leaders and Enders

I have pieced 2 tops and backings for 2 twin quilts in the past couple of weeks.  During that time, I was also able to sneak in these blocks by doing Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders method of making every minute and stitch count.  You can find her over at Quiltville.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  I am a believer! 

The above blocks were sewn together by using them as leaders or enders as I pieced these 2 quilt tops.....

 

I already have enough to make 10 nine-patch blocks for a charity quilt....and it only took me a few seconds as i was piecing these quilt tops.

I had about 4 charm packs from a previous life that I knew I was never going to use. As I pieced the quilt tops and came to the end of my chain piecing or just sewing a border, I grabbed a couple random charms and stitched them up, leaving them under the presser foot until I was ready to sew another row on my quilt.

When I snipped them off, I tossed them in a basket under the table.  I was amazed how fast it piled up.  

Later, I pressed and re-stacked the charms sewn together so I could start adding the 3rd charm.

I have used scraps for leaders and enders for years.

Just think of all the missed opportunities here that could have been pieced! 

I have literally tossed dozens and dozens of these scraps over the past 5-6 years.

As I pieced the quilt tops when I came to the end of my chain piecing or just sewing a border, I grabbed a couple random charms and stitched them up, leaving them under the presser foot until I was ready to sew another row on my quilt.

The best part of leaders and enders is that you never have to lift your presser foot, you sew on and off the leader and it's extremely fast.  No fiddling with holding your threads or straightening thread behind your presser foot.  I love it!

Bonnie has a couple of book out on leaders and enders.  She has lots of books on quilting with scraps. She also has a lot of free patterns.  Check her out: http://quiltville.com/

More: Leaders and Enders

My little experiment with leaders and enders had not ended, it is just beginning.  I can't wait to sit down to piece and slip a random charm under my presser foot.  Stay tuned...  It makes me feel like I have more time on my clock and have an extra hand.

It also reminds me of a Dr Seus book we had when we were kids called,  Dr. Seus' Sleep Book.

"A Mr. and Mrs. J. Carmichael Krox

Have just gone to bed near the town of Fort Knox.

And they, by the way, have the finest of clocks.

I’m not at all sure that I quite quite understand

Just how the thing works, with that one extra hand.

But I do know this clock does one very slick trick.

It doesn’t tick tock. How it goes, is tock tick.

So, with ticks in its tocker, and tocks in its ticker

It saves lots of time and the sleepers sleep quicker"

You Don't Always Have to Pin

I have been doing this for several years, but just thought to share it last night.

Sometimes you need a zillion pins: Once upon a time, I stitched 192 of these bias strips together.

Then I had to pin, starch, steam and block 32 of these diamonds. 

It took me 3 years to complete and looking back seems surreal!

Did I actually do that?

Just giving you a little background, so  you will believe me when I say: I know the importance of pinning for accurate sewing.

but there are times.....when you don't have to pin.

Yesterday, I stitched these 2 fabrics together.

Then, I positioned ( with rulers and measuring tape) these panel blocks on the background.

Then I got them exactly where I wanted them, I lifted up one half of the block and gave it a little puff of basting spray.  Use this very sparingly--you don't want it in other areas.  You can reposition the block (it's not permanent) and it will biodegrade in a few weeks, or it will launder out with first washing.  I rarely use it, this can has lasted me 6 years....but once in a while it's exactly what I need. 

I took the whole thing to the machine and stitched the blocks onto the background with raw edge applique.

See how lonely my little pin cushion is in the back?  Awwww.....

I don't pin borders. I use my iron.  I fold the quilt in 4th's and iron a crease in the edges.  I fold the border in fourths and iron

The results are evenly spaced creases.....  

Match them up as you sew and you will have perfect application every time.  No pinning.

I just start sewing, match up the first 2 creases, pinch that spot and hold it as I sew, repeat as you stitch down the seam.

I put this together yesterday without a single pin.

This sweet top for my granddaughter was sewn with no pins.

...except for the chiffon ruffle blocks--that  required major pinning.

Now that I have confessed, if you don't see me around for awhile, you can assume I am hiding from the quilt police. :)

Pieced Quilt Backings

Several times the question has come up about pieced backings.

Can I?

Should I?

How do I?

Starting with this post, I am going to keep a collection of pieced backings 'cause I think they are cool!

In a nut shell, I LOVE pieced backings!

This is a charity quilt backing I pieced with left over blocks from the front.

I piece backings whenever I can. They add so much fun to a quilt.

One of the first things that need to happen to make a successful quilt with a pieced backing:  make sure all the selvages are trimmed off of each piece of fabric.  For these backings I simply used the standard 1/4 inch seam.

I can't stress enough the importance of pressing the backing.  Seams need to be pressed well, just like the top.

This backing was too short and too narrow by a few inches.  It was a kit sent to me from "Quilts for Kids."  There was enough fabric from the front to splice the backing and make this really cute show off backing.  

I like to take a length of fabric, split it off-center and sew in enough contrast fabric to make the backing wide enough.  This plaid strip matches the binding. 

Another charity quilt backed with left-over strips from the front and fat quarters. 

Here is the total package.  

Backings made by clients.

Easy to quilt if top and backing is nice and square.

For this large backing, after I cut off the selvages, I sewed the seams 1/2 inch wide with a very narrow zig zag stitch.  This gives this very long seam a bit of stretch.  The thinking here is that this makes the stitching in the seam less likely to pop as the quilt is used. 

 

Quilts of Valor backings:

This was one length of chevron fabric with blue added to each side to make it wide enough.

I know some quilters don't like to match backings to the front.  It can be done successfully with perfectly squared tops and perfectly squared backings.  This backing has a tutorial here.

These 2 QOV's were sent to me with backings made out of fat quarters. 

What a great way to use yardage more economically. 

If you want to see some REAL eye candy with pieced backings, go to this Flicker Group of backing photos.

Enjoy!

Machine Binding Tutorial

I have been going to do this for awhile . . . wow . . . quite awhile . . . when I looked at the dates on the photos, these were all taken a about a year ago!

I know there are a lot of binding tutorials out and about online--some of this will be repetitious for all of you-- but this is how I bind 99% of my quilts.

That remaining 1% is when I happen to create a fleece binding  or horror of  horrors: I have to spend 8 hours hand stitching a binding!  I had to do that just last week and still have not recovered!

Thanks to Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, I am inspired to finish this post that's been floating around my blog as a draft for months.  I am linking up to her Share Your Favorite Tutorial page.  I have already checked out some of the tutorial links. Of course I zeroed in on Missy's recipe for "Fudgy Brownie Cookies" first!  Imagine that~

Back to work....

The quickest way to sew your 2.5 inch binding strips together is to leave the ends square and lay the strips perpendicular to each other.  I could never see taking the time to cut diagonals, messing with pinning and sewing bias edges?  Not me, I like quick, easy and precise:

...sew from point to point

I applied a set of these little purple QTools Sewing edges on my machine base a few years ago.  I can't imagine sewing without them.

The left one gives me a guide so I know exactly where my needle is and the right one is set at a scant 1/4 inch.

With the guides in place, you can sew much faster and more accurately by watching the fabric feed 2-3 inches in front of your needle.

Using the guides, you will always come out exactly on the corner of the bottom strip (sorry it's a little dark)

Chain stitch all your strips together in this manner and then trim the excess corner triangles off at 1/4 inch.

After sewing it together, I only handle the binding once across the ironing board.

I lay it out on my ironing table, start pressing it in half, working my way down to the first seam, open it up, press and continue on pressing the entire strip in half . . .

 . . . working my way down the strip.  As I move it along, I let it drop into a basket...

When I am done, I move the basket over to the sewing machine.

By letting it fall into the basket from the ironing table, it doesn't twist and feeds perfectly onto your quilt . . .

 . . . and never touches the floor.

As you can see, I am attaching the binding to the back of the quilt.  I always attach to the back and then fold over to the front to top stitch.  Always.  (Well, except for that 1% I mentioned earlier.)

If your binding fabric seems to be pushing in front of your presser foot, you might need to lessen the tension on your presser foot or better yet, use a walking foot.  I have a walking foot attachment that I use on thicker quilts, and lots of newer machines have a built in walking foot. 

Before I get to the corner, I place a pin 1/4 inch from the end so I know where my last stitch should be.

When I get to that pin, I put the needle down, take out the pin, pivot the quilt and lift up the binding strip to peak under to make sure I am exact 1/4 inch from the left edge.

  Then I sew off the edge of the quilt.

When you make your corner fold, you want to make sure you don't forget to consider the thickness of the batting.  Your batting might be only 1/8 inch, but later, you are going to have to bring your binding strip back  over all your layers to miter the corner.  You will know if you didn't leave enough, or conversely: you folded to generously.

See how this fold sticks up just a tiny bit above the edge of the quilt?  This will give me enough fabric to make a nice mitered corner when I am done.  If your mitered corners are skewed and look like a dog ear, you left too much fabric in your fold.  If your mitered corners are tight and puckered you did not leave enough fabric to fold over the width of the batting.

Looking back, I can't believe I didn't take photos of how to make this corner fold, so this morning I threw a couple of scrap pieces together to demonstrate:

After you have sewn off the edge of the quilt, cut thread and bring the binding up . . .

. . . creating your first fold.

Make sure the binding and the quilt are lined up nice and straight.  (ruler is only for illustration purposes.) 

Then, fold binding down . . . 

. . . keeping binding flush with quilt edge. 

You also need to make sure folded edges of binding are lined up with each other squarely. 

Now, we are back at the machine with a nice square folded corner.  Start sewing at the upper edge again with a 1/4 seam and head down the next side of the quilt. Keep the folded binding edges (left) even and square and the raw edges of the binding and quilt (right) even and square.

I like to use gloves to help the quilt feed.  It makes a huge difference as your hand doesn't get tired from trying to hold tension on the quilt to keep it feeding through the machine.  I use gloves all the time.  Its like putting your hands in "4 wheel drive."  You don't have to buy expensive "sewing" gloves either.  These are a $3 pair of gardening gloves I got at the discount store about 5 years ago. 

When you get close to where you started, I like to leave about 12 inches unsewn. When I started attaching the binding, I left about an 8 inch tail.

Take your quilt to the ironing board and fold and press each opposing binding strip back on itself so they  meet snugly in the middle.

Fold each strip down and off the edge of the quilt.

Give this a little press with your iron too.

Cut the strips off right at the quilt edge.

At this point, I like to pin the gap in the quilt together with a large pin, this acts as a 3rd hand when I am trying to sew the strips together.

Open the strips and place them perpendicular, right sides together, just like you did when you were sewing all the binding strips together in the very beginning.

Following your fold lines, sew from the top to bottom. . . 

 . . . corner to corner.

Unpin the quilt and lay out the binding to check and make sure you have connected them accurately.

THEN and only then (ask me how I know!) trim the corner triangle at 1/4 inch.

Press open.

Press your binding at your new junction and finish sewing the closed binding onto the quilt.

For clarification this little quilt had an outer border that matched the backing.

I fold the binding to the front of the quilt matching the folded edge exactly on top of the seam-line where it was sewn to the back

This is the front of the quilt.

I line up the left interior edge of my presser foot with this fold and move my needle over one notch to the right.  This makes your top stitching exactly one stitch inside the edge of the binding seam on the quilt back. Thus, making the binding on the back look top-stitched also!

Here we go...

I like to keep my seam ripper flat on the binding to guide it smoothly, keeping the folded edge on top of the stitching line all while keeping my eye on the left interior edge of the presser foot where is is touching the fold.

As I approach the first corner, I stop and turn the horizontal edge up and line it up exactly on the seam line.

Make sure you completely fold out the corner (horizontally) nice and flat.  See where I am holding the corner out with the seam ripper?

Then fold the vertical edge over the top.

Always fold in this order.

Why?  By design, the reverse side was sewn with the folds the opposite way. This makes the miter corner less bulky.

This should be the rule even if you used the conventional binding method: sewing the binding to the front and hand stitching to the back.

When you get to the corner put one stitch into the horizontal fold and stop with the needle down

When you pivot the quilt, you are in perfect alignment to head down the other side of your quilt.

Here is the corner I just stitched . . . 

 . . . and here is the back side of the same corner.

When the entire quilt binding is stitched down, I always hand stitch the mitered corners closed.

Make a tidy little knot and bring your needle down through the center of the miter fold--hiding the knot.

After you pull this through and snug, I like to use a ladder stitch weaving the needle in between the two layers.

One pass with the needle and this side is sewn, I push the needle through the miter point to the other side and repeat the ladder stitch going down from the tip of the miter point down to the seam.  Knot and bury your thread tail.

In seconds, it is sewn shut--secure and invisible.

Each machine is different and each 1/4 presser foot is a bit different, but if you experiment, as I did, you will no doubt find that "sweet spot" to make this basic method work if you want to machine bind your quilts.

The overall trick to tidy machine quilt binding is total accuracy in each step.

Did you notice that I only used one pin for the entire process?

I have to say that it took some practice and a lot of unpicking of wobbly seam lines, but practice long enough and you will find it can turn an 8 hour binding job into one hour and one pin!