It's a long weekend for many of us here in the States so I thought I'd put up the next installment of the quilt-along tutorial in case any of you are itching to start sewing your blocks.
Grab your cut fabrics, your 12x12 paper, and a stick of glue.
Remember those lines I had you draw on the 12x12 paper? Those are not the sewing lines. Instead they will be the reference lines. They will ensure that your finished blocks are all the same and that your quilt has lovely lattice strips that line up and triangles that form perfect squares.
The two center lines will be the reference for where to put your center strip fabric. Use the stick glue to hold the center strip on the paper nice and straight. Go ahead and apply a bit in between the two lines going down the middle of your square. (If you enlarge the picture below, you can see my purple glue marks.) Don't be afraid to use enough glue. We need that center strip of fabric to stick well enough. Just try not to be too heavy handed with it because too much glue can make it hard to take the paper off in the end. But don't worry. Even if you use too much glue and get some paper stuck, it's not a big deal.
Next, take one of your center strips and lay it down in between your marked lines on top of the glue. Eyeball that the length of the pieces hanging over your paper are about the same. Smooth the center strip down and make sure it's nice and straight. Use those marked lines as your guide.
Okay, now before you do anything, go change the stitch length on your machine to the smallest stitch. DON'T FORGET THIS STEP. It will make removing the paper so much easier.
Now you're ready to sew. Take one of your background pieces (trapezoid or rectangle, depending on which way you went) and line the edge of the longer end with the edge of the center strip like in the picture above. You can pin if you want. Sometimes I put one pin at the bottom just so the fabric doesn't shift as I'm sewing.
Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew all along the edge. Yes, through the paper. It'll sound odd and feel weird but your machine will be fine.
When you are done sewing the trapezoid down, take an iron with no steam and iron the trapezoid piece away from the center strip. I find it handy to have the iron set up right next to my machine so I can sew, press, sew, press, etc. without getting up.
Okay, now here's where the marked lines come in really handy. Your trapezoid piece when ironed open should line up with your next marked line but sometimes it doesn't always work out that way. See how my trapezoid piece didn't quite make it to the line in the photo below? No problem.
That's okay if it doesn't line up perfectly but here's how you troubleshoot that: you'll want to be sure to line up your triangle piece with the LINE not the trapezoid fabric. This is really important if you are particular about your triangles forming perfect squares when all your blocks are lined up.
Next take one of your triangles (right sides together -- so wrong side facing up) and line it up with the marked line and sew. I'm randomly placing my triangles but if you have want certain fabrics to appear in the final quilt design a certain way, you might need to do some pre-planning of how your blocks will be sewn together.
Press the triangle piece open away from the trapezoid piece. And repeat the same steps on the other side -- sew trapezoid, press open, sew triangle, press open. Your block will look like this:
And the back will look like this:
Time to trim! You'll want to trim your blocks to be 12.5" square. Since your paper backing is 12", be sure to allow a quarter inch around the paper and NOT trim to the paper.
Use a rotary cutter to trim your blocks to size.
Your trimmed block will look all nice and neat like this:
I know it is tempting but don't take the paper off yet. It is so much easier to move the blocks around and audition layouts with the backing on. Go ahead and sew the rest of your blocks.
Next up, I'll show you how to remove the paper and sew your blocks together. We're almost done with the tutorial. Told you it was easy!
Have you joined our flickr group? Members are starting to post pictures of their fabric auditions and progress.
Adrianne is considering something like this:
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| image source: Little Bluebell |
Elizabeth is thinking green and gray:
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| image source: Don't Call Me Betsy |
And Katy is blazing ahead and cutting into her Dr. Seuss fabrics:
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| image source: imagingermonkey |
How great are these?! I can't wait to see more pictures.
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