Eventually You Have to Finish

      I realize I haven't posted lately and that is because lately quilting has reached the "chore" stage for me so I have to really WANT to be in there and nowhere else. I know I have mentioned my least favorite step is putting on borders. Don't know why--it just is. So the other day as I was measuring and sewing border #1 on a quilt I thought I would share my border measuring technique and how it evolved from that first quilt to today.
     I learned how to quilt using a rotary cutter and quick techniques from the Eleanor Burns books and TV show. For a couple years I watched every week and sewed quite a few quilts from her books. And they all had one thing in common--the borders sucked! They rippled and puckered. Looking back, she had you cut the border the width you want and just sew it on and cut it off. Well, guess what. Side A border might end up a couple inches bigger than side B!  So after a couple "unflat" quilts I tried measuring first. Well, I have never had a large sewing area big enough to lay out the quilt to measure or a measuring tape big enough so that technique left me with pretty much the same results! Then I learned somewhere  to always measure through the middle of the quilt, not the edge, as the edges may be stretched. That was good advice and I stick with that on every quilt. However I soon realized that I really had no use for a "number" measurement for the border and if you measure the quilt and get a number you then have to measure the border to get the same number and that was a real pain. So I figured out that you can measure with the actual borders. I cut the borders the width I need and I use 2 border pieces (why measure one off the other when you can measure them both the same time--took me a few quilts to realize this!) . I pin them together and pin to one edge at the middle of the quilt. Since I don't have space, I smooth the top and pin every foot or so and keep going to the other edge. If it is a straight edge border, I just cut off even with the second edge of the quilt. A mitered  border is just as easy. Cut the first end bias cut and start pinning to the quilt, with the short edge (the part you actually sew onto the quilt--I can't think of a name for this) at the edge. Measure through the middle and mark the end spot with a pencil or pin to show where to start cutting the second bias cut (making sure to get it going the right way!) Bingo-perfectly sized, matching borders. And a bonus with mitered borders is that you can measure and cut all 4 before you sew--with straight cut borders you have to sew the first 2, press, and measure for the second set.
       Now that they are cut they have to be sewn on. Do not do it Eleanor Burns style and just start sewing! Fold the border in half and mark with a pin. If it's quite long, fold and measure the middle again. Find the middle and quarters of the quilt top also. Pin to the quilt at the ends, match and pin to the middle, and match the quarter measure if you need it. Holding the pinned places I shake a little and smooth and pin as many more times as I think I need. If it appears to need a little easing or stretching adjust between the pins as you sew and do not remove the pins until you are there. The rule of thumb with sewing is to put the larger piece on the bottom as the feed dogs will naturally ease a little, but if you are sewing a quilt top with lots of seams to a plain border you have to have the quilt top on top so you can get all the seams going the right way. As Tim Gunn says "Make it Work". Trust me, you will have a nice smooth top and the parallel borders will match.
     Well, now that I have stalled my border sewing by talking about border sewing I guess I had better go sew a couple borders before Hurricane Sandy hits and we lose power!

Panic? Don't Panic? Inspiration?

     Well, the weather is finally cooling down and I have gone back into the sewing room. Once again I have been tackling the piles and trying to finish SOMETHING. I was sewing more black and white blocks for guy quilts and had a new sewing experience (and that is saying something because I have been sewing almost 50 years and have had a lot of things happen!) I had changed the bobbin and started sewing and instead of the fabric moving nicely along and making lovely perfect stitches I was getting tiny weird stitches that would not go in a straight line! PANIC? Yeah, at first my brain went--oh no, what will I do if the machine is  broken? Who can fix it? How can I afford to get it fixed?  How can I live without a machine? And then I retraced my steps and took out the bobbin and put it back. Still bad. So I took out the bobbin casing, cleaned and oiled under there. Still bad. The feed dog didn't seem to be working--I popped it down and it didn't come back up. HUH??? Then I tried to raise and lower the foot with the knee lift and it didn't work. HUH??  Usually when that happens it means the knee lift is hitting the side wall so I moved the machine around a bit and got the foot to lift. I tried to sew again and YAY it was working. I think the knee lift was just enough off that the feed dogs didn't move. I was so glad I didn't stop at PANIC and kept trying to figure it out!
       On a totally different subject- I am watching Project Runway and they are doing the fabric design challenge so I got curious about what would be involved  if a "real person" wanted to design fabric and get it made. The first siteI tried was Spoonflower  http://www.spoonflower.com/shop?shop=fabric  and I was so excited to see Doctor Who fabric--300 of them! My daughter is obsessed with Doctor Who and my head is spinning trying to figure out something to make her without spending a fortune! My brain is in overload and I am excited. I am leaning toward a Tardis pillow for Christmas (I can say this because she NEVER reads my blog!). Emma is getting very involved with My Little Pony (Oh, yeah, vote for her pony to will the Bronycon contest! http://bronycon.org/vote/ ) and I am trying to think of something she could design and make to sell that would be profitable since the fabric is $18 a yard==bookmarks? This challenge will keep me going for days, I am sure. If anyone has any ideas, please post!

Sometimes You Just Have to Step Back

Novelty fabric strip border

      Well, I am back from vacation, the weather is getting a bit cooler (but it is still in the 80's in the house) so I decided to venture back into the sewing room today. I'd left it a bit of a mess so I figured I'd work on projects from the top of the mess down.

       First up-- sew the vertical seams on the X Marks the spot quilt to get that top done. Check. Next--figure out a border for it. Since it is a lot of novelty prints I went to the box of pre-cut novelty squares. (About once a year I go through my tote of novelty fabrics and cut 6 1/2, 5 1/2, and 2 1/2 inch squares of each fabric). I had done a border for something else using the 6 1/2" squares cut in half then sewing them together as a border and thought that might work. I had also done one with alternating strips made of 3 squares of solids and would have done that again but it would have required cutting those solids again and that was just too much work.

1 1/2 " strips used as sashing

       Then I left the room for some reason and when I came back in I noticed something that had been there literally hanging around for years--strippy borders. I make them quite often for borders for scrap quilts and the leftovers are hanging next to the design wall just waiting to be called up to the Big Leagues. The sashing on the quilt on the left is from the same strip piece that was hanging there. So I started making a border alternating the strippy piece with the novelty and I think it is going to look really good. (I did realize just how long those strips had been hanging there when I started sneezing from the dust--oops. Probably should put them somewhere else!) I also remembered something that always comes up when I use the novelties--most of them have black, white, or blue backgrounds so it is hard to mix it up so I went back into the tote and found colored backgrounds to use. I really need to keep that in mind if I get inspired to buy a novelty print.
        After sewing most of the border I attacked the mess pile and found the black & white check blocks to make into charity quilts for guys so I trimmed up and put it up on the design wall for the next time.
        I didn't have any idea what I was going to do when I walked into the sewing room but I am happy with what I came up with when I stepped back and saw what was hanging there all along!

Summer is for Quilting?????

Hi friends
    I have not forgotten about this blog or about quilting. It has just been too uncomfortably hot in the sewing room. I did decide one day to take the ironing board and cutting board out to the kitchen where it is cooler and I set up my laptop to watch Warehouse 13 for a couple hours (Spoiler alert-warehouse blown up, Mrs Fletcher dust!) I got as much pressing and cutting done as I could and would go sew for 10 minutes or so at a time. Summer is definitely not my best time for quilting!
    I had to go back to the the X marks the Spot blocks for a while because I actually used up all the "medium florals" on the watercolor  borders. But I am excited about that because it gives me something to shop for with my birthday coupon at Emma's Quilt Cupboard! (http://www.emmasquiltcupboard.com/)
    So stay tuned for progress--the next cool day I will be back in there!

Cut-Sew-Press Part Deux

      I feel like I am a slacker these days because whenever I go into the sewing room it is just too hot! I really need to figure out a way to have a fan that cools but doesn't blow fabric, threads, and papers all over the room. So far, no success.
      I have puttered around in the sewing room making more units for the watercolor borders. This is one of my favorite techniques and I have done it in beiges, black & whites, blues, primary colors w/ lots of novelty prints, and the floral watercolor fabrics. When I make the "units" I make them in various sizes but all the same 6 1/2" width and then put the units together to make the right size for the border. I have also scattered Ohio Stars throughout the border (but have no picture of this one!)
       Quickie tutorial: Start with squares, triangles, strips of all sizes in the fabrics you are using. Basically, think Log Cabin and work around the piece, trying not to have any long strips anywhere, as these will probably be "galloping horses" in the end. I try to balance the fabrics in each "unit" so there is a little of everything throughout. When the piece is the width you choose (I use 6 1/2") you are done with that unit.

Blue Border

Watercolor floral border-
units are light,medium, &]
darks

Navy borders X2

Primary Novelty border

Black & white borders used
as strips on the back

Here a some examples of quilts with this type of border. Hopefully you can zoom in to see detail, if you are interested. It is a fun cut-sew-press-cut-sew-press technique.

Saving Time so you can sew more!

Zigzag 9-patch
made in an afternoon workshop

     I have been sewing strips to make checked blocks and want to share a technique I learned at a workshop I took years ago at the Quilter's Gathering. I took a 9-patch class from Marianne Fons (of Fons and Porter). I really didn't need to learn how to make a 9-patch, I just wanted to take her class. This workshop turned out to be the one class I ever took that I got the most out of!  After learning this technique I put together my 9 patches with a couple hours to spare (I sew kind of fast) so I went downstairs to the vender mall, bought fabric for the border and zig-zags and came back and did the whole top. (She said I was the only person to actually do that in her class).
Not only did I learn this technique but went away with a great handout of different settings which I have used and shared with every class I taught. So thank you, Marianne!

Line the strip set up with
cutting board lines

L

Place 2nd strip down from 1st strip
about 1/2" down

Lay out all strips until you have
no more room

Line up ruler w/ vertical lines, then
cut the bruised edges off

Cut through all layers (the same
measurement as width of strips)

The great time saving technique is especially great for 9-patches. You start by sewing the strips in groups of 3--2 sets of  dark/light/dark and 1 set of light/dark/light. (It is important when sewing strip sets together that you sew top to bottom, then bottom to top, then top to bottom, etc. or else your strip set will stretch and curve and you don't want that.) Press the seams toward the darks. Let's go with 2" strips for the sake of this exercise. After the strips are pressed, line up one piece on your cutting mat using the  lines on the mat as a straight line. Take the next strip set and stagger it about 1/2" down from the first, making sure that you are far enough down that the seams aren't on top of each other. Keep laying down as many strips as you can fit on the board, keeping the strips straight using the lines on the mat. You will then cut 2" pieces all along the whole thing. This works so well for several reasons--You can cut a lot of strips in 1 cut, and because the strips are all stuck together and lined up with the lines on the mat they do not slip and you get nice straight cuts, and you are never cutting through more than 4-6 layers of fabric at a time. Try it and you will wonder why you spent so much time  sub cutting before!

Continue cutting to the end of  pieces

You will now have a pile of units which can be quickly sewn together to make 4-patches, 9-patches, 16-patches--whatever you are working on. (Right now I am doing black/white 16-patches).

(I apologize for the confusing pictures. I am working with black and white and actually thought it would make a good demo, but you can't tell where one piece starts and the next begins! I placed them on the board alternating black and white so in the final layout there are 6 strip sets. Hope you can figure this out)

Charity Begins at Home

       Goodness, I haven't posted in over a week but that doesn't mean I haven't been in the sewing room. I have gone in and started sewing and it is so hot I had to quit when the first drop of sweat ran down my back! I got the funky border finished and on the 9-patch  novelty quilt, made some more X marks the spot blocks, and did some other puttering around.
        I also did some research into the Downy Quilts for Kids program to see what their requirements are for quilts to donate. Check it out http://www.quiltsforkids.org/about/. Basically they have to be around 38 x 45", all cotton, and machine quilted. Darn it but the one I just finished is too big for this but I will put it aside for another donation. I have a mission to make as many quilts as I can to donate and use up all these fabrics! You would think with this mission in mind I wouldn't buy any more fabrics but sometimes I just HAVE to go into the fabric store and pick up something new! (It kills me because I live within a couple blocks of 2 fabric stores and drive past every day!). Right now I am really low on black and whites and have no yellows or oranges to speak of and you really need brights for kids quilts so that is how I justify dropping a few bucks in there.
        Quilts for Kids really needs quilts for teenage boys right now and that is a hard one. I was thinking about it and got inspired when I turned on the TV today and caught the start of the Indy 500. I have never watched a Nascar race and had never seen the beginning. When they showed the pace car and the pack all lined up in groups of 3 I thought it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in sports! It got me thinking about the checkered flag and cars. So today I started making black and white checked blocks and I will probably go nuts making tops with checked blocks and borders. I have several ideas but I do need more "guy" fabrics. I have a couple with cars and sports. So if anyone would like to donate to the cause with their scraps of "guy" fabrics I would love to take them. Just leave me a message here or on Facebook or send me an e.mail and we will work something out. Meanwhile I am going to keep sewing black and white strips together!