Monday, August 20, 2018

Samaritan Village Quilts

Friends who quilt together, stay together!  I am sure it is an old say, and if not it should be.
A few groups around Orlando, have gathered and put all their skills together to create some wonderful quilts for the Samaritan Village Community outreach drive.
This pink HSTs is a beauty, and the makers have truly enjoyed the time spent together and the making.

Another beautiful (almost) finished quilt it this Turquoise Exploding block quilt.  You would never imagine the battle that went on withs bias edges.  You can find more about those blocks on RenĂ©'s blogpost here.

We have a total of 6 quilts in process (or finished) right now.  Here are a few peeks at the Yellow, Green and Blue groups.


If you want to see the finished quilts in real life, don't miss our November meeting for Show'n'Tell.

Now to found more about the Samaritan Village mission and what this organisation offers to women, go and check their website here.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Quiltcon Charity Quilt - Small Piecing

To go along with this year's Quiltcon Charity Quilt theme of "small piecing," we chose a block that is able to be customized so that any and all of us can take part in this year's Charity Quilt.


PLEASE only use the fabrics that come in your chairty block kit. We want the quilt to be cohesive and seeing as it's only one fabric for the background, it's important that they all match! In addition, your block does NOT....I repeat...DOES NOT need to be trimmed! It merely needs to measure a minimum of 9.5" in each direction. We (those of us putting  the quilt together) will be trimming the blocks ourselves, so no need to trim them. The only other requirement for your blocks is for them to have all stripes in a single direction, with no crossing over themselves. They can be wonky, they can be straight, they just CAN'T be crossed over one another. No X's or T's!! Each stripe can be pieced in the manner I'm showing you below, or in any way you can think of. You can make lots of super skinny stripes, each one a different fabric; you can make teeny tiny geese and insert them in a stripe, you can make diagonal subset and insert them. Really, you can go wild!

Please, before you read this, let me be clear....there are a million ways to make a block that is what we're looking for! This is merely one way to make a block. The way I chose to make one, because it's quick and simple. 

To start with, sew all your print strips together. (The solid purple rectangle is your background!) I used a super quick method to make stripsets, that I then cut to insert into my background.

First, choose two strips and place RST. Sew each long side together with a 1/4" seam. Slice down the middle and press open. Repeat for all strips, and then sew all these double strip sets together so you have a long stripset of skinny prints.

 

I then cut this stripset crosswise, into 4 strips, .75"-1.25" wide. Keep the leftover stripset, and either use for a future project, or return to us to use for piecing the backing.

I then cut the background block so that I could insert the striped subset pieces. CUT THE BLOCK FROM SHORT SIDE TO SHORT SIDE. So that you're stretching the block wider.This is super important as we need the blocks to be at least 9.5" in each direction. They're only 9" on the short side currently, you need the inserts to make them wide enough. You can do each cut one at a time, but I cut them all before starting inserting my strips so I knew I'd have enough room for all of the inserts I was planning. Since we're working with a solid, you may want to mark which side of each shape is front or back. I had an issue with rotating one of the background pieces and had to rip a seam out. (I decided with my subsequent block to mark the front left corner of each piece I cut, that way I knew I was seaming the correct side.) 

 

Things I learned when making these blocks:

Be mindful when inserting the strips into a diagonal cut. You can't just line up the corners and sew straight down, or each side will be wonky. You'll have a dog-ear at the top and bottom or each seam.

Be mindful when cutting strips from the striped subset. The steeper the angle of the cut, the more bias edges you'll have and the more the strip can stretch!

If you're unsure, use chalk to draw out your strip pattern to make sure you're about to cut the background in the proper direction.

If you mess up no worries. We have some extra background fabric! Call either Sue Kenard, or Kathy Aber, they have the extra kits and extra bits of fabric.





Alissa


Friday, August 10, 2018

B4 and a Bear

We had some very interesting demonstrations during our B4 and a Bear portion of our last meeting.  For future reference, we are putting all the tips/technique here on its own blogpost.


B1 - Borders

Here are Beth’s tips for adding borders to a quilt without stretching or distortion: 
  • Measure the middle of the quilt to get correct size for borders. 
  • Pin borders in middle and end to be sure the piece isn't getting stretched as you stitch.

Find a full tutorial on Amy’s blog, Diary of a Quilter -  here is the link


B2 - Blocking with Debra and Bear

Debra, Quiltcon prize winner, shared her technique for blocking a quilt that isn't the exact size you planned once quilted.



This works if an edge is just fractions of an inch off. 
  • Use painter’s tape to mark out the size your quilt should be on the floor. 
  • Tape your quilt to the floor using painter's tape. 
  • Using a squirt bottle, wet the area of the quilt that needs to be stretched.
  • Move into place, tape and let dry.
Here's the video Paula took of Debra’s demonstration, co-stared with Bear.  Debra recommends blocking a quilt which is going to a show or for a wall-hanging.

B3 - Binding

There are many ways to bind a quilt, you just to have to find what works for you.



  • Here’s Alejandrina’s technique of finishing binding:
    • Overlap the beginning and end of binding by the same length as the width of the binding.
    • Use a clip to bunch up extra quilt to make it easier to connect the binding ends.
    • Open up the binding, right sides together, overlap the ends at a right angle.
    • Draw a diagonal across the stripes going from left to right, pin and check that it is the right direction.
    • Sew on the line, and cut off the excess of fabric.
Alejandrina's tip: use a large clip to gather and hold the quilt, reducing the bulk while finishing the binding (see picture above).

For a more visual tutorial, here is Mimi Dietrich illustrated method.

  • Mary Sm shared her technique for attaching binding, using a similar technique.  However, once the two tails of the binding overlap, she marks the junction and cut the binding at a 45-degree-angle.  Again, pictures being better than words, here is a tutorial found on Craftsy.
  • A flange binding will add a bit of flair to your quilt.  Alissa shared her technique.
    • You need two colours for this binding.  The main color of the binding is 1.5" wide and the flange fabric is 1.75" wide, both the length of the quilt perimeter. 
    • Sew the 2 strips together.
    • Iron in half and sew to back of quilt and then flip to front. 
    • Stitch on top with same color thread as flange.
Sew Fresh Quilts has this tutorial for the flange binding: here.

  • Linda did not like finishing her binding on the machine until she started using wash-away thread in her bobbin:
    • with the wash-away tread in her bobbin, she attached the binding on the back of the quilt.
    • then, replace the wash-away bobbin with bobbin with a regular thread, flip the binding, line up the edge of the binding with the line of wash-away stitches, and sew from the top.
    • once washed, the anchoring threat will dissolve, leaving just the top line of stitches.
Linda's tips: Do not forget to remove the wash-away bobbin! Do not use steam on your quilt until the binding is fully sewn in place!  Keep your wash-way thread in an air-tight bag!  Humidity will dissolve your thread.

If you prefer your binding to fold from front to back, you might be interested in this method using wash-away thread and cotton cord sewn in the binding.

  • Beth shared her technique of using the quilt backing for the binding.
    • Make the backing 1" larger on all sides. 
    • Fold in half so it aligns with edge of quilt and then fold in half again and press.
    • Mark from edge of top and batting and measure 1" in and fold corner in and pin, then fold next edge over so you get a mitered corner.
A full tutorial of this binding method can be found here.

Looking for a technique for perfectly mitered corners, check  Linda's webinar on the Modern Quilt Guild (Linda, @Flourishingpalms, is member of the Central Florida MQG)

B4 - Batting

Oh my! So many options.  Thanks to Hobbs and Quilter's Dream, members present at the meeting received samples, and a few lucky ones won some batting to try out.

If you have more tips and techniques to share, please leave us a comment.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

August Meeting Minutes


GENERAL MEETING
August 1, 2018 10 A.M.
THE SEWING STUDIO CLASSROOM

 General Meeting 

August 1, 2018 10am

The Sewing Studio Classroom


President Sarah welcomed members and introduced guests. Welcome to Marty, Elsie, Gayle, Diane, and Lisa.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

August 2018 Block of the Month - Simple Butterfly

This month's block is a simple butterfly.




To make things a bit more interesting, I'm providing three sizes, all interlocking (12, 6 and 3 inches, finished) to make a non-traditional layout. Use blues and white/low volume. You can use the same blue for all elements or mix it up with multiple blues. It's a very simple block, so make more than one!!

Cutting instructions and counts:

Color
3” butterfly
6” butterfly
12” butterfly
Background (upper wings)
(1) 2.5” square
(1) 4” square
(1) 7” square
Background (tail wings)
(3) 1.75” squares
(3) 2.5” squares
(3) 4” squares
Blue (upper wings)
(1) 2.5 inch square
(1) 4” square
(1) 7” square
Blue (body)
(2) 1.25”  squares
(2) 2” squares
(2) 3.5” squares
Blue (tail wings)
(3) 1.75” squares
(3) 2.5” squares
(3) 4” squares






Detailed instructions:

Choose a size (3, 6 or 12 inch) and cut all the squares from the corresponding column in the table above. For example, to make a 6" block, you'll cut:

1 4.0" blue square
3 2.5" blue squares
1 4.0" background square
2 2" blue squares
3 2.5" background squares

 Pair one background and one blue square for the wings, large and small:




Stack the pairs right sides together and draw a diagonal line. Pin the sides:



Sew two seams on each stack, 1/4 inch from the center:



Cut down the line you marked:


Open each unit to reveal a half-square triangle. The unit will be a bit larger than needed. The units must be trimmed to these sizes:

Sizes after trimming HSTs:
Color
3” butterfly
6” butterfly
12” butterfly
Upper Wing
 2.0” square
3.5” square
6.5” square
Tail Wings
1.25” squares
2.0” squares
3.5” squares


For example, if you are making the 6" butterfly, the upper wing should be trimmed to 3.5". Make sure to lay the 45 degree line of the ruler over the seam:





Arrange all the trimmed units in sewing order:



Sew the units into three rows:



Finally sew the three rows together:



For reference, the original (12 inch) design is here, but I'm not sure who did this first, as it's in multiple websites...