Category Archive: quilts

After 3 intensive cutting and sewing sessions, this “I Spy” quilt top has been finished.   I won’t be doing much sewing until mid July.  The rest of this week, I’ll spend in the greenhouse, garden and getting ready for a 3 day spinning retreat starting Sunday.

 My Fitbit is very unhappy about all this sewing because it has had a difficult time getting 5000 steps registered and it knows it is supposed to register 10,000.    The  garden has been left to go wild – but has had rain and the greenhouse was watered by my husband.    So now it is time for a bit of catch up.

Look how pretty her front yard is.  We drive by this house each time we go into town.     I finally remembered to snap a photo as we were coming home yesterday.

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Next on the quilt top, we need to square up the borders.   I use a square ruler to make sure I have a 90 degree angle.   Then it’s border time.

First I fold the quilt in half, then bring the front down so that both sides are exposed.  I then check the border to make sure it will be the same on both sides.   When sure, I cut off the same amount on both border pieces.

Now pin the borders on the sides.   I pin about 5 pins on each side for a 40 inch quilt.   Repeat for the top and bottom.

I thought I would just put the back on, envelope style.   Those checks would not cooperate, plus my batting is thin.   So after sewing it on, I decided to cut it off by changing what was a 4″ border to a 2″ border..     Usually I would leave the backing and batting until the quilt was quilted.    I have a fair amount of pins in it so it shouldn’t move while I’m quilting which I will do by using decorative stitches on my sewing machine.   Then I will bind it.   However, when I have sewing days, like this, it is best to leave everything alone for a couple of days and then come back.

Now that each row is complete, we are ready to press.  (Did I mention that I sew quilts with a #2 length on modern machines or on older machines, it would be a few more stitches to the inch)    OK, ready to put the quilt together – Move the numbered papers you have at the top to down the left side.

At the ironing board press all even numbered rows to the left and all odd numbered rows to the right (this can be reversed, just be sure that they are pressed opposite)

We want to “nest” the seams.   Nesting is something you can feel.   Put one seam left and the seam to the right as you gently pull them together, you can feel it lock.  This is exactly what you want.   Unless you are a seasoned seamstress, you may want to pin at each   intersection.    Sew the bottom of row 1 to the top of row 2.    Sew the bottom of row 3 to the top of row 4 etc.   Again row 11 will be left over.   This is a great time to press those seams down.   Now sew the bottom of row 2 to the top of row 3 and so on until all rows are together.   When all the rows are stitched together, press all seams down.   In my experience, if a seam intersection is less than 1/8″ of inch off, no one will notice.   We are making these to be used and abused by an infant or small child.   When you quilt through the layers that often obscures any tiny errors.   It is more important that your seams are all flat on the back side.

Here I have finished the center and am ready to put the borders on.   So far I have tried several borders, but am not happy with any of them.   I may just use a plain color for the outer border.  I will let it hang there for a  few days until I decide what to do.

We are starting now to sew this quilt together.   Label each of the top blocks with a consecutive number.   I suggest pinning it on as you need to visit it several times.   A perfect 1/4″ is always nice, but in this case since they are all squares, having the same size seam whether it be a tad less or a tad more is more important.

Starting at the top of row one, pick up each block on the way down.   You will now have a pile of #1.   Do this for each of the numbers you created.

Lay column one and column 2 side by side in front of you.   ALWAYS pick them up the same way, in my case, I lay #2 block on top of block #1 and sew down the right side.    Be consistent so you know where you are.    When these are all sewn together, keeping them in the same order, cut them apart.

I chain sew them and then lay them out to cut them apart.   Do this with columns 3 and 4, sewing them together.  Repeat for columns 5 and 6, then 7 and 8, then 9 and  10.    You will not use row 11 just yet.

Now sew columns (1+2) to (3+4)   Again cut apart keeping in the original order.   Each group will have 4 blocks.  Sew columns (5+6) to (7+8) and columns 9+10 to the block #11.    This is a good time to put them back on the design wall to be sure you still have them in the correct order.   If you are happy with them, you can finish putting the three groups together and take off the labels.

They will look like this.   Tomorrow, we will talk about pressing and sewing these rows together.

My sister gave me a box of these blocks plus this quilt top and another nearly finished.   They are beautiful, but she doesn’t want to sew more because she doesn’t think so.   I am inclined to take the outside border off, add more blocks to make it larger and keep it.   But that probably won’t happen.

Look at her work.   It is really good.

These are bibs she did.    Look at the stitching below.   They are turned exactly on the line and the sewing around the neck is quite precise.

The work is better than 90% of my work.   And not only is the work good.  The projects are finished.

I wanted to get this done so I could post early.   I’m going on an overnight history trip with my brother and am not taking the computer.   This is block 6 from Pat Sloan’s  Globe trotting.

Here they the ones she has posted so far.