Is it wrong to
a sewing machine?
In this update on What’s Good for the Gal
is Good for the Guy quilt challenge, my
heart is all aflutter as I think how easy
the embroidery element of this quilt is,
thanks to the Designer Ruby Royale. Is it
wrong to LOVE a sewing machine?
As I’m typing this, the Husqvarna Viking
Designer Ruby Royale is busy working
on the challenge quilt and I’m as nervous as the mother of a new born child!
Well you’ll see by the end of the post
what’s happening. Sort of. I don’t want
to divulge too much information – I
know Carla is dying to see the quilt but
I’m going to make her wait until it’s
absolutely complete. I’m so excited.
Quick tutorial on borders
The two border strips are joined on the
diagonal. Note the pencil line from the two
intersections. Pinned for stability.
Sewing a border on a quilt can be a
tricky thing. I’ve seen people measure
out the border length and then add an
inch in case they’ve made a mistake!
Some just sew on the border and hope
for the best. I’ve had to cut out inches
of excess fabric in a border that someone else assembled. It isn’t fun.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to
properly put on the border. You want
that border to be flat, you want the two
sides to be equal and you want the top
and bottom to be equal to each other.
Corners should be 90 degrees. Are you
ready?
Trim the seam to 1⁄4" seam allowance and OH –
there go the selvedges! Don’t need them any more.
Press that seam to one side and you can cut
off that dog ear if you like.
difference to cut them parallel to the
selvedge and it takes a lot more fabric.
However if you don’t want seams in the
borders, then you’ve no choice but to cut
parallel to the selvedge.
Unless the border is wider than 61⁄2" (my
standard border size), I join the border
strips on the diagonal. And don’t throw
those cut off triangles away. Nope – I
use them to make hour glass blocks.
And soon I’ll have a scrappy hour glass
block quilt.
In the photo, you can see that I have NOT
cut off the selvedges. By overlapping the
strips this way, it is much easier to see
where the intersection of the two fabric
pieces is and that is where I start and end
my seam.
Next up – measure the quilt through the
center. I like to put the longest border on
first. I don’t bother taking averages, but
you can if you want. That just takes too
much time!
Cut two pieces that are the same length
as that measurement from the center of
the quilt. I use a tape measure, a small cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter to make
this an easy process. It also helps if you
have a table that you can lay that strip on
to get a more accurate measurement.
Make sure you carefully move the measuring tape out of the way before you cut!
STOP THE PRESSES – I just heard the
Designer Ruby Royale’s beautiful song
alerting me that my embroidery is
FINISHED! I’m afraid to look.
Now you’re going to find the center of
that border strip and the center of one
side of the quilt. Pin at both ends and in
the center.
We’ll look in a minute – let’s get back to
the tutorial.
I am not a pinner. It takes up too much
time (I use a quilter’s awl instead), the pins
get on the floor, you can’t find the pin
cushion – you know how that is. BUT I do
pin borders on. I want my borders to lie
I cut my borders from selvedge to
selvedge. I don’t think it makes a huge
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