good for the gal...
flat and you cannot achieve this by just
sewing the strips to the side of the quilt.
When you’re pinning the border, you’ll
likely have to ease the border on one side
of the quilt and then have to ease the
quilt on the other side. Sometimes, I have
to ease the top half of the border and
then ease the bottom half of the quilt.
That’s why we “force” the quilt to be the
same length by adding those two borders
strips that are cut the same length. Makes
sense right?
Bottom line – pin the borders. If you get
your quilts quilted by a long-arm quilter,
they’ll love you and they can tell if you
pinned those borders or not.
Something else to ponder: Remember
how I positioned those pins with the
head sticking out? Well look at what happens when I start to sew.
I love using the Quilter’s 1⁄4" Piecing
foot P for getting a nice 1⁄4" seam.
Notice that I shifted my fabric just slightly
to the left of the edge of the foot. That
allows me to get the scant 1⁄4".
Let’s do some applique
Now that I have borders on one section
of the quilt, it’s time to get the applique
done before I get everything sewn
together. I changed to the Open Toe Applique foot so I could see exactly where
I was going. This is especially handy if you
have tight spots to get into and going
around corners.
Notice how my needle is in the background fabric on the extreme right of the
stitch. Technically, my needle could have
been one stitch closer to the applique
fabric but let that be our secret!
You want 99 percent of the applique stitch
to sit on the applique piece. The needle
just skims into the background on the
right hand side to ensure that the outer
edge of the applique piece is covered.
Photos by Elaine Theriault
Elaine Theriault
Rip rip rip
I do aim for accuracy in my piecing and I
find that using the quilter’s awl instead of
pins makes a big difference. It does take a bit
of time to get used to it!
I’m careful with my cutting, pressing and the
scant 1⁄4" seam allowance. But sometimes –
well those darn seams don’t match up. Now Measuring the length of the border strips.
I know – you’re thinking that this seam isn’t
so bad, but because of it’s position and
coloring in the quilt – this was a big deal. So
I ripped it out. Just one inch on either side of
the intersection.
There was one last section that was haunting me. I struggled with this small but critical
section of the quilt. It has been on the design wall and I have stared at it for days. I cut
pieces for it – first they were not big enough, One end of the border pinned (note the way the
then they were too big. Then I sewed them pin is placed – with the head sticking OUT)
together and I still wasn’t happy.
My daughter (about the same age as the
recipient) came into the studio and she said
NO – you can’t leave it like that. Drat! That’s
what I was afraid of. So that means I have
to get the stitch ripper out and replace a
couple of pieces. Thankfully they are small
and I won’t be wasting any fabric.
But just when I thought I was almost
done!
I have to confess that I’m not a big planner. I
find it difficult to follow the instructions in a
pattern, I find it hard to write things out so
others can follow. But if you gave me fabric
and said – make something. Oh yes – but it
has to ‘come to me’ as I work. I’ll rarely plan
something out completely before I start. I
like to dive in and see where the project
takes me. That’s what happened in this
challenge.
Hold your breath!
I have been watching Jennifer’s design (for
the guy) with interest. (By the way Jennifer…
thanks for letting me have the ‘Gal’.) If you
haven’t checked out what Jen is creating –
you should! Our designs are so different, but
then our recipients are very different people.
The other end of the border is pinned
The center is pinned (I moved my pin slightly so
you could see my pinch press to mark the center).
Pins in the rest of the border
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spring 2015
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