LUDLOW QUILT AND SEW
Quilt As You Go B
NEWSLETTER JUNE 2010
Two months ago I began hand quilting some blocks because my dog Truffle was wearing a medical collar and nearly pulled the sewing machine down on himself. He says thanks for all the good wishes he received!Now he is fully recovered and I have just had a few days in France so the ferry journey gave me plenty of time to continue the hand quilting. I've put it all together as a quilt as you go project.
I began with 8 hand quilted blocks as on the left and 1 rolled seam block as on the right. They all had 2" spare wadding and backing all the way round and the quilting stopped at least 2" from the edge.
For those of you who have just joined us, click on wholecloth quilt for details of the one and rolled seam block for details of the other.
I had mentioned that I didn't know the correct name for the rolled seam block, but Jan came to the rescue and informed me that it appears in a Jennie Rayment book. I rushed out and bought it and it has some wonderful ideas in it. I've put links to to it in the right hand column, for both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. Thanks for the information Jan.
I have nine blocks 18.1/2" square which I will join together as 3 rows of 3. I want 1.1/2" sashing between the blocks to separate them out, so I need 6 strips 2" by 18.1/2" to go between the blocks, 4 strips 2" by 57" to go between the rows and 2 strips 2" by 59" to go down each side.
With right sides together, sew one of the 18.1/2" strips down the side of one of the blocks. Use a 1/4" seam and take care to sew only to the top layer of fabric. Fold the wadding and backing fabric under so that they don't get in the way as you sew.
With right sides together, sew the next block to the sashing of the first block. Add another strip of sashing to the right hand edge of the 2nd block and sew the 3rd block to this sashing.You now have a row of 3 patchwork quilt blocks joined by 2 strips of sashing. At this stage don't put sashing on the outer edges of the row. Repeat the process with the remaining 6 quilt blocks to make 3 separate rows, each of 3 blocks.
Turn the 1st row over so that you can join the backing and wadding across the row.Fold the wadding and backing away from the sashing strip. The seams either side of the sashing strips need pressing. As it's a small area, this is best done either with a craft iron or with a seam presser such as the wooden one that I use. Most quilt shops will stock something that will do the job.
Fold the wadding from each side back over the sashing strip and smooth gently. The 2 pieces of wadding will overlap.Trim up the centre of the wadding, making sure that you cut through the 2 overlapping layers of wadding but not the sashing.
You are cutting the excess wadding from each side so that the 2 pieces of wadding should now just butt up to each other.
Sew the 2 pieces of wadding together by hand. Your stitches need to be 1/2" away from the edge or the wadding pulls free and do be careful not to catch the sashing in your stitching.
Unfold the backing fabric so that it lies across the wadding - the right hand fabric in the photo. Then unfold the left hand fabric so that it overlaps the right hand panel.
Turn under a 1/4" seam in the left hand backing fabric and pin in place. Sorry, the pins don't show up too well in this fabric. Slipstitch along the seam so that the two quilt blocks are now joined at the back as well as at the front. It would be possible to machine stitch this seam if you had enough pattern on the quilt top, but I felt that it would look completely wrong on this particular quilt.To join the rows together the process is exactly the same but with much longer seams. You will need two strips 57" long for sashing between the rows and a further 2 strips for the top and bottom of the quilt.
Use two strips 59" long to sew down the sides of the quilt top. Pin the strip to the top and bottom of the quilt top and then pin the rest of the strip. It's important to do this so that if there has been any fabric stretching you can ease it as you sew the length, rather than ending up with a difference in length between the strip and the quilt top.
Trim the edges, bind, sit back and enjoy!
For full details of binding click on baby quilt.
rose@ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk
www.ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk