Posts from — November 2008

Have you ever seen quilts with wavy borders? The border pieces that you cut according to the charts included with these directions (and other patterns that you have purchased) could be a little bit too long
to be attached to the quilt center that you have completed. Everyone uses a slightly different size seam allowance — and when you multiply the effects of the difference across an entire quilt top, the differences can be significant. If you already have some long border pieces cut and ready to apply to a quilt top, that’s OK for now.  We want them to be a little bit too long to make it easier to use the following process.

You’re probably thinking “Why can’t I just sew a border along one side, and then cut off the excess when I get to the end?” The answer is that you will be stretching your border fabric as you attach it to the quilt top. All of the excess fabric will then end up being a wavy border, which makes it very hard for the person doing the actual quilting to get your borders to lie flat.

Here is a picture of the very bottom of a quilt that is almost finished:

You can see that the majority of this quilt is complete. As the excess fabric has accumulated down the sides of the quilt, it “has to go somewhere”. In other words, it all ends up at the bottom. In this case, pleats were needed to remove the excess fabric — and that’s never the best approach.

Please resist the urge to sit down and sew your borders onto your quilt top without taking a few simple measurements first! You will stretch the edges of your quilt top, and you will end up with wavy borders ,
guaranteed! When you have wavy borders, your quilt is much harder to quilt, it won’t lay flat on a bed or table, and it won’t look right hanging on a wall. Just a little bit of extra measuring at this stage will
save you a lot of frustration later.

We will be following that old advice “Measure twice, and cut once”. You don’t want to make any mistakes here. First, make sure your quilt center has been neatly pressed, and that all seam allowances are flat
on the back. Lay your quilt on a large flat surface (a floor comes in handy here, but a large table is even better!) and use a metal tape measure. Lay the tape measure on the quilt in the center, measuring from top to bottom. Make a note of this measurement. This is the number you will use to cut two of your side
strips to the proper length.

Use your tape measure to see how this center measurement differs from the measurement along the edge. You may be surprised to see the amount of difference between the two numbers!

Pin the two side strips to each side of the quilt, making sure the fabric is distributed evenly. Place a pin in the center, and one at each end. Then keep adding pins until you feel that all ease is distributed evenly. Sew the border strips in place. Press flat.

Now lay the tape measure in the opposite direction (going from side to side), but make sure it’s in the center of the quilt, not along the edge. Make a note of this measurement. You might want to check again to see how different this center measurement is than one taken at the edge!

Cut your two remaining borders to the proper measurement, and pin as directed above, easing in any fullness.

Repeat this process for the rest of your borders, if your quilt has additional pieces.The more borders you have on your quilt, the more you will love using this method after your project is complete! I’ve received countless phone calls after teaching this method, and everyone of them is from someone who is now confident when it comes to this final step.  Too often we are in a hurry by the time we get to the end of the piecing process, and just want to get it done. It’s worth a few extra minutes when it comes to the long life of your quilt!

No more wavy borders!

Just as I finished picking the last roses of the season from my garden, I received this beautiful quilt top from Priscilla Madsen. I opened the box to see many gorgeous embroidered roses, and instantly I knew how I wanted to quilt this! I had been wanting to use a collection called “Carmen’s Roses” from One Song Needle Arts, and this was the perfect time.

With lots of bias piecing, and tons of red roses, I considered using stippling or hand-quilting to tame any puffiness that may occur after quilting. As it turned out I decided to combine both! The hand stitching is right next to the embroidery, which makes the roses stay a little bit closer to the surface.

This quilt was done with a Gammill machine and a Statler Stitcher, allowing the roses to be trimmed where necessary to fit in with the blocks that only had room for certain segments of the designs. If you enjoy machine embroidery, these red roses can be purchased through the Stitchery Mall .  Having seen this embroidery, I have to say that it is exquisite!

The quilting designs can be purchased from One Song Needle Arts, and can be seen here:

I received this little video today from a very kind gentleman, and I just had to share it with you! Neither of us can find the originator of it, but it’s not from lack of trying….

This displays how a stitch is formed. You can see how the rotary hook spins around, capturing the thread from the needle, and actually forming the stitch. If your top tension is too tight, the rotary hook cannot form the stitch, and you will have skipped stitches throughout your quilt top.

The formation of stitches