Finished Feathergirl tops! And a few words on seams....

Recently the Feathergirls got together because….

we finished our second Feathergirls (Feathergirls 2.0 we called them) quilt tops!

And like with our first Feathergirls quilts (click and click) it was so much fun to see the finished tops together! And again like last time it was the first time we saw eachother’s finished tops, a special moment!

My top was made of Ohio Star blocks, placed on point with alternating single fabric blocks. I decided the whole thing needed a bit more color with all that brown and had a beautiful red in my stash, but unfortunately not enough…. I found it online (isn’t the www just wonderful?) at a shop I had never bought from before, they did a great job, the needed fabric was here in no time. In the meantime I found this wonderful blue fabric with just that bit of red in it, so the whole top came together.

 

 

Hubertine (click) made her quilt from lots of churndash blocks, one of my favorite block patterns, with lots of different blue fabrics, so fabulous! You can see it here (click). As well as information on how she sandwiched her quilt.

 

When I posted a picture of the back of my quilttop in an earlier post (click) I received questions about my seams….. aren’t they supposed to be ironed to one (dark) side?
To be honest I left that idea completely when machine patching small seams. The whole idea of ironing your seams to one side for strength of the seam  I think comes from the world of hand stitching. And there it makes perfect sense and I strictly adhere to this rule.

However machine patching is a completely different technique. Your stitch is made of 2 interlocking threads with very even stitches, therefore your seam is much stronger. Also the quilting you add later on will make the seam more durable because it will reduce pressure on the seam during use or washing.

Also I remember years ago, when I still made some of my own clothes, some of which were pencil skirts and with an office job, sitting down practically the whole day, there was pressure on the seams of my clothes and we still pressed them open and they never came undone (luckily ;-) !

When you are able to press (yes, I press my seams) open they lie much flatter and your points are much sharper.

 

 



However, on the long seams - as in this top with the blue and red borders - I do still press my seams to one side, toward the outer edges of the quilt top. There is no need there to press them open.

So there you have it. This is the way I do my seams when I machine patch, but there is not one perfect way of doing things. Use the technique that you are most comfortable with, that one will be best for you.

Enjoy the spring sunshine this week!

 

Phyllis

 

Jacob's Ladder Tutorial

With it being a slow time when it comes to patchwork and quilting here at home I thought I’d entertain you with a tutorial for my Featherweight Jacob’s Ladder quilt, just in case you want to join in!

My blocks will be 9”finished size. Since I have both cm’s and inches rulers I thought I might use the inch rulers this time and since I have this great 9.5” square ruler I can use to square up the blocks I thought 9” would be a good size block, but any size – cm’s or inches - will be good, as long as you can divide it by three. So here it goes.

Choose a light and a dark fabric to make your block.

Of each fabric cut a strip of  2” by 20.5”.

Also of each fabric cut two squares of 4”x 4”.
Now you have the following:-

Draw a line diagonally, corner to corner, on each of the 4 x 4” squares of the light fabric, then draw a line 1/4 “ on each side of this line.

Put the light squares on top of the dark squares, good sides together (facing each other) and pin.

Also, put the light and dark strips on top of each other, good sides together, and pin.

Sew the strips together with a 1/4 “ seam and sew the squares on the outer drawn lines (the middle line will be your cutting line).

Now iron open en press seams towards the dark fabric.

Your long strip, sewn together, will now be 3,5 “ x 20,5 “. Cut this long strip into ten pieces of 2”wide.

Cut the squares on the line you drew in the middle. Iron open and press seams towards the dark fabric.

Now you have this:-

I find my squares usually need some cutting and squaring up to make them the size you need: 3,5”x 3,5”. When you do this make sure you use a ruler that has a 45 degree angle on it and place it on the seam like so:

That way your seam will always stay in the middle of your square.

Place the ten 2”pieces on top of each other, two by two, dark part on light part and vice versa and pin. You will find the seams will ‘lock’ in the middle, that way your will not get a lot of layers of fabric in one place.

Sew with a 1/4 “ seam and iron, you will now have five 3,5 “ x 3,5 “ squares, each consisting of 4 smaller squares.

You now need to decide if you want to make a light block:

Or a dark block:

Once you have decided, first sew the two outer 3,5” x 3,5 “ squares on each of the middle 3,5” x  3,5 “ squares to make a strip, you now have 3 strips of 3,5” x 9,5”. Iron and press seams (for pressing the seams also see below).

Sew the 3 strips together to make the light or dark version of the pattern. Of course, all sewing needs to be done with a 1/4 “ seam.

Once you have sewn the block together you need to iron it carefully and preferably in such a way that the seams will ‘lock’ again once you sew all the blocks together. I iron my blocks like this:

On the left hand side, you see the way I iron my light blocks, on the right hand side the way I iron my dark blocks. I put them next to each other so you can see that (most) seams will lock once I will sew the blocks together into a quilt top.

And this should be the result once your block is ironed.

Have fun if you decide to make these blocks as well!

Phyllis