Fannying About

Well I hope my title for this post doesn't get me banished from Blogger but basically making the Quilter's Fan block is a tad fiddly. I am using this block design to illustrate the swirling river. 

As already mentioned my assessment piece for this module is to make a table runner and I chose Inland Waterways as my design theme.  So the Rail Fence blocks were illustrative of long boats or locks or buildings along the riverside.  The Drunkard's path to represent arched bridges and the Quilters Fan to represent the river itself.

I took the template from one of my books and although searching the internet and my other extensive supply of books I could not find another one the same.  Lots of fan shapes and other types of blocks with fan in the title but not this particular one, apart from finding an image of a quilt done in the 1930s with Quilter's Fan blocks, and maybe that was the original.

However for anyone who is interested the book I used is called 'The Quilt Block Book' by Nancy Wick and it is full of templates for you to use.

First I copied the template on to plastic and then transferred  the shape to freezer paper.  Each block takes four fan shapes (and I needed three blocks for my runner so that was twelve). You can use freezer paper several times before it won't stick anymore.

Using a plastic template make things easier when you have multiple shapes to cut out.

As the shape is curved I chose to use scissors, cutting carefully around the freezer paper each time.  Wax side goes on to the wrong side, pressed with a dry iron and is carefully peeled off so as to avoid fraying of the material.

Two pieces are joined together first.  Fold the curved edge in half and put a very small nick in the seam allowance to help match the two curved edges together.
















Use lots of pins around the curves, perpendicular to the edge. 

When sewing on the machine keep the concave curve underneath because the feed dogs on the machine help to push it through and avoid creases and pleats.  However you do need to keep checking the piece underneath and lining it up and level so that creases and pleats are not created on the concave edge.  Hand sewing may be the easier option for some people.

Press the seam towards the concave side.

When you have two sets of joined pieces they need to be sewn together and matching the centre point is very important.  Not sure if you can see it in this photo but I pinned them together and then inserted a pin at the centre join to check everything was in the right place.

Using the same tactics as before sew this seam and then press the seams open.

The finished block below, ready to join to the others in a long strip for my runner.

Photos of that to follow.

I'm not as think as you drunk I am ...

I have been making two blocks today which will be included in my table runner.  The two together are meant to symbolise a canal bridge.  As mentioned yesterday the theme for the runner is Inland Waterways and the runner itself shaped similar to a long boat on a canal.

My blocks will be 6" square finished size and I am using the usual 1/4" seams. My curved lines for these blocks began 4" in from the edge and I used an OmniArc ruler to draw the curves. I made plastic templates with 1/4" seams added all round.  You can see here the paper original with the plastic template including seam allowance over the top.

To draw one yourself you can use graph paper and a drawing compass.  Also some quilting or patchwork books have templates for you to copy.

After preparing the templates I copied them to freezer paper because I find cutting around freezer paper the easiest method of getting the shape on to the fabric.  Iron the freezer paper waxy side down on to the wrong side of the fabric and cut exactly around the edge.  Note:  the freezer paper pattern has seam allowances included because I copied the shape from the plastic templates.

Because I need two blocks facing in opposite directions I had to copy another set of freezer paper shapes using the plastic templates the other way around.

Matching curves needs care and the seam allowance needs to be exact.

Fold the curved edges in half and finger press firmly and then cut a tiny notch in the seam allowance.  Both edges have to be lined up at this point as well as lining up the two ends exactly.

Pin these three points then add more pins, matching the raw edges of the curves very precisely as you go.

Starting a little way in from the edge (so that the sewing machine doesn't mash up the two edges) sew carefully along the curve, right sides together) using an exact 1/4" seam.  Take care to stop the larger piece underneath from forming little pleats as you sew.  It must be totally smooth.

Press flat with the seam allowance towards the concave curve.

The seams do not have to be sewn on the machine, they can, of course, be sewn by hand and for curved seams this is often a more attractive option for many people.  Marking a seam line to sew along will help and if a curve is difficult to sew just clipping into the seam allowance along the concave curve will provide some 'give' and flexibility.

My next challenge for the runner is to make three Quilter's Fan Blocks which are even more fiddly than the Drunkard's Path ones.  I think a glass of wine will definitely be in order when I've made those.

Table Runner

Finally I am starting to make a table runner which was planned and designed as part of my course work many weeks ago. Here is the drawing:

But earlier this week I have made some samples as well for my final assessment piece which I hope will be approved.  I have drawn up a design for a silk quilt with different shaped pots in lovely colours and a myrtle plant trailing around them.  The theme for the quilt has developed from some designs I did early on in the course and which I call 'A Cracked Pot'.  After drawing a range of designs based on this theme some of the drawings reminded me of exotic Asian pots which might contain perfume or spices.  So the inspiration for my quilt design has come from these ideas.  the myrtle plant is included because myrtle is used in many perfumes.

Although I have completed these necessary samples for my course tutor I am not putting them on here at present as they would not make much sense on their own.  Later when I am making the full quilt I will use some of the samples as examples on the blog.

In the meantime back to the table runner.

 It will have some patchwork blocks at its centre, two Rail Fence, three Drunkard's Path and  three Quilter's Fan.

These are meant to represent different aspects of Inland Waterways and Canal Boats on the river. 


Firstly Rail Fence blocks, which we have done before and some of us made pin cushions from them.  My reason for choosing Rail Fence is to try to symbolise the shapes of long boats and the man-made surroundings on a river.  Perhaps you remember the method.  We joined together four strips measuring 2" X 6 1/2" and then repeated this with another four strips in contrasting colours.

We pressed all the seams in one direction and then placed the two blocks right sides together and drew a line across the diagonal from corner to corner.

The next stage is to sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line, then cut the block in half along the drawn line.  This produces two blocks.


Press the seams to one side.

I suppose the most important thing about this type of block is accuracy in cutting and sewing the seams.  If the points don't match up at the join it's a disappointment.


Practice makes perfect (or so they tell me).

The other blocks that I will be making over the next few days are Drunkards Path, based on the idea that arched bridges over the river could be represented by two of these placed together.

Finally, Quilters Fan, which is a swirly whirly shape and which, I hope will to some degree represent water.

Today I have only got as far as the Rail Fence blocks which have been produced in colours often seen on long canal boats with names and painted images in bright colours. So my colour scheme may not be the prettiest but I hope will represent the long boats, the river and its surroundings and finally, when I add the background to the runner, a blue sky and white clouds.

That's the plan anyway!!

Happy Endings

As I have been preparing for Quilting Arts on Sunday and then for three days away with my lovely youngest daughter I have had to put the course work on hold again for a while.

But I did manage to get the edgings samples completed and a method of presentation for them worked out.

Because I had to demonstrate some techniques for hanging quilts I decided to use this wall hanging arrangement with different hanging techniques on all four sides and this has doubled as my presentation method. 

Some of you will know that my large quilt hanger went walkabout when we had the Art & Craft Exhibition but you will see from the photo that I got it back in the end.

I described some edging methods in an earlier blog but the remaining samples had to have a variety of decorative finishes so I edged one with lace, another with prairie points and a third with ribbon.

For the lace edged sample I started with two different colours and some wadding in between. Begin by pinning and sewing the lace around the edges.

Push the lace outwards and press, then take the contrast backing and pin it around the edges over the wadding with a small turning.  Hand sew to cover the seam, see the pink backing in the photo here.

Press carefully making sure the iron is not too hot to damage the edging.

As you can see this example looks pretty on the back and the front.  In fact I pinned it to my presentation wall hanging the wrong way round at first then had to take it off and turn it to the right side.

As far as the other two samples are concerned:  you may remember we covered Prairie Points as a demonstration a couple of months ago at Quilting Arts.  However they are such a useful decorative technique I think we should do something specific with them later on and because describing the method needs a blog post all to itself it won't be covered here today.

My final edging sample was the green one shown at the top right of the wall hanging above.  I used ribbon attached as a flat piping inset.  The method is the same as we used in our little house wall hangings and also as is shown in the latest worksheet on making placemats.  As we are covering this currently I won't describe the method here.

On my return from Cardiff I will be making up a table runner for my course work.  This has some interesting patchwork details which I will describe on the blog as I do them.

Ways to hang a wall quilt

There are a number of different ways to hang your wall quilts and I have put examples of four methods on each side of the small wall hanging I have done for my course work.

 Strange it may seem to have hanging mechanisms on each side of the hanging but this is because I have to demonstrate various methods of hanging a quilt.  I realised that I can also use it to present my edging samples.


First there is the hanging sleeve which most of us have done at some time and some of us used that method for our mini wall hanging of the little house. Here you can see it on the bottom of the picture.  I also used a hanging sleeve for my scrap house quilt.  It is basically a tube a little narrower than the width of the wall hanging and cut at about 8" in depth.  Neaten the edges then the strip is folded in half and sewn to the top of the hanging before the binding is attached securing it neatly in place.  The bottom of the sleeve is then pushed up into a pleat and hand sewn along the bottom.  Test how much pleat to push up by trying some dowelling in the sleeve and making sure when the bottom is sewn in place the sleeve does not peep over the top of the wall hanging.

Secondly you can use loops and the ones shown here are sewn on by hand with a button at the front.  They are 2" wide and were made as a tube cut into sections and the ends turned in.  Just make sure they are all exactly the same length and sewn on at exactly the same distance from the edge so that the wall hanging is level.  They should be no more than 8" apart.

My third example is corner tabs at the top left and right into which a piece of dowelling can be inserted.  these are made by folding a 6" square diagonally and sewing the raw edges to the top corners of the hanging before binding.  Once the dowelling is inserted some cord is attached which can be hung on a single wall hook.

Finally I have sewn hook and loop Velcro along one side of the hanging.  


 
 









A piece of baton fixed to the wall with another piece of Velcro is how this would work.

Here I have used my demonstration piece as a means of presenting my edging samples.

 The remaining edging samples and the label will be described in my next post.

Edging with Piping

Now a complicated little sample, inserting piping with cord into the edging. We have used flat binding on a couple of our projects i.e. the small wall hanging and recently the placemats. This is similar but the piping has cord inserted so it stands proud and is more noticeable.

But first assemble your materials.  Using the 6" sample square again for illustration you need a top layer, wadding and a backing layer.  Also four 1" strips of fabric to encase the 4 pieces of piping cord, both  just a little longer than the 6"sides. 

You will also need continuous binding 2" wide.  Join your binding pieces in the same way as shown previously for mitred corners.  You can see in the photo the orange coloured strips at right angles and pinned at the intersection.  Sew this seam and trim to 1/4" as before.


First the piping: fold the 1" strips right sides together lengthways and lay the cord inside at the folded edge.

Put your zipper foot on the sewing machine and move your needle right up against the cord so that as you sew along the strip you are capturing the cord close against the folded edge and keeping the raw edges of your fabric level..

When you have sewn all four piping strips place the first two on opposite sides of the layered square with raw edges together. Tack them in place by hand and trim off the excess pieces as shown. 

Next place the two remaining strips on the two remaining edges overlapping the ones already tacked down and tack them in place as well.

At this point Puzzle got very bored and went to sleep.

Now for the binding.  This is a repeat of the method shown earlier for the squares with mitred corners so I won't repeat it here.  However you may remember it is necessary to stop sewing before reaching the corner, the same distance away as the width of the seam.  In this example the sewing has to stop at the outside corner of the piping, just in the angle where the two strips of piping cross over.  In the picture the placement is indicated with a yellow headed pin.

Because you will be sewing next to the piping the zipper foot will be necessary again and it is also helpful to move your needle up against the edge of the cord.   You are sewing along the outside edge close to the piping so that when the binding is in place it will form a frame around the square with the piping just inside.

After reaching the corner and fastening off you may remember how the binding is folded up and back down as shown in this image and then you start sewing again along the second side.

After sewing on the binding around most of the square you must join the two ends as described a couple of posts ago - please look back if you have forgotten, it's in the mitred corners post - turn the binding to the back and sew by hand, folding neat corners as you do so.

Please ask me to demonstrate any of this if it is not clear.

Finally press the edges of your work.

To follow:  several different ways to hang a wall quilt, a label for the quilt, and various decorative edges.

Endings - Bias Binding and Edges Turned In

Bias Binding is used when binding an edge with curves.

For my small sample I have curved the corners and I am using single fold binding which has been cut across the fabric at a 45 degree angle.

Your quilting ruler will usually have a 45 degree angle marked on it which is meant to be aligned with the selvedge of your fabric and then the straight edge of your ruler can be used to cut the material on the bias.

While the fabric is folded at this angle press the fold and this will be a guideline for cutting your fabric on the bias.

For my sample I used a 2" wide binding but only a 1/4" seam as it has to go around corners and a narrower seam goes round more easily.  However, when I got to the point of turning the binding to the back to hand sew in place I found it was too wide and had to cut some off making it about one and a half inches wide in the end.

It needs to be pinned from the outside edges inwards if it is a curved edge.

My binding piece was long enough so did not have to be joined.  As there were no joining seams to be matched I finished the two endings with straight edges.  To do this leave a few inches not sewn as you get near to the end, lay the binding flat and let the beginning and end pieces overlap and trim so this overlap is half an inch, place right sides together and sew a half inch seam.  Test when you lay it flat that it fits the edge properly, sew this joining seam and then finish sewing the edges.

Turn the binding outwards and press, turn to the back, turn under 1/4" and hand sew in place.

With the magic of computer technology the colour of my binding seems to have changed!!
 

Next: an edging without binding.

Edges can be turned in without a binding.  Again using a top layer, a wadding and a backing.  Cut the two fabric layers a 1/4" wider than needed - mine measured 6 1/4".  Cut the wadding 3/8" smaller than the fabric.

Press the edges of both fabric layers in by 1/4"

Put the three layers together and pin in the centre so they don't move around.

Turn the top layer fabric over the edges of the wadding and also turn in the edges of the backing layer to meet the top.  Pin them neatly together so that the backing does not show.


Hand stitch all round the edges tucking any loose threads of fabric into the turning with your needle


A lovely neat finish!