After putting Deadline IV into the wash, I pulled out Scrappy Trips, my treadle project. I needed to finish up about a dozen blocks. Now that I have I’m ready to sew them into a top. Earlier tonight I re-arranged blocks until I got them organized, but I think I want to swap the 4th block on the 3rd row with the 5th block on the 4th row before I sew the top right quarter together.
This is #9 on my Tops to Complete list.
This quarter log cabin quilt was probably the 3rd or 4th quilt I finished. I made it as a store sample when I was working at Northwest Fabrics & Crafts. The date stitched on the back is May 1991.
Believe it or not the gold is tissue lamé. Although I hadn’t quilted much, I knew I really didn’t want that thin, ravelly stuff in my quilt, but given that’s what I had to work with I had to come up with some way to make it work.
I carefully fused black knit interfacing to the lamé. It stabilized the fabric enough for me to work with, although I haven’t washed the wall hanging. It has three tabs at the top to allow it to hang from a cafe rod.
The piece measures 33″ square and there is very little quilting in it — just stitch in a ditch around the blocks (not logs) and the border. I have no idea what type of batting was used.
My Ocean Waves quilt is almost too big for my design wall, so I’m working on it quarter sections. This is the 3rd section up on the wall last night.
Each of these blocks has to be turned in the right way to make the pattern show up. Everyone has their favorite method for assembling a quilt top. This is how I do mine.
First — I wrote numbers on my flower head pins.
These are what keep my blocks in order. At the design wall, I put pin #1 in the top left corner of the first block.
I then flip the second block over the first and insert a pin in the seam to hold them together until I get to the sewing machine.
Flower pin #2 goes in the next block, the following block is flipped over and pinned as above. If you have an odd # of blocks it gets a flower pin the top left corner. Take all the blocks to the sewing machine and pin if desired. I have tons of seams which are not nesting well so lots of pins.
Sew the seams. Then sew the pairs together, remembering the flower pin is in the top left corner of the block/section. Once all the sections are sewn together press. Do not take pin #1 out of the row so you know how to put the row back on the design wall.
Since I’m only working with half the quilt, I know the half block goes on the left — for this quarter — but when I was working on the log cabin it was easy to get the row turned upside down.
Repeat with each row. Then sew the rows together. If you are concerned about the rows falling off the wall, exchange the #1 pin marking the top left corner of the block with a number pin with the correct row number. Once it’s time to sew the rows together do them in pairs, then sew the pairs together.
To get an idea of working in quarter sections, here are a couple more pictures. The section on the left is sewn together, and I’m still piecing the blocks on the right.
The top half sewn together.
I’ll finish up this section, then finish piecing the 4th section. I’ll sew the “short” vertical seam between the sections and then only have the one long horizontal seam to sew.
If you struggle with quilt assembly, I hope this post helps you — or at least gives you some ideas to incorporate in your quilt assembly. Feel free to ask questions if I need to clarify something.
Last week I was asked if I was going to participate in Bonnie Hunter’s new mystery quilt Carolina Christmas. I love Bonnie’s patterns, but my plate is full so, I said no.
However, quilters have been known to change their mind and I might be convinced to play along. With all the chatter on the Quiltville list I’ve been pondering colors. One of my personal rules is mystery quilts have to come from stash. I have lots of pink and green, so pink and green with a white background, but what to use for the 3rd color? My husband suggested blue (hey I have a whole tote of blue), but then he qualified it “icy blue”.
This is what I came up with:
When I found 2 hunks of the green totaling 3 yards I thought I’d use it to tie everything together instead of the selection of greens I had pulled.
It wasn’t until I started this post that I realized I was looking at the instructions for Double Delight! You would think that either the title boldly printed on the top page or the fact that printout is nearly a quarter of an inch thick would have clued me in that I had the wrong pattern.
Double Delight! needs a 5th color and I have no idea what I would use. So, at this time I don’t know which quilt I’ll be making, or if I’ll stick to working on something I already have in progress. I guess it will depend on how I feel about these colors after they sit together a while.
