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Piecing Your Quilt Top This is probably my favourite part of quilting. I love seeing all those pieces come together into the quilt top. If I remember, I try to take a before picture with my quilt all cut out before I start piecing. A few things to remember: Before you start sewing, check that your needle and whatever you are using to guide your ¼” seam are accurate. I cut into a roll of painters tape so I have a nice thick strip of tape to guide my fabric along. You will also want to check your stitch length. If your machine has digital selections for your stitches, it will reset every time you turn it off. Once you have done your first piece or two, stop to check that your seams are straight and at a consistent ¼”. Take lots of pictures as you go! It is great to have a snapshot of what the process looks like. You will also be able to measure your own skill progress through those photos over time. Efficient Piecing Strategies Chain piecing: this creates an assembly line process. You are sewing the same to pieces together for each of your blocks. You don’t cut your thread between each one. When you finish sewing a piece together, sew a couple stitches without any fabric, add in your next pieces that you are sewing together. * warning - double check you have your pieces oriented correctly. Sew the first one, open it up and check to make sure it is correct. Do this periodically as you go. You can also create a little phrase to help you watch for orientation details that will keep your pieces going how they should. Strip piecing: This involves sewing long strips of fabric together and then submitting them into their pieces. This works great for any part of your quilt block that works in pairs and shares the same fabrics. Strip piecing can also be large blocks that are sewn and cut in specific ways to create large batches of half square triangles. The main concept is that you don’t have to pre cut each small piece to sew together. Batch Work: This can also encompass chain and strip piecing methods, it is also used for cutting fabric, pressing, and squaring up your pieces. The overall concept is that you do as much as you can in one step and then move onto the next. This saves time since you aren’t resetting your task so frequently. You will also find a flow/rhythm as you repeat the same task improving your skill set quickly and allowing you to pick up speed with that task. Quilt top assembly: This stage is really cool. Your blocks are made and you are laying out your quilt. At this point, depending on your blocks, you can move them around and create different patterns and layouts with them. If you find something that you like better, you don’t have to stick with your original plan. Once your layout has been decided, take a picture! You will refer back to this photo often as you are double checking that your blocks are being joined together correctly. Organizing your blocks for sewing: You can still use a chain piecing method here. Step 1: “Fold" all the blocks in column two over column one so they are “right sides together”. I do the same for the next pair of columns (column four “folds” over column three) until I have no columns or just one column left. Step 2: gather your combined columns, pick up the top one and bring it down over the pair below it. Grab those two pairs and bring them down over the pair below. Repeat until you have gathered all your pairs. Tip: Use a binder clip or something to mark the top of your blocks. If you turn them and place your seam on the wrong side, there will be a lot of seam ripping. Step 3: Sew all your pairs of blocks. Make sure to keep each of your columns separate in your chain piecing. When you are done, you can either keep everything linked or split it apart. Keeping them linked is called webbing and it helps keep everything in order. I personally find it too awkward to sew and prefer to cut my chained pieces apart. Step 4: Combine the column pairs. Layout your quilt top again, you will notice that have partial rows assembled. Take your new column two and lay it over your newly formed column one. Do the same with columns 3 and 4. If you have a single column left by itself, then it will join and create three blocks sewn together instead of four. Continue steps 3 and 4 until you have full rows completed. Step 5: You are ready to join your rows. I suggest doing these in pairs since it keeps everything easier to work with until you get to the final seam or two. When joining rows, start using pins to line up your seams. Place your pin through the seam itself or just beside it. This will let you match up those seams and get the “perfect” corners/points that you are looking for. You have a completed quilt top and are ready to move onto the quilting stage! This post goes with the Week Four and Five YouTube videos. Click the link to watch.
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This blog accompanies the Week Three videos in my YouTube "Design-A-Long" series. For more explanation and to see these steps in action, click here to watch. Fabric Shopping! The best part of making a quilt is going shopping for the fabric you want that will help you achieve the final look of your pattern. Fabric can be acquired from a quilt store, craft store, big box store like Walmart, or from someone looking to destash their supply. The best fabric options for quilting is to use 100% cotton fabric that is woven. * avoid knits and stretchy materials You can also shop for fabric around your house too. If you have old clothing that is suitable, you might want to use that. For a period of time, quilting was used to recycle worn out items. The good parts were cut out and used to make a quilt, old blankets that needed some new life were converted into batting. Fabric Prep Once you have gathered your fabric, there are a few things to do before cutting it up.
Test Quilt Blocks Before you jump into cutting up your fabric for your quilt, take some scraps or if you are new to quilting and don’t have scraps, make sure to browse the clearance and discount areas for the cheapest cottons you can find. You want to have some cheap fabric options for testing out your blocks before you start on the good ones. A test block will let you double check your math and piecing instructions are good. If you come across any issues during your test assembly, you can trouble shoot them without having cut up a lot of money. Click here for the video that talks about sewing a sample block. Cutting the Good Stuff
Your test blocks turned out and it’s time to cut the good stuff. Remember the old rule of measure twice and cut once. This very much applies to quilting since your supplies are limited. The more accurate you are in the cutting, the better your blocks will be.
Click here for the corresponding YouTube video Sizing Up Your Quilt So you have your quilt designed, but it’s small on paper. How in the world do you make it large?! This article accompanies the Design-A-Long Week Two, parts 1-2 that are found on my YouTube channel. There are a few questions to ask before you start figuring out the specifics of each block and piece within. Q: How is the quilt going to be used? Tip: The answer to this will lead you to your final quilt size. Q: How big does your quilt need to be to suit it’s purpose? Tip: A quilt large enough for a double bed doesn’t make a great lap quilt. Tip: Be flexible with your ending size, know what size range you want it to end up within. This will help you decide on your block sizes and allow you the freedom to choose numbers that are easy to work with. Q: How many blocks do you want in your quilt and how are you defining that block? Tip: If your block creates a larger shape, you need to decide how many times that shape is going to repeat. Q: How is your quilt block built - in a grid of two’s or three’s? If you have been following the Design-A-Long and using the Quilt Block Cut Outs, we used options for squares and rectangles that are “smaller” and a grid of 2’s or “larger” with a grid of 3’s. Tip: Keep your first blocks simple until you are confident with “mathing” out your quilt. Tip: Choose whole numbers for your finished block size. One final tip: Use graph paper to help you out. Use whole numbers for your finished block size. Each square on your graph paper can be equal to one inch. This will help you count everything up. Example One of the Process for a quilt using blocks built on a 2x2 grid: Answers to the questions above A: I want a lap quilt that could also go on a single bed if needed. A: The quilt should be about 50”x60”. A: My quilt block is really four blocks joined together in a 2x2 grid to make one larger unit/shape. If I make the larger unit finish at 10”, I can repeat the shape five times across and six times down to get my 50x60” quilt. A: If my larger unit finishes at 10” square then each of the smaller blocks in the 2x2 grid need to finish at 5” square. I also know that some of my smaller blocks are pieced together in a grid of 2’s so my smallest pieces finish at 2½”.   Now that I know the above sizes, I can add the ½” rule to each of those smaller pieces to find out the sizes I need to cut the fabric.  Example Two of the Process for a quilt using blocks built on a 3x3 grid: Answers to the Questions above A: I want a bed quilt for a single bed. A: the quilt should be about 75x75” A: My quilt design needs 8 blocks across and 8 blocks down. A: Each block is built on a 3x3 grid so everything is in 3rds. A: My whole number options for building my blocks are using increments of 2, 4, 6” ; 3, 6, 9”; or 4, 8, 12”. A block finishing at 12” and having 8 of them across is going to make my quilt 96” square - that is too large. A block finishing at 9” and having 8 of them across is going to make my quilt 72” square. This is very close to the size I need. * If you really need your quilt to finish a little larger, you can always add a border around it and quickly increase it's size.   The measurements for the pieces in the "size up" picture are the finished sizes. I know that the best block size to make my quilt is going to be the 9" finished option. Now I can start applying the "add a ½" rule" to each of those pieces so I know how big I need to cut everything.
The large rectangle will need to be cut at 9 ½" x 3 ½", The medium rectangles will need to be cut at 3 ½" x 6 ½" The small squares will need to be cut at 3 ½" x 3 ½" There are some additional methods for piecing and cutting that I elaborate on throughout the video content for the Design-A-Long series. To get the most out of this article, I recommend going over to YouTube and watching the Week Two video series. Parts 3-4 in the series go into calculating how much fabric you will need to make your quilt. Remember to join the "Beginner Quilt Design" group on Facebook for additional support in your quilt designing journey. Depending on how you are signed into Facebook, the link might take you right to the group or ask you to sign in. If you don't want to sign in, go into Facebook as you normally would and then search for the group. There are many terms involved with quilting and when they come attached with numbers, it can be enough to make your brain go AAHHH! Let’s get this all sorted out. Finished vs Unfinished Blocks. Like, what the heck! What does this even mean? Why are they different sizes? And just as soon as you finish a block that pattern is calling it unfinished again? You made the block and followed all the instructions so how is it unfinished! Huh?! It’s like the “Song That Never Ends”, those blocks never really become finished until the whole quilt is bound up at the end. Here is a simpler way to think of what these words mean. Finished: The piece or pieces of fabric are completely surround by other pieces of fabric on all sides. The edges of the fabric have been included in a seam and your finished piece is going to be smaller in dimension than what you started with. Unfinished: The piece of fabric has one or more edges exposed. The measurements for this piece of fabric are larger than the finished. You haven’t sewn these pieces yet so they haven’t lost some of their fabric to the seam. The terms can then apply to different stages of your quilt progress. You start with unfinished pieces, then move to unfinished blocks, and then unfinished sections (depending on how your quilt goes together). Why do we need to have both of these terms? Quilts are designed using finished measurements. If you are drawing it out on graph paper, using my Quilt Block Cut Outs, or a computer program, you are designing in finished block sizes. You do it because all your pieces match up like how they will when that quilt is all put together. The unfinished part comes in because you have a hungry, hungry seam allowance that eats up part of your fabric. Have you ever made a mistake in cutting your fabric and cut your pieces at the finished size and then they don’t fit together and definitely come out too small? Or maybe you’ve tried designing your own quilt in the past and this is where you were stuck, nothing was lining up as you were sewing it together. This leads us to the next bit of math. Seam Allowance, Unfinished Measurements, and Quilt Math As quilters we like to use a ¼” seam. That means stitching ¼” in from the edge of the fabric. That seam is where your finished measurements begin/end. If you have made quilts before, you have probably laid out all your pieces for a block and noticed that they don’t fit together like the photo of the finished block. However, once those seams are all sewn up, it lays out like it’s supposed to… hopefully. When you have designed your quilt and are ready to figure out your measurements, there is One Rule (in a world of "there are no rules, it’s your quilt"; there is at least this one rule if you want to be successful). Add your seam allowance to everything! Depending on what shapes you are working with, the math will be a bit different. For this blog and this Design-A-Long we are focusing on squares and rectangles so the seam allowance rule is add ½” to the width and to the length of the pieces in your quilt design. You are accounting for the ¼” seam allowance on the left side and on the right side and again for the top and bottom. I go over this in more detail in the accompanying YouTube videos for Week Two. Part One: "Small Block Math and Assembly" Part Two: "Large Block Math and Assembly"  Labeled diagram of a piece of fabric within a quilt. Designing your own quilt is a lot of fun. You might be wondering, how does someone even begin to do this! Or maybe you have the, “I’m not creative” statement going through your mind. A quilt doesn’t have to be fancy and intricate for you to have designed your own quilt. Maybe you like the colour green and are comfortable cutting out squares of the same size. Go ahead and find all your fabrics that have green in it, cut out squares and then start laying them out until you are happy with how it looks. You DESIGNED your own quilt! Maybe you are thinking “that’s so basic and anyone can do that” - well…maybe you aren’t thinking the word “basic"; I work with a lot of young people. Your green quilt with squares is still your design. YOU chose the fabrics, you decided what size to cut them and how to arrange them. You decided on the fabric for the back of your quilt and how to quilt it. You also decided on the fabric that would make the perfect binding. All those decisions are design decisions. Let’s say that you want to make something that is a bit more involved. Week One of the design course is building your own blocks and arranging them into a pattern that you like. Watch the YouTube video for Week One: Part One to see how to use the Quilt Block Cut Out’s to design your own blocks and arrange them into your own pattern ideas. If you aren’t much for watching videos, I have outlined the steps I go through in the video.
YouTube video: Week One - Part Two - this video goes over taking your larger blocks that you laid out and putting your pattern onto graph paper.
Sometimes when your quilt is drawn out on graph paper, you might have another idea begin to form. Sometimes you see things a little differently and you will be prompted to explore those ideas. It might be changing the direction of some blocks to create a different look. Or colouring in a different pieces to make another secondary pattern jump out.
It’s okay to have a few graph paper renderings. You can make a quilt for each one, or just choose your favourite. |
Krista RussellLong arm quilter, budding quilt designer, and teacher. ArchivesCategories |
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