I volunteered to do a quilt for the VA Wheelchair Project. These quilts are supposed to be 36" by 60". NormAl1792 volunteered to help. As we had a fairly short time to get this quilt finished, I chose a simple pattern of 6" blocks. I will state now, that due to some imprecision cutting, the squares ended up at 5 3/4" each. Precise cutting is one of the keys to having a quilt go together well and quickly.
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For a simple block quilt, color choice is, IMHO, more important than a more complex quilt where the design and quilting will be a more major focus. NormAl1792 and I went through our fabric stash. I wanted a quilt in soft earth tones -- brown, gold and greens. Below are some of the fabrics we started with.
We added another fabric, a mottled green, to help round out the colors and started arranging them on the table. I was going to do a double border, so I knew that the inner pattern would need to be 5 squares across by 9 squares down. Laying out a "random" pattern is not as easy as it seems. There isn't any defined pattern, but you don't want two blocks exactly alike next to each other and it is good to balance the tones -- the light and dark colors as well. Below is our layout. Also for this pattern we had one fabric with muted stylized florals that all had to be laid out in the same direction.
The next step is to sew the squares together into rows using a 1/4" seam. That is the standard seam width for quilting. So long as you use the exact same width, it doesn't matter what the seam width is. I have a 1/4" foot which makes it a bit easier except at the very end of the stitching line. Below are the blocks sewn together in rows.
It is also a good idea to check your seams at this point. You may have sewn that 1/4" exactly each time, but especially towards the ends, you can have some seams that come in as below. You can see the stitching on the green row is not exact at the end. Best now to rip out a bit and get that seam straight.
In this case I did not iron each seam as I did the rows. This is because they were not going to be directly sewn to any other seams. But now it was time to do the ironing. What you want is for the seams to "lock" which means they should be ironed to the left on one row and to the right on the row below. Which is left and right doesn't matter, it is just important that they be opposite. Quilting is one of the few places where you do not iron the seams open; you iron them one way or the other. This is so the batting won't stick out as the quilts are used over time. I do know people who prefer to iron the seams open as modern batting isn't as loose as what was used in the last century. Still most quilters iron the seams to fold in one direction.
Now, when I sew the rows together, I have the one seam going left and one seam going right. They should lock together at the junction. If all squares are precisely cut out and all stitching done precisely at 1/4", all the squares corners will line up exactly.
Below is the picture of all the middle squares sewn together. Not all squares exactly meet at the corners in all cases, but almost all of them do.
Now comes time for the first border. I chose 2.5" for the inner border. Usually, if there are two borders, the inner border is narrower than the outer border. Also it is more common for the inner border to be the darker border. Again this is not absolute.
The inner squares measure 46", so unless I can find a fabric that I like at 48", I am going to have to join two pieces to make a strip long enough. And most quilt fabrics are 43" to 45". NormAl and I spent a bit of time finding the borders that we liked and of course the fabric was 43", so joining was necessary. Joining strips in borders is done in a very particular way so the seam doesn't show. You place the fabric, right sides together at right angles. I usually pin it to hold it in place. Then draw a line from one corner to the next as shown below.
Sew exactly on that line, trim and flip into a straight line. You really have to look to see the seam.
Sew the first border to the quilt. I forgot to take a picture after the first border, but I'm sure everyone can imagine sewing the straight fabric.
A second border was added which was 4". Same joining technique was used. One thing to note is that with two borders the long and short sides should alternate. Below is the finished quilt top.
I freely admit that I am a beginning quilter. I have been quilting for only a few years. Please, anyone feel free to add to this.
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After doing quite well with scheduling for awhile, there are now lots of open dates. Would you like to write a future DK Quilt Guild diary? Please join in! Please volunteer within the comments. Thanks
The schedule:
6/09 -- leu2500
6/16 -- madmommy
6/23 -- OPEN
6/30 -- OPEN
7/07 -- OPEN