Tag: modern quilter

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Happy Flower Garden Quilt Along – Week 10 – Finishing Our Quilts

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Welcome to Week 10 of the Happy Flower Garden Quilt Along! This week we will be finishing our quilts!! We will go over Basting, Quilting and Binding our quilts. (Download the Pattern)

Quilt Sandwich:
First you will need to make your Quilt Sandwich. You will need to cut and sew your backing fabric to make it fit under your quilt correctly. Make sure it is at least 3 inches wider than your quilt top on all sides (quilt top size + 6 inches). Trim your selvage edge off after joining your pieces.

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Make your quilt sandwich by first laying down your quilt backing, wrong side facing up. Tape down to a hard surface, making fabric taut. Next lay your batting on top. Smooth out with your hands, do not stretch. Then lay your quilt top right side up, smooth out with your hands.  

Basting Your Quilt: 
Spray baste: My favorite way to baste my quilt is by using Spray Baste! It makes basting so much easier. If you have allergies, this is probably not a good option for you.
Find a place where you can lay out your quilt. Make sure to tape the backing fabric taut to the floor (or large table).
Here’s  great spray baste tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew: Spray Baste Tutorial

Pin basting: You can use safety pin about 3 to 4 inches apart (about the width of your hand). I like to use the large curved basting pins. This takes a little longer than the spray basting, but is a great option.

Quilting your Quilt:
This step is totally up to you!

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With my Small Block Baby size quilt I chose to quilt from top to bottom ‘organic’ straight lights approximately 1 inch apart. I lined my walking foot so the needle was about 1/2 inch from each seam.

Hand Tie your Quilt: Some prefer to tie there quilt.
Here’s a tutorial on how to do this on Craftsy.

Hand Quilt: Here’s an article that goes over the basics of hand quilting on Craftsy.

Machine Quilt using your Walking Foot: 
Emily Dennis from Quilty Love has a great tutorial on how to Zig zag quilt your quilt with a Walking foot. Click here I love this method of quilting, it give your quilt great texture.

Free Motion Quilting:
Free motion quilting can give you great texture and if you aren’t great at quilting straight lines, this would be great for you. Suzy Williams from Suzy Quilts has a great Free Motion Quilting Tutorial. Click here.

Binding Your Quilt:

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Binding is the fabric strip that goes on the edge of your quilt. It covers all of the unfinished edges and rounds out your quilt.

You will want to make sure to square up your quilt before you attach the binding. Cut off the extra batting around the edges and make sure your sides are straight and corners are squared.

Most quilters will cut 2 /12 inch by width of fabric strips and then sew them together at the ends at a diagonal. Then press the strip in half, so that you are wrapping 2 layers of fabric around all of your edges.

You can machine sew the binding to the front of your quilt and wrap it around to the back and hand stitch it down. Or some prefer sewing the binding to the back of the quilt, wrapping it around to the front and machine stitching it down.

One of my favorite binding tutorials is by Suzy Williams of Suzy Quilts. Go check it out!

I’m so excited to see everyone’s finished quilts!! Make sure to use the hashtag #happyflowergardenqal on Instagram or post your photo’s in the Facebook Group!!

I will be filming a LIVE Video Today, Tuesday July 3rd at 10:15 am PDT (West Coast USA) in the Facebook Group! I will be going over how to put you quilt top together and answering any questions you have. The video will be saved for later viewing.

Facebook Group!

Quilt Along Schedule:

May 1st – Week 1 – Cut your Fabric
May 8th – Week 2 – Make your Half Square Triangles
May 15th – Week 3 – Make your Flying Geese units
May 22nd – Week 4 – Make your Bottom Rectangle Blocks
May 29th – Week 5 – Make half of your Tulip Blocks
June 5th – Week 6 – Make the other half of your Tulip Blocks
June 12th – Week 7 – Make your Corner Tulip Blocks
June 19th – Week 8 – Make your Star Flower Blocks
June 26th – Week 9 – Add Sashing and Cornerstones (Finish Star Flower Blocks if needed)
July 3rd – Week 10 – Baste, Quilt and Bind

Download in my Shop!

Download on Etsy (For EU Customers)

Happy Quilting!
Andrea 🙂

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Aloha Ripple QAL – Week 5: Corner Block A

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Welcome to Week 5 of the Aloha Ripple Quilt Along!! We will be making our Corner Block A!

Now that all our pieces are ready, the next few weeks will go by so quickly. You will need to make 2 of the Corner Block A. They look similar to Corner Block B, but they are different. So you can NOT make 4 of Corner Block A and call it good.

I like to lay out all of my pieces next to my machine. Then I chain piece them together, starting with two squares from the first row, then two squares from the second and so on. Once I get to the last row, I start a adding one square from the first row, then second and so on. (Watch my LIVE Video in the Facebook Group today for further explanation). I keep doing this until all my rows are complete.

Once you have all your rows done, you will want to press your seams in alternating direction from the neighboring row (See pattern for pressing arrows, so that this block connects to your Flying Geese blocks correctly).

Then you will nest your seams together (butt them up against each other so they interlock). Pin them in place and sew! I like to keep my pins in when sewing even though it is a no no. It helps my pieces stay in the correct spot and helps your points line up correctly. Make sure to sew slowly over the intersecting seams.

Yay your block is done! Now wasn’t that easy!

Things to keep in mind:
*Read ALL of the pattern directions
*Make sure ALL of your Half Square Triangles are trimmed to the correct size
*Make sure you are sewing a correct Scant 1/4 inch seam. (See the basic directions in the pattern).
*Don’t stress out if it is not completely perfect! As you can see mine below is not completely perfect. Once it is all quilted, washed and dried, it will be all crinkled and you won’t notice tiny imperfections.

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LIVE VIDEO: Join me today (Tuesday Feb. 13th) at 10:15 am PST (West Coast USA) for a LIVE video in the Facebook Group to go over tips and answer any questions.

Make sure to share a photo of this weeks step on social media with the hashtag #AlohaRippleQAL or join the Facebook Group and post a photo of  your Corner Block A!
You can follow me on Instagram here: Instagram.com/HappyCloudCreations

Join the Facebook Group

If you haven’t downloaded the FREE Aloha Ripple Quilt Pattern yet, you can find it in my Craftsy shop!

Download Pattern

Next week we will make our Corner Block B!

Here is the full Quilt Along Schedule:

Starting January 2nd: Download Pattern – Select your fabric and post a photo!
Week 1: January 16th: Cut fabric
Week 2: January 23rd: Make the Flying Geese
Week 3: January 30th: Make the Half Square Triangles
Week 4: February 6th: Make the Center Block (1)
Week 5: February 13th: Make Corner Blocks A (2)
Week 6: February 20th: Make Corner Blocks B (2)
Week 7: February 27th: Make the Stacked Flying Geese blocks (4)
Week 8: March 6th: Assemble your Quilt Top
Week 9: March 13th: Baste, Quilt and Bind your Quilt!

Happy Quilting!
Andrea

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Aloha Ripple Quilt Along – Week 1: Cut Fabric

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Welcome to the first week of the Aloha Ripple Quilt Along! Hopefully you have all your fabrics picked out and are ready to start cutting!

If you still need to download your FREE pattern click here!

Things you will need:

  • Rotary Cutter
  • Acrylic Ruler
  • Cutting Mat
  • Paper
  • Pen
  • Pins

When I make a quilt I like to cut all my pieces up front and label them to keep organized. Make sure you have a nice sharp blade for your Rotary cutter.

*Measure twice – Cut once*

I know everyone says it, but it’s true. You don’t want to rush your cutting and end up cutting your pieces too small.  You want to make sure you have plenty of fabric for the whole quilt.

When you cut out your pieces you will want to cut out the largest pieces first. Then cut the smaller pieces. This will ensure that you have enough fabric.

I like to take a little piece of paper and write the color and size on it and pin it to the stack of fabric. Since some of the sizes are very close, this helps me sew the correct pieces together.

Once they are all cut I like to stack them in a Gallon size Ziplock bag. That way I don’t loose any of my pieces.

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Make sure to read through ALL of the Basic instructions before starting your quilt. I’ve added instructions on how to test your scant 1/4 inch seam inside the basic instructions. Most quilt patterns require a scant 1/4 inch seam, they just don’t mention it. This 1/4 scant accounts for the little bit of fabric that is take up when you fold and press your seams open.

You will also want to look through the whole pattern to wrap the construction around your head before you start. You may need to cut your fabric differently if you want to make your flying geese or half square triangles with a different method than is listed in the pattern.

I like to go through all the steps and write in my color choices, so it’s less confusing when I get to those steps. You can also go through with a highlighter and mark the instructions for the size you are making, since the instructions are for baby, throw and queen size.

You could also tape pieces of your actual fabric to a pieces of paper and label it for reference.

Join me today at 10:15 am PST (West Coast USA) for a LIVE video in the Facebook Group to go over tips and answer any questions.

Make sure to share a photo of this weeks step on social media with the hashtag #AlohaRippleQAL or join the Facebook Group and post a photo!

Join the Facebook Group

Download Pattern

Next week we will be making our Flying Geese units! We will be using the 1 flying geese at a time method and the 4 at 1 time no waste method.

Here is the full Quilt Along Schedule:

Starting January 2nd: Download Pattern – Select your fabric and post a photo!
Week 1: January 16th: Cut fabric
Week 2: January 23rd: Make the Flying Geese
Week 3: January 30th: Make the Half Square Triangles
Week 4: February 6th: Make the Center Block (1)
Week 5: February 13th: Make Corner Blocks A (2)
Week 6: February 20th: Make Corner Blocks B (2)
Week 7: February 27th: Make the Stacked Flying Geese blocks (4)
Week 8: March 6th: Assemble your Quilt Top
Week 9: March 13th: Baste, Quilt and Bind your Quilt!

Happy Quilting!
Andrea