Blog

I’ve discovered a great way to face quilts – giving the look of no visible binding on the front. I found it in an article by Kathleen Loomis, in American Quilter magazine 7 years ago.

It’s not uncommon for a faced quilt to end up with bulky corners, but Kathleen’s way eliminates that problem with a slick trick for trimming out the excess.  I’ve used her facing technique for many of my quilts and have always been pleased with the results. Here are a few of my faced quilts. All three of these quilts are clearly art quilts and I felt a binding would have detracted from the finished look of the quilt.

 

 

 

Kathleen has a great tutorial for facing quilts on her blog (with lots of clear pictures) . She’s refined her technique a bit since I first read about it, and she’s eliminated the curved corner pieces on the back, but the essence is the same. Rather than my having to redo the instructions, I think you’ll enjoy getting it from the originator. Please click on this link for the step by step instructions:  http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2011/03/perfect-faced-quilts-tutorial.html.

Give it a try and then remember to “bookmark” her site so you can find it again (although the link will always be on my blog and you can find it by typing “facing” in the search box on the upper right of my blog page).

Sommer Sews!

Sommer and I had a sewing adventure this past week and I just have to share. She came over wearing pants that were about 1 ½” too long. Grandma decided she needed to do a quick hem job and Sommer was fascinated watching me thread the needle. She climbed up in my lap and really examined each stitch I was taking. After a few she said “I do it” and tried to take the needle from me. I told her it was too sharp and she should just watch. My next thought was: “I wish I had an old fashioned sewing card for her”, then: “where can I buy them nearby”, and this was followed quickly by “you own a paper punch – go find some cardboard”  😀 ! In a short amount of time she had colored on her card, I wrote her name on it and then found an old rainbow colored shoe lace. I took a video as she stitched, and you may click here to watch it. Here are a few pictures of Sommer sewing!

She loved it, and sewed, and re-sewed the card three times. She sure is grandma’s girl!

I’ll get to the topic at hand in a moment, but first, I received some lovely responses to last week’s post about the memorial quilt.  Please go to the comments on that post to read about them. There are so many ways quilts can be used to comfort and show love. Laura Krasinski reminded me of the memorial quilt the Milwaukee Art Quilters made for Margot (one of our members), who’s sister passed away. Each member made a floral block. Here’s Margot with the quilt.

This week Nancy sent me a photo of the memory quilt she made for her mother who is struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease. Here’s what she wrote:

“Dear Chris,I enjoyed your recent Blog about Memory Quilting.  I have done a lot of Memory Quilting and enjoy this process of keeping the past alive.  It was a helpful tool for me, also, when grieving the loss of a much loved family member.  I have attached two photos of a quilt I made for my mother who is living with Alzheimer’s Disease.  It has photos of her as a child, young adult, young mother and wife.  She has it on top of her bed and continues to tell me that “it is the best gift I have ever received”.  She looks at the photos and occasionally it triggers memories from the past.  Thanks for highlighting this quilting format.  Nancy”

This is Nancy’s lovely quilt:

My Father-in-law suffered with Alzheimer’s and he passed away a few years ago. In his memory I decided to make a small quilt for Ami Simm’s Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. She has raised a large amount of money to fight Alzheimer’s in honor of her mother, by auctioning off small art quilts (8″ x 11″). Harold Von der Linde, my dear FIL, was a passionate gardener, so I called his quilt “Memory Garden”. It sold for $75, what a blessing!

Then yesterday I received an email from Marie with this message:

“Chris, I enjoyed your blog on memorial quilts.  My grandmother passed away over 10 years ago and I was fortunate enough to get her stash.  She had scraps left over from toys and quilts she made the grandkids.  As I was going through the fabrics, I found several patchwork blocks and partial pieces from a double wedding ring.  This year for our family reunion I decided it was time to put them to good use.  Here are a couple of pictures of the wall hangings I made combining the pieces.  The family members who received them were just thrilled and I felt good about passing on a bit of my grandmother’s legacy.”

These are the pictures she included in the email:

They’re lovely Maire, thanks for sending the pictures!

So, on to “quilt turning”. Not as in “a bed turning of antique quilts”, but a simple technique for finishing small quilts, sometimes referred to as the “envelope” technique. This is my favorite way to do it and it’s really quite easy!

1. Square up your small quilt and cut a piece of batting the same size. Cut a piece of backing the same width, but add 1″ to the length measurement.

2. Sew a 1/4″ seam in the back (this will take up some of the extra length), leaving a 3″ opening in the stitching, and back stitching on both sides of the opening . Press the seam to one side, and cut the fold at the opening in the stitching. Trim the length to the same measurement as the quilt top.

3. Layer the pieces: batting, quilt top (face up) and then quilt back (right sides together). Stitch all the way around with a 1/4″ seam (no need to leave an opening along the edge).

4. Trim off the corners of the seam allowance and turn the quilt right side out.

5. Push corners out and press.

6. Stitch up the opening in the back and quilt as desired!

The best part of doing it this way is that the opening is easy to stitch together on the back and you don’t need to stitch up an opening along the outer edge of the quilt. The ones I’ve done that way always seemed to wobble a bit.

Another way to do a “non-binding” finish on the outer edge of your quilt is to face it. If you have an oddly shaped outer edge, you may want to refer to my previous post on that topic by clicking here.

When my quilts are meant to hang on a wall or go to competition, I really want them to be square and lay flat. This doesn’t always come naturally, so blocking is a good way to do some fine tuning. It won’t correct major ripples or wobbles, but it can work wonders for minor issues. Please be aware that I use this technique with cotton batts. Polyester batts may flatten due to melting from the heat of the iron. Be careful too that the colors in your fabric will not run when wet and the fibers are not too fragile for the heat of the iron.

I always quilt my quilts before I attach the binding. I feel this allows me to quilt any fullness out to the edges and then square things up prior to binding, yielding a truly square and flat quilt. So, once the quilting is done I do the square up step.

This is my method of choice:

1. Choose a carpeted, out of the way area and cover with a layer of towels a little larger than the quilt.

2. Place the quilt on the towels, back side up, and mist with water.

3. Turn the quilt to the right side and mist again.

4. Place a large square ruler in a corner and pin the quilt into the carpet along the ruler, keeping the edge of the quilt top even with the ruler. A bit of tugging and encouraging may be required.

5. Butt 2 long rulers up to the top and left edges of the square ruler. This is called “piggy backing” and creates a large square. Keeping the rulers aligned, continue pinning the quilt into the carpet.

6. Continue moving the rulers around the quilt, pinning as you go. Some areas require a bit more encouraging than others :-).

7. Once the entire perimeter has been pinned. Place a pressing cloth over an area and place the iron in the corner for a count of about 5. Move the iron to an adjacent area and repeat until the whole quilt has been pressed.

I then leave everything as is for at least 24 hours. This allows for thorough drying. Once the pins are removed, rotary cut around the now square outside edge of the quilt and bind!

Do you block your quilts?