Thursday, May 12, 2022

Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses Layout and adding Cornerstones



Layout: Circles and outside cornerstones are temporary glue-basted to facilitate hand-applique.
 
 

If you look closely you can see that the pieced blocks have holes where they meet the grey border. The plan was to add the cornerstones and I did so by preparing them the following way:

1) Iron 2" 3 layer-thick freezer paper square to the back of the 2 1/2" fabric square.

2) Wet the seam allowance with starch and iron to the back. Remove freezer paper square

3) Use Elmer's washable school glue to place 2" squares precisely in place. Because this glue is a starch product it will wash out completely. Use an iron to secure placement.

4) Repeat with all squares







































Saturday, August 14, 2021

Cross within a Cross and a Swiss Cross in the Middle



 

For each block use the background color and two additional colors. I had planed on using the specially designed Swiss fabrics that were custom made as Indonesian batiks and given to my by my best friend. She in turn had received them from her brother who was stationed at the Swiss Consulate in Bali, Indonesia. 




I received three fabrics that were either blue or green. (See above) And three different red batik fabrics. (see below).





 

 

 

For each block in addition to the background I used one red and one green/blue fabric.

 



Material requirement for a nine (9) block quilt:

1 1/4 yd background fabric* (grey & white flying geese print) * 1 yd, if the fabric is 42" or wider.

1/2 yd of each green or blue fabric

1/2 yd of each red fabric prints

1/4 yd solid white fabric

piece of 62" x 62" fabric for backing

generous 1/4 yd for binding (1 1/2" single fold)

batting

thread for piecing and quilting

bloc_loc ruler for half square tringle (https://blocloc.com/product/half-square-triangle-ruler-6-1-2-x-6-1-2/)*

bloc_loc ruler (flying geese) 3 1/2" X 6 1/2" (https://blocloc.com/product/flying-geese-ruler-3-x-6/)*

*optional, but makes the piecing much easier.

Cutting instructions:

First cut the grey & white flying geese (background) fabric. Cut the 7 1/4" strip first and subcut what is left over as needed

(9) 7 1/4" x 7 1/4" square  [cut (2) 7 1/4" strips. from those cut nine 7 1/4" squares and use the left over to cut 7" squares.

(18) 7" x 7" square  [cut (3 or 4) strips 7" as needed]; draw a diagonal line on the back of each square

Each blue or green fabric will be used three times.

From each blue or green fabric cut:

six (6) 7" x 7" squares  [one (1) 7" strip, cut required squares, use leftover to cut needed 4" squares]

twelve (12) 4" x 4" squares [one (1) 4" strip]; draw a diagonal line on each square

From each red fabric cut

twelve (12) 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" rectangle [ cut one (1) 3 1/2" strip and one (1) 6 1/2" strip. Cut 6 rectangles from each strip. You do this to help when using a directional print.

Cut one (1) 2 7/8" strip subcut into twelve (12) 2 7/8" x 2 7/8" squares (you should be able to cut eleven from that strip. Cut the pissing square from the leftover 3 1/2" or 6 1/2" strip.

Cut twelve (12) 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" squares from leftover from the 3 1/2" or 6 1/2" strips.

 2 Two (2) solid white 1 3/4" strips to use in all blocks:

For one block cut from that strip one (1) 4 1/8" piece and two (2) 1 11/16" piece. (Needed to preserve the Swiss specific cross proportions).

After cutting assemble what you need for each block as listed below.

Two (2) background color 7" x 7" squares  (white & grey flying geese print)

One (1) 7 1/4" x 7 1/4" square background color  (white & grey flying geese print)

Two (2) blue or green color 7" x 7" squares 

Four (4) 4" x 4" squares (blue or green fabric)

Four (4) 6 1/2" x 3 1/2" inner cross fabric (red)

Four (4) 2 7/8" x 2 7/8" squares (red)

Four (4) 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" square inner cross fabric (red)

Solid white fabric: One 1 3/4" x 4 1/8" piece and two (2) 1 11/16" x 1 11/26"pieces

Piecing:

1) Take two (2) background and two (2) blue or green 7" squares. Lay the light colored background on top of the blue or green fabric and sew with a 1/2" seam on each side of the line. Cut apart on the pencil line, open and iron the seam allowance to the dark fabric. Use the bloc_loc ruler to square the HST to 6 1/2". You will have four of those.



2) Take one (1) background 7 1/4" square on the table. Place two (2) blue or green fabric squares (4") in opposite corners. The drawn diagonal line should continue and form one line. Using a 1/4" seam allowance sew along both sides of this line. Cut apart on the line and iron the seam allowance to the dark color. You have a kind of triangle with wings. Place the two other squares in the corner and sew along both sides. Cut apart and you will have four (4) flying geese units with small dark side triangles.


Geese construction. Green squares have a white diagonal line and 1/4" stitching on both sides.

After cutting apart and triangles ironed away for big white triangle.

Last two squares, line drawn and ready for stitching.


Just before squaring up.

 

3) Use the bloc_loc flying geese ruler and square the units up.

 

 

 

 

 

4) Take a 1 11/16" x 1 3/4" piece and sew a red 1 3/4" square on one side. Do the same for the other 1 11/16" piece.



5) Sew one (1) 2 7/8" square on each side of the small white strip that you created before. Sew the second red square on the opposite side and make another unit just like that again.

6) Take the white 4 1/8" x 1 3/4" piece and sew a small 1 3/4" square on each side. 

7) Fold the white rectangle with the red tips in half and also fold the short white piece with the red squares in half to mark the centers. Place on top and sew the seam. The edges will not be even you will trim the unit later.

8) Do the same to the other side. You created the center cross. Trim to 6 1/2".

9) Lay out the block. Take the HST you made in step 1 and place them in the corners. Take the Flying Geese units from step 2 and 3 and place them between the HST. Take a red rectangle and place by the geese units, toward the center. The center cross unit is place in the middle.

10) Sew the red rectangle to the flying geese unit.

11) Sew all the parts together to make a cross within a cross block.

12) Make eight (8) more blocks. Once blocks are completed, lay them out as desired and complete quilt top.

How to use fabric efficiently?

When making my usual calculations, with how much background fabric I would need to make this double cross, with a smaller Swiss cross in the center of the block, I came up with this:

 

Cut: (3) three 7" wide strips

from each I will then get (5) five 7" squares. By cutting (3) three strips I would get 15 squares. I need 18.

But I also have to cut 7 1/4" strips and I can get the three missing 7" squares from the three 7 1/4" strip. 

Cut (9) nine 7 1/4" squares, (each strip will give me 4 squares).

This would mean I need 1 1/4 yd of the white print background fabric.

Which I didn't have. 

I had 1 yard.

But my fabric was a bit wider than the assumed 40". It was 42" excluding the selvage. This allowed me to cut the 9 squares from (2) two 7 1/4" strips and I then had exactly 21" of yardage left to cut 3 strips of 7", subcut each strip into 6 squares. 

3 strips x 6 (7" squares) = 18 squares, 2 for each block = 9 blocks = enough fabric for nine blocks.

Chosen lay-out: 3 x 3 block.










Finished Quilt bound in light grey, 52" x 52" after washing. Pieced blocks measured 18" before quilting.

Back, quilted with an orange peel straight line pattern on a 3" grid

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Working with truly unique and therefore precious fabrics


My very best friend gave me an amazing gift last December. 

6 Unique Indonesian Batik Fabrics

Her brother was stationed in Indonesia with the Swiss Consulate and the Consulate commissioned local artisans to create a Swiss themed fabric line. I was the lucky     recipient of several of those fabrics.



The red fabrics



The blue and green fabrics

Paper version of the fabric, regular color copy of the fabric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maquette of the block, made by glueing the printed papers on a drawn-out block
 

No way I would waste any of it to check what it might look like. Instead I did the following:

I used my copy machine. I printed 4 pages, 2 each of the colors and then glued the pieces on the printed block.This allows me also to keep the fabric pieces fairly big, as cutting them too small would not do them justice. Now I will place them on a wall and reflect, weather this is what I want to do. 

The size of the inside cross needs to be adjusted to the accurate size which is square flag and arms that longer than the width and the exact width apart from the edge. 

All that is left to do is choose the best size of the block and piecing sequence of the center, while paying attention to the exact dimension as well as possible. And maybe make more paper maquettes to check other color-ways of the block.



Friday, March 20, 2020

Quilt-As-You-Go, in rows, Quilt in progress

 This is a quilt I am working on. I had made 12 Log Cabin blocks, that I set with green alternating blocks with an applique circle. I pieced 4 log cabin blocks and 4 green blocks together into a small top, as shown. I layered it with batting and backing and use water solvable thread to stitch around the perimeter of the quilt part.
The final quilt center will have 3 parts and borders, but as I said it is in progress...
 Here you see the three parts. The middle part is quilted and trimmed.
But stop - not yet.
There is a trick to the trimming. The backing and batting are trimmed to the perimeter stitching line and the top extends 1/4" out. The regular seam allowance will be added to the next part. On the back, backing and batting will butt together. the seam on the back will be covered with a strip.


 Center panel quilted and trimmed, view from the top
Here you see the same panel from the back and the 1/4" seam allowance.






 Here the special ruler I used to trim the panel. This ruler has a metal lip that pushes the top back when you trim the batting and backing.
 Here the ruler flipped over, so you see the metal lip

Because each panel is done that way, this construction technique will allow that the back can have a geometric design too.

More once I have progressed further...

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Für meine Schüler zu St. Patricks Day

 Das brauchst du dazu:
1 Stück Filz, Stoff oder farbiges Papier, grün ist am besten (ca. 4" x 4")
Pappe von einer Frühstückflockenbox
dünner schwarzer Filzstift
Faden
Nähnadel mit nicht zu dünnem Öhr (eye of the needle)
 Im geschickten Email hast du die Vorlage. Drucke sie aus, klebe sie auf die Pappe und schneide dann aus. Evtl. kannst du auch einfach das Papier auschneiden, allerdings musst du dann sorgfältig arbeiten.
Mach eine Pappschablone
 Schneide sie aus und benutze die Schablone, um 4 solche Teile auf den Filz oder das Papier zu zeichen.
So wie hier.
 Schneide die einzelnen Teile aus.
 Schneide einen langen Faden ab und mach am Ende einen dicken Knoten.
 Stich in die vier Punkte ein. Rauf und runter, wie im Bild...
 1 Blatt aufgefädelt.
 alle vier nach einander auf dem gleichen Faden aufgefädelt.
 Verknote nun den Anfang mit dem Ende. Zieh stark and und...
voilà - ein Kleeblatt entsteht.