Tag: b590 (Page 1 of 3)

Ohio Star

02/20/2024 / Hunter Deuling

Block 4 – Billie’s Sampler

The Ohio Star is a great grid based star block. it is a simple Nine Patch, made with Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs) and Solid Squares

This block was made with a three (3) color quarter square triangle unit. Using the Anthology Batik Love Fat Quarter Bundle and Maywood Studio Dragonfly White fabric. I choose to add a yellow highlight triangle to the quarter square triangles. I like how this block turned out. The yellow is from McKower Solids.

Fabric Requrements

4 – 4 1/2″ squares Backgroud fabric

1 – 4 1/2″ square Accent fabric

2 – 6″ squares Accent fabric

1 – 6″ square Background fabric

1 – 6″ square highlight fabric (can also be Background fabric for tradional QST unit)

Ohio-Star-Cutting Download

Please note: I cut my blocks bigger and then trim down. The cutting instructions are actual size requrements.

Making Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs)

First using background and highlight fabric and mark for half square triangles. Using your prefered method of securing your 6″ squares. Accent and Background/Highlight fabric right sides together. I used Seam Align Glue from Acorn Precision Piecing. I used the Studio 180 Magic Wand to mark my stitching lines

Stitch 1/4″ from the center dianglely corner to corner. I used a 1.8mm straight stitch. Note I marked my acutal stitching line. You can also mark one line down the middle using your 1/4″ foot. But you can use what ever HST or QST method you prefer. Need is 4 – 4 1/2″ QST units for this project

Now that your 2 square units are stitched. Cut each unit into half down the middle between your two stitch lines. This will give you a total of 4 HST units. in my case 2 units with background and 2 units with highlight fabric.

Now press your HST units open. I pressed to the Accent fabric.

Now mark your HST units with Background fabric again. just like you did with your HSTs in the beginning. However going to mark dianglely from corn to corner opposite your seam. As show see the lines going from accent to background fabric corner. Again marking my stitching lines with the Studio 180 Magic Wand

Using your prefered securing method, I used Seam Align Glue. Secure from corner to corner between your two new stitch lines.

Next place the other 2 HST units opposite. Background/Hightlight fabric over Accent fabric. As shown in the photo above. Make sure your HST seams properly nest or match.

Stitch 1/4″ inch again from the center corner to corner. As you can see I marked my actual stitching lines again. Again using a 1.8 mm straight stitch wth Amann Mettler Saba

Repeat cutting each unit in half between your two (2) stitch lines. Giving you a Total of four (4) QST units.

Press your units open. Notice I pressed to the background fabric side. Doesn’t matter just be consistent. Using the Pressing Solution from Acorn Precision Piecing, making sure the seams are totally flat. little to no bulk. Now you have a total of four (4) beautiful QST units. Note I make my QSTs larger than required. the reason I do this I am sometimes a heavy pressor and can distort the bias seams. This results in wonky or skewed QSTs.

Trim each unit down to proper size. This block requires 4 1/2″ sub blocks I used the 4 1/2 (4.5)” square template to trim my QSTs to proper size. By matching the corner of the template with each of the seam lines in your QST unit. This insures your block is properly centered in the middle of the template. Trim each side.

It is acceptable to use your preferred method. Many like the Studio 180 Tuckerizing method using the Tucker Trimmer But what ever method it is your choice!

With four (4) perfectly trimmed QST units. Noting the perfect points in the center, this is done by carefully matching seams. I personally prefer my Martelli Templates. They offer easy fast and accurate trimming

Assembling 9 Patch (Ohio Star)

Assembly should be pretty simple for most quilters. Even beginners. This biggest issue is to make sure the highlight fabric faces the center accent fabric block.

But this is simple steps.

match a background square and your QST unit with highlight fabric facing down. and a second background square with another QST unit with highlight fabric facing up. (the direction doesn’t matter unless you are using a directional background fabric).
now Accent square and QST unit with hight fabric facing your seam line.
stitch all three units with a 1/4″ seam allowance using your favorite 1/4″ pieicng foot. I used the Bernina #97D Piecing Foot without guide on my Bernina B590 with again a 1,8 mm straight stitch.
Press seams your seams. I chose to press to the background fabric.
add second backgroud square on opposite side of each of your 2 units. And the second QST unit to the opposite side of your center Accent square again becareful to make sure your highlight fabric faces your center square unit.
Aagain stitch each of the 3 units with your 1/4″ seam allowance.
Press seams again I chose to press to my solid square unit.
now assemble the three units care to match all seam intersections. and press the seams away from the center strip.

Success you have finished Block 4 Ohio Star!

Video

Drunkards Path

02/13/2024 / Hunter Deuling

Block 3 – Billie’s Sampler

The Drunkards Path block is a tradtional block. However, it requres curved piecing. There are many videos and posts online how to make the tradtional Drunkards Path block. So I am not going to spend time elaborating. However I am attaching the templates to make the 16 blocks required for Block 3. Each block is 3″ inch finished.

drunkard-path-templates Download

Method

Cutting

4 x 7″ inch squares (3 background and 1 center fabric)

4 x 4″ inch circles (3 border and 1 corner fabic)

1 piece of Water Soluble Mesh

Attached circle templates

DrunkardPathCircleTemplates4inch Download

Making Circles

1 circle is to use the corner (center) fabic and 3 circles are the darker color for contrast. Place water soluble mesh stablizer on front (right side) of fabric and template on top of the mesh. Stitch using a straight stitch (used 1.8mm stitch )

Cut your circles out with approximately 1./4″ inch allowance. Doesn’t have to be perfect.

Remove paper template, should be easy when using a 1.8mm stitch.

Clip a hole in the center of the mesh and turn your circles right side out. and you might want to press with a lightly warm iron (not a hot iron my melt or shrink your mesh) and do no use steam. Moisture with dissove the mesh.

Now we must mark your circles with an X with the point in the center. Also at the same time mark your 7″ inch squares from corner to corner

Using your prefered water soluble glue (for this project Elmer’s Purple Glue stick was used) glue your circles to the center of each of your squares using the lines to get everything perfect. use a warm iron to set your glue.

Once all the pieces are complete and stable Using a 2mm x 2mm blanket stitch (Amann Mettler Saba 150 wt thread) stitch your circles down. Work slowly so that the stitching is smooth as possible. Moving the needle to the far left and the #20D Bernina Open Toe foot was perfect for this task. You can use your favorite applique foot.

With the applique securly stitched. it is time to cut your 7″inch squares into 3 1/2″ quarters. There should be 4 blocks per 7″ inch block making a total of 16 – 3 1/2″ inch drunkards path block.

Layout your design. Careful to get all the curvers and points to match. You can see I used the Pink Batiks for my center and corner accents and white for the backgroud.

Piecing the block together is a simple matter of working with four patch block. Stitch two blocks at a time. the 4×4 grid or 16 patch is actual simply 4 x four patch blocks assembled into a pattern.

Caution when pressing seams. The center area of the blocks can become a little think and difficult to work with, Take your time and press your seams flat. I used Acorn Precision Piecing Pressing Solution.

Now your block is finished. Success The Drunkards Path is complete. With that over with, a huge sigh of relief on my part. I have done several challenges using drunkards path, and I can honestly say this is not a favorite. But it is complete.? And acceptable for me. Even though not perfect.

Video

Grandma’s Flower Garden

01/28/2024 / Hunter Deuling

Billie’s Sampler – Block 1

Grandma’s Flower Garden Block is old basic Hexagon design. This block can be Pieced, English Paper Pieced or Appliqued. The applique method depends on your personal style. You can use Raw Edge, Turned Edge, or like I, Satin Stitch.

But a note about the satin stitches. I will not use this method again. It took me three (3) days of stitching to finish this simple block. One (1) day cutting hexagons and stitching each down on my 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 backgroud block. And two (2) days to acutually stitch all the satin stitches. However, I never do myself any favors. I manually tapered each point on every hexagon. What fun. My Bernina B590 does not offer tapering. However my Pfaff Creative Sensation does have this feature, which would have made my life so much easier. So suggested do not try this unless your machine has a tapering feature. Just for Sanity!

Working with Hexagons

Talk about teaching a old dog new tricks. I learned something new working with the hexagons in this project.

I was always taught that a Hexagon is measured by using its diameter. Point to point. So in this block you would use 2 inch finsihed hexagons. However in quilting a hexagon is measured by one side. Thus getting a 1 inch finished hexagon. Always something new.

Piecing Hexagons

If you choose to piece the hexagons, then you would need to cut 19 – 1 1/2″ inch hexagons for this block. It must be noted that when piecing hexagons you do not want to stitch from edge to edge. The reason is the stitch crossing all the different corners causes little bumps in your block. Therefore, you always piece a hexagon starting 1/4″ from the edge and stopping 1/4″ before the ending edge. This why so many hand piece. However, with many modern machines you can create a program stitch that is 1″ long or 25mm to 25.5mm long swam (1″ equals 25.4mm). You can even program locking stitches. On my Bernina this procedure is called Stitch Recorder, On my Pfaff called Stitch Program My old Janome MC 12000 would automaticlly ask if I wanted to repeat the stitch sequence that was just completed, this popup showed when using the piecing function in the T-shirt menu.

Notice the inside stitching line in the imagine above. To make this process easier, I would mark my seam lines. Using Martellie Hexagon Templates use the 1 1/2″ hexagon template to cut the 19 hexagons. Then using the 1″ hexagon placing in the center of the cut 1 1/2″ hexagon piece, using pencil or other marking tool, mark the seam allowance, using the edge of the 1″ hexagon template. You can also use a Studio 180 Magic Wand or any other tool that helps you to mark a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Satin Stitch Applique

I choose to use Satin Stitch applique. Using the same method with Turned or Raw Edge, minus satin stitching around each seam.

First cutting 19 – 1″ inch hexagons, I used Martelli Heagon Templates. Also need to cut 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 inch background square. Locate the center of the background square. Note the pencil lines from corner to corner and middle to middle on the image below. Gluing your center hexagon to the center of the square Then glue each round of hexigons. for a total of two (2) rounds. I used Acorn Precision Piecing Seam Align Glue, however, it is okay to use Elmer’s or any other Water Soluble glue for this step.

After the glue is set, either by drying or pressing with a warm iron. Using a small zigzag stitch, I used 3mm wide by 2mm lengh. Using your stitch in the ditch (edge stitch) foot (#10 Bernina Foot), stitch around all the edges of your hexagons. The blade of your foot can follow the space around each hexagon. (Thus you have 1.5mm on each hexagon). This secures yours hexagon pieces to your background fabric.

Note, if you choose the Raw edge method, then it may be better to increase the width of your zigzag to 4mm or 5mm. Also you can use a blacket stitch or double blanket stitch for this method (Blanket Stitch1309 and Double Blanket Stitch 1313, This stitches my be differrent on your machine). By choosing Turned edge, then may want to decrease your stitch width for a more invisible stitch.

Statin Stitching

Choosing a tapered statin stitch was a difficult choice. Wanting to make the design look more like a flower bloom and each heagon as a single petal. Adding two (2) layers of tear away stablizer. Also used used a tapered 4mm statin stitch, using Amann Mettler Saba 80 weight, corespun polyester thread.

Well this was a interesting block and first step in creating the Billie Sampler. Loved the choosen method in theory. However, time and end results where not exactly what was intended. Will I redo the block no! Will I choose this method again NO!