Quilting On A Budget

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Tag: Seam Align Glue

Drunkards Path

02/13/2024 /

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-templatesDownload

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

DrunkardPathCircleTemplates4inchDownload

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

Monkey Wrench

02/02/2024 /

Block 2 – Billie’s Sampler

Monkey Wrench is a simple Nine (9) Patch Pieced Block. The Finished size for all the blocks in the Billie’s Smapler is 12×12″ inches. 

Above is the grid layout for the Monkey Wrench block. Since we are working to create a 12×12″ inch block. Each sub block of this simple nine patch should be a finished 4×4″ inch sub block

Cutting Instructions

1 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2″ inch Square Dark Fabric

4 x 2 1/2 x 4 1/2″ inch Rectagle Medium Fabric

4 x 2 1/2×4 1/2″ inch Rectable Light Fabric

2 x 4 7/8″ inch Square Dark or Medium Fabric

2 x 4 7/8″ inch Square Light Fabric

Note: I cut my squares for HSTs larger than required and cut down. I cut mine a 5 1/2″ inches and trim

Making Half Square Triangles (HSTs)

First mark the wrong side (or Back) of your light HST fabric with stitch lines. I mark my actual seam lines using a Studio 180 Magic wand. However many choose to mark a line from corner to corner.

Then using Acorn Precision Piecing Seam Align Glue, or other water soluble adhesive, add a few dot down the center corner to corner

Placing your medium/dark and light HST fabric right sides together. using warm iron (no steam) press to dry the glue, holding the two pieces together securely

Now stitch on your stitiching lines (or 1/4″ from center line) on each side of your HST square. 

Note I choose to use a 1.8mm stitch length. Using Amann Mettler Saba 180wt corespun polyester thread. I use this super thin tread with smaller stitch length because there is no thread bulk in my seams. Also I piece using a Organ HLx5 75/11

Note: I use Organ HLx5 needles because they are hardened, with a anti heat and anti glue coatings. This makes these needles last forever, I can easily get up to 6 months of regular piecing with each of the needles. Also, please take my advice these needles are not for the beginner sewist/quilter. The reason is because of the coatings and hardening, when you break one, it can severely knock your machine out of alignment. I have had to take my machine to the dealer/tech a couple times becuase I broke a needle and it moved the needle position or effected the machine timing. 

Futhermore, Schmetz also makes an HLx5 needle. The Schemtz HLx5 version has a ball or dull point, where the Orgran version has a very sharp point which is what I prefer?

Cut your squares corner to corner between your two (2) seams. This will give you 4 HSTs. Press your triangles open to the darker fabric. 

Using 5 1/2″ squares, it is needed to trim your HST squares down to 4 1/2″. I use my Martelli Square Template 4.5″. Align the corner points of template with your seam line. Trim using the edge of the template. This gives you a perfect 4 1/2″ square.

The HSTs step is complete?

Stripe Center Blocks

Taking your 4 Dark and Medium 2 1/2×4 1/2″ rectagles. Stitch each set together on the long side. Again I used Saba 180wt thread with 1.8mm stitch length. Press your 4 squares open to the dark. 

Assembling Block

it is time to assemble the block. Being a simple nine patch. there are many ways to assemble the block. I choose to assemble 3 rows of 3 squares .

You need to lay your block out and decide how you want to assemble. As displayed you will notice I wanted my lighter strip facing the the darker center. And wanting the darker side of my HSTs to face the matching darker center. However the layout is up to you!

A moment of caution please take your time assembling your block. As you will noticed I turned one of the stripe blocks upside down. Meaning I had to spend a few moments with Jack the Ripper. And because if use smaller stitches, it takes a little longer and significant more caution when ripping a seam. So take your time and get your sub blocks placed and turned correctly before assembling. 

Success Block 2 Complete – Monkey Wrench!

Video

Grandma’s Flower Garden

01/28/2024 /

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! 

Video

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