By: Pat Sloan

Almost all quilters start to quilt by learning how to “Piece”. You know… cutting perfectly good fabric into small squares, rectangles and triangles. Then sewing those back together to make an awesome quilt block. Then we do it again, and again, and again!

Many of you stay at piecing your entire quilt career and many venture out into the wild world of other quilt techniques.

Michele and I wanted to explore the very base of our craft, the pieced block.

• When was the last time you pieced a block? I bet many of you say this week!
• When was the last time you had some trouble with that block?
• Or maybe your a very new quilter and still working through what a block is.

I invited Faith Jones of Fresh Lemon Quilts to guest post a basic piecing tutorial… take it away Faith!

Quilt Piecing 101

By: Faith Jones of Fresh Lemon Quilts

Basics:

• Piecing a quilt is the process of sewing your cut fabric pieces together.
• Typically in quilting, your seam allowance is 1/4″. Your sewing machine may have markings so you can easily line up your fabric for piecing.



• You may also purchase additional sewing machine feet to help accurately piece your quilt blocks. I have two 1/4″ piecing feet. You can see that one of the feet below has a metal guide to help achieve a consistent 1/4″ seam allowance.

In this tutorial, we are going to piece together a 9-patch quilt block which will measure 9-1/2″ x 9-1/2″ unfinished. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Using a rotary cutter and quilter’s ruler, cut 9 fabric squares measuring 3-1/2″ x 3-1/2″.

Step 2: Let’s start by sewing the top row of 3 blocks together. Take the first 2 squares and place them right sides of fabric together.

Step 3: Line up the edge of your fabric along the 1/4″ markings on your sewing machine. Stitch a straight line down the entire side of the squares.

Here is how your fabric will look once you are done sewing your 1/4″ seam.

Step 4: Time to press the seams. There are a couple ways to do this, and it typically comes down to personal preference. Some like to press their seams open.

However, when I’m sewing rows of squares together, I like to press my seams to the side. (I will explain more on why later in the tutorial.)

Step 5: Repeat this process with the 3rd block in the top row. Press the seams in the same direction as the first seam you pressed to the side.

Step 6: Repeat this process with the 3 blocks in the second row of squares. Press the seams in the opposite direction as the first row you pieced.

Step 7: Repeat this process finally with the 3 blocks in the third row of squares. Press the seams in the opposite direction as the second row you pieced.

Step 8: Now we will sew the rows together. Place your first and second row of squares right sides of fabric together. Line up your seams.

This is where you will see the benefits of alternating the pressing of the seams to the sides. When your blocks are lined up, the pressed seams will lock the blocks into place keeping everything aligned perfectly.

Pin your rows together:

Sew down the full length of the row:

Press your seams either open or to the side:

Step 9: Repeat this process to attach row three. Congratulations! You’ve pieced together a 9-patch quilt block!

I hope you picked up a tip or two … I personally love the foot with the edge on it!

On Feb 13, 2012 Faith was on my radio show… why don’t you get to know her a bit better by listening to our chat!.

Be sure to check out her blog, Fresh Lemon Quilts, too… it’s filled with awesome tutorials and inspiration.

Question For The Day

I asked my Facebook group… “What problem do you encounter most when piecing?”

Matching seams

• A TIP from Laura at Facebook.. “Fork pins from Clover are the answer to perfectly matched seams. Fantastic product!”
• Roseann Kermes has a blog post on them: Stick a fork in it!

Maintaining 1/4 inch seams and a quarter inch can vary quite a bit from one machine to another

• Sandi from Piecemeal Quilts has this great tutorial: Quarter Inch Seams
• Another write up on the The Perfect 1/4″ Seam
• Also for a video look under ‘Machine Minute Section’ for the 1/4″ seam video at All People Quilt site.

I have trouble Understanding some Directions

As a pattern writer and someone who also teaches hundreds of quilters in my workshops each year… I totally hear you on this one! Everyone understands directions differently. My recommendations for understanding directions that are not clear to you…

1. Read through all the steps before starting. Sounds simple.. but I know we are very impatient and often just ‘jump in’ and go!
2. Write to the pattern designer or publisher for clarification. They are more than happy to get you going!
3. Have a friend read over the directions, one who does not learn the same way you do.
4. If there is no diagram, sketch one yourself. That way you’re sewing with your pencil first.
5. Try looking on YouTube for a video of the technique.
6. Search online at places like AllPeopleQuilt.com for a similar block and see if they gave different directions that work better for you.

Stretching the fabric and how do I keep everything square

I do find that Fabric can have a life of its own. It stretches, and some fabrics stretch more than others. Our pressing, seams and everything else we do to a block will have an effect on it. Lots of people Starch or use Best Press on the fabric before cutting. This helps to ‘firm up’ the fabric so it does not stretch on bias. Experiment with it and see if it helps you out.

Here are some tips: How to Square Up Quilt Blocks and I found this great PDF write up Squaring Up Quilt Blocks.

Give-Away!

Click on over to my blog today.. I’m hosting a giveaway of TWO copies of Quilt Album quilt tracking software!

And in the true spirit of Quilters Helping Quilters… can you answer any of these questions your fellow quilters sent in?

• “Finding Time” or “My impatience. oh, yeah, and kids’ needs (aka “demands”) distracting me”
• Trying to press open 6 or more seams…getting them to spiral open correctly
• Y seams, square blocks, and those multiple seams
• Matching seams on half-square triangles and keeping true 1/4″ seams
• Stitch and flip not lining up properly once flipped – seems like I’m always having to adjust a line
• Running out of bobbin thread and not knowing it when chain piecing

My Books: Learning to Quilt

I have 2 books for learning to quilt. “I can’t Believe I’m Quilting” and “Beyond the Basics”.

Pat Sloan is owner and founder of the quilting design and publishing company Pat Sloan & Co. She has published over 25 books, more than 100 patterns, nearly 10 fabric lines, and has had her work featured in all the major Quilt magazines. In January 2010, Pat started hosting her weekly Internet Radio show called Creative Talk Radio.

Find Pat here:

Web Site | Blog | Radio Show | Facebook | Twitter
Quilt Forum | Pinterest | Newsletter

Please join me in welcoming today’s guest blogger, Heather Spence. Last year, Heather hosted a Mystery Quilt By Email to raise funds for her mom’s stem cell transplant. Now, Heather’s hosting another Mystery Quilt to help another family stricken by cancer and ever-increasing medical bills. I hope you’ll join the Mystery Quilt FUN and help too.

Thank you, Michele, for having me back again! What a joy it was to be able to share my mom’s story about her cancer and my plan to help with her stem cell transplant. For those of you who don’t know the transplant took place on December 6th and was successful. Recovery from the stem cell transplant is approximately 3 months with near constant monitoring. Thankfully she returned home on St. Patrick’s Day (how’s that for the luck of the Irish?). She is now allowed to drive and has been released into the “wild” again (that is, general public) though she will not be able to pursue gardening for a year due to microscopic organisms that could harm her baby immune system. We have all greatly appreciated the love and support from around the world! Thank you all!!

But the Mystery Quilt… that’s why I’m really here. We had such success for our first Mystery Quilt! There were 81 participants which enabled me to give my mom $810!! That was so amazing to me. I truly couldn’t have done it without you. And now there’s another lady who is in serious need of help.

Just after the fall Mystery Quilt started a new client came to my house to discuss a quilt she wanted quilted for her son and daughter in law. There was a bit of urgency to the job as her daughter in law had been diagnosed with Melanoma which had spread to her brain and lungs (which Melanoma does…so be sure to have moles checked out by a doc!) from her eye. The prognosis wasn’t good.

Well, the long and the short of it is this: she was able to have the tumors in her lungs removed and I believe they’ve been doing radiation and a few other trial therapies for the tumor in her brain. She was meant to pass away this last November but, by the grace of God, has survived in amazing ways! She has even asked her doctors when she can go back to work!! (Her doctor asked incredulously, “Do you really have any idea what we’ve done to your brain?!?”)

But here’s the saddest part of the story. Sandee is young (mid-40′s) with three teenage children. She was working two jobs so they could make car payments and mortgage. And then she got sick. She had to quit both of her jobs. Then the medical bills start rolling in. The insurance/medical group (insurance company that has their own medical facilities and staff that is quite large here in Western Washington) didn’t do a good job with her diagnosis and treatment so she went to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance for better care. A couple of months ago the insurance company dropped her as a client. (Apparently they can do that if you go outside their system…ironically, this will be against the new health care system rules when it goes into effect January 2014.)

During some recent research I found out that a shocking 60% of cancer survivors below the retirement age end up declaring bankruptcy. It’s tragic and demoralizing when there’s all this cutting edge care for cancer patients but no real help financially for those who are struggling. The average cost of cancer treatment is in the millions. Did you know that as a normal-every-day person without health problems an average American will make over the course of their life $2 million dollars. It is unfathomable to me how these two numbers don’t add up.

Now, I’m not here to debate people’s personal financial choices, nor do I even want to talk about what the American government is or is not doing.

What I want to share is HOPE. Real live, true HOPE for Sandee and her family. To show that others do care for the struggles they find themselves in. The goal of the Mystery Quilt for Cancer Patients is to provide money to help with their medical bills.

How can you help? What can you do?? Well, there are a couple of things:

1. Sign up for the Mystery Quilt. You can do so at Heather Spence Designs. If you would prefer I can also send you an invoice but be aware that this will take longer to process.
2. You can give directly to Sandee by contacting any US Bank branch and tell them you’d like to make a contribution to the benevolence fund for Sandee Adair-Gascoigne.

What is the Mystery Quilt?

It is a quilt pattern but one to which you do not know what it will look like. Starting on April 27th at noon (Pacific Standard Time) I will send out an email once a week for seven weeks with instructions on how to make the quilt top. Each clue is easy enough that you should be able to finish it each week. Should you keep up, you should have a finished top at the end of the seven weeks! This pattern is perfect for the experienced beginner. Keep in mind you would be making your own quilt, this is not a collective project. What you do with your own quilt is up to you!

How much is it?

Just $10! And, all monies go directly to Sandee. I take nothing. :D It’s my way of helping in ways that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

How will I know how much fabric to buy?

Once we receive notice that your payment for the Mystery Quilt has come through we will send you fabric requirements with samples of the fabrics you will need for the project.

Coupons & Give-Aways!!

Yeah!! We’re having giveaways! When you purchase the pattern you will get a 20% off coupon for the Fat Quarter Shop. Isn’t that fun?!? Every single person who signs up from April 11th on will get a coupon code with the fabric requirements. Just redeem at checkout. Easy!! As well, we’ve got other fun bits and pieces we’re still finalizing but I want to throw the words ‘Aurifil’ and ‘Fat Quarters’ and ‘Olfa’ out there. Ha!

Where can I find more information?

There are several places: my web site. Also at my web site in the bottom right hand corner there is a button for my Flickr group. You can check out a few quilts from the Fall Mystery Quilt and some of the fabrics others have chosen for their Spring Mystery Quilt. I’ve got a Facebook group started as well. That too is a great location for chattering about the project. You can also email me if you have any other questions. This is also a great project for quilt groups & guilds.

As sad and horrible as cancer is I also want to say that there is always something that we can do to beat it or help others who are in need. Even ten little dollars can add up to make a huge change in someone’s life.

I look forward to meeting you…soon!! Sign up for the Mystery Quilt here!

Kindest (and healthy) regards,

~ heather spence

Please join me in welcoming today’s guest blogger Lindy Weber. This is Lindy’s second post as she embarks on her adventure of a lifetime. She’s giving away an assortment of deliciously dyed wool too.

Read Part 1 of Lindy’s Journey here!

Well, check another step off the ‘how to achieve your dream year abroad’ list! We have gone to our appointment with the Homeland Security office and had our biometrics recorded. It is a matter of electronically obtaining your fingerprints and a reading of the iris of your eye. Now we wait for about ten days for the official results to come to us and add it to our UK visa application packet.

Once we have quadruple checked to make sure we have ALL the necessary papers required we bundle them all up, including our passports, and mail it off to New York. You mess up one thing and they will say, “Sorry, you are denied”. How scary is that? Then we wait…

While in waiting mode I have made great plans to learn about all things wooly in Scotland. I want to know how to card, and drop spindle spin, and spinning wheel spin and and finally overcome my inexplicable terror of knitting socks and sweaters. Researching online I am finding out how instrumental the UK has been, and still is, in keeping the heritage breeds of sheep viable. The resilient wool of the Swaledale,

the crisp, white, lustrous wool produced by the Cheviot Sheep-with their cute faces,

and the long, lustrous and curly fleece of the ‘mops on legs’ Wensleydales,

make this budding felted wool artist long to play with wool. Time to dye!

Not that I ever need an excuse to dye! I go through long stretches of life with rainbow colored hands, stained fingernails and tie-dyed feet and toes. Yes, I do know I ought to wear gloves – but it just isn’t the same! I usually dye in the warm summer months, which explains the feet. But this winter, I just had to try the immensely popular snow dyeing.

I am nearly hyperventilating over the prospect of my Gilda Baron felted wool backgrounds workshop. This has empowered me to dye wool, and LOTS of it!

So, while we await the powers that be to decide the fate of our UK year, I research, I dye, I continue to dream.

Give-Away

Question for April – I have found the placing of my beloved pets into new homes the most emotionally wrenching part of the dream-achieving path. What would be the hardest person/place/thing for you to part with?

Share your response in the comments below. I’ll be giving away an eclectic little assortment of deliciously dyed wool. Winner will be randomly selected next Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

Lindy Weber

Congratulations to the winner: #18 Judy Cox. I’ve sent you an email.