Huge Quilt Block Squaring Up - one way how

Boy has it been a busy month!

There has been a lot of this going on.....all three boys moved bedrooms.....much cleaning and painting, getting things ready for the baby.

(Becket was super excited to help paint his new room.  Being unable to hand over control of stuff, I didn't want him to REALLY paint the wall.  So I gave him a small trim roller for his paint.  He worked happily away for a long time, then we re-coated the area for a solid look later.)

I've actually done a decent amount of quilt and baby sewing as well. Just haven't had the time to photo and post them yet.

But, I got an email asking about how I squared up my large, purple quilt blocks - they were larger than my biggest square ruler. I already had several pictures on my computer, and have ditched the photoshop editing part of my process in the interest of actually getting this posted!

The challenge here is a block that needs to be 24.5" square, my largest square ruler being 16.5".

Also, for the finished quilt to look just right, the white sashing needed to be perfectly centered in both directions.

To get all this done, I used a largish square ruler, my cutting mat, and a couple other 26"+ long, narrow rulers.

Start by marking what you want to be the center, on one of the block's edges.

You can see here that I used my Frixion pen.  Ironically, the email I got asking about how I accomplished this squaring up was asked by a quilter that had originally found my blog as she searched for information about the Frixion pen!  This is one of the two ways I actually DO use it on  my fabrics.  All the marks are in the seam allowance, or trimmed away.

My block needed to be 24.5" square, so I needed to measure OUT FROM this center point, half the size of my block - which is 12.25".

Please ignore the next two photos that need to rotate.   Part of the annoying blogger thing and how it randomly deals with unedited pictures.

I have my ruler lined up so that the 12.25 mark is at the center point of the block.  ALSO the vertical and horizontal are both aligned squarely.

Better view in that picture above - What is important is that those parts of the block are as near perfect in both directions.  That way the finished design looks like a square, and not a wacky, slanting rhombus or something.

Now, the tricky part.

Especially for those of us who are cursed with slipping ruler syndrome.

Hold your big square, and carefully slide a long ruler up against it, without shifting anything.  I would re-check the 12.25" mark and the squareness of that yellow ruler after getting the long ruler in place.

Oh, must be noted, I am right handed.  And I am totlaly unable to cut with my left.

If you can cut with your left, remove the first ruler (the square yellow one, in my case), hold the long ruler in place, and trim your block.

For myself, I carefully moved away the square, replaced it with yet another 26"+ long ruler - moved that second one out of the way - and then trimmed my block.

Did you get that?  It's a bit of swapping back and forth, and I'm lucky to have a big stack of rulers.

Those steps take the longest.  The point of them being getting yourself a starting point that puts the center exactly in the middle and the first edge perfectly square with your piecing.

Let's get the last three sides done.....

Using your cutting mat, line the nice edge you just made up with one of the ruled markings.

Check that it's nice and straight, top to bottom.

Count over to the other side, the full width of your finished block.

I had to go over 24.5"

Use a long ruler and the markings on your mat to perfectly cut the block, ending up with one set of perfectly parallel sides.

...Ugh, another sideways photo.....

Anyway, we are going to do the process again, for the last two sides.  WITH ONE DIFFERENCE.

After you mark the center of the sashing, you need to measure over that same half distance as before.  12.25" in my case.

INSTEAD of lining up your square ruler with the block piecing, you now line it up with one of the two sides we already cut.  I used two large squares to double check I was in exact center, because I'm Type A like that.  Do not freak out if your outside edge alignment and the block piecing alignment are just a bit off.  For me, an 1/8" drift was not visually obvious in the end.  I did have one mess of a block, I have no idea what I was doing as I pieced.  The sashing angled nearly 3/8" off center from side to side.  I re-made that block.

After you trim this third side, line it up on your cutting mat again and measure over the full block width for your last cut.

Ta-Da!  Perfectly square and centered, huge quilt block.

I'm thinking this all will make more sense if you are reading and cutting at the same time.  It's a bunch of shifting and rulers.  But I hope it helps!

Ask away with questions on any horribly confusing stuff, and I'll try to make things clear.

Cathedral Windows Tutorial : Wing It OCD

Finally, my Cathedral Windows tutorial is live - I've been patiently waiting my turn!  

I made a fun pair of pillows.

I was tempted to name my project: Just Wing It {NOT!} 

I got to use the fabulous new MoMo line Just Wing It, but as is most of my quilting, the cathedral windows border on OCD - the furthest possible thing from winging it. 

Optimized result with an efficient process, that's from the engineer in me.  I've included all the little tricks I use to keep things square, flat, and pointy.  Exactly how I like my windows!

Here's a little bonus project.   Use one of your first folding attempts or the most wonky, extra window and two charm squares to make a cute pincushion. 

Jump over to the bake shop and say hi!

Ringed Double Circle Block : tutorial

 We're still recovering a bit, so Thanksgiving has been postponed until tomorrow.  That gives me a bit of time to post my circle block tutorial.

When I received the drawing of this block to make for a swap, I had no idea how I was going to make it.  Nor had I even pieced a curved seam before.  So it was quite the challenge - but fun.  To make sure I remembered how to do it later, I photographed all my steps.  So glad I did, as it worked wonderfully!

This is long and has a ton of pictures.  Please let me know if anything is confusing.

 Here's the drawing I received - with a note to make it into a 12" block.  It wasn't to scale, nor did it have the individual pieces with seam allowances. 

So I went searching for my compass kit.

Then I grabbed a file folder to make my pattern pieces.

Draw a corner, then mirror it with your 1/4" seam allowance.

 

I did some math and figured out how much to enlarge one section of the pattern on my photocopier.   To just make up your own, decide what the finished block size should be, and halve it (12" block = start with a 6" square)  Then make your ring - this one is about 1" wide.

 

See those two circles I added on the right?  We need to make marks for the seam allowance on each side of them.

 Grab your ruler and make pencil marks 1/4" to either side of both lines.  I have arrows pointing to all four marks I made.

 Now we're going to transfer these marks to the file folder, creating pattern pieces that include seam allowances.  I'm going to make the inner wedge first.

Remember how to use a compass?  Don't stab yourself.

Put the paper on your cutting mat, then poke the pointy part through the corner of the block.  Turn that little wheel in the middle until the pencil part of the compass lines up with the mark just outside of the inner wedge. 

Lift your compass, but don't touch the wheel!  Then stab your compass into the corner you drew on the manila folder.

See how I stabbed it into the inside corner, not the outside one?  If you're confused about that here's why: the pattern is a corner of the finished block.  We want the circle to look like a round circle when we're done, and if you don't add the seam allowances or make your circle ON the edge of the seam allowance, when you sew them together you're losing a half inch of your shape on each edge.  You'll end up with a rumply, non-round circle which I suppose you could FORCE into a flat circle,  but I'm going with the nice, mathy geometry so that it works out the first time.

 Keeping the point in your mat, swing the pencil part back and forth to cross your outer seam allowance.

Don't hold it by the wheel!  That will change the circle size.

 On this same piece of folder, you can make the outside wedge as well.  (You can't make the thin ring, it overlaps)

Here I labeled each of the three pieces, along with the mark that you use to draw each pattern piece.  So we used #3 to draw the inner circle, now set your compass up on #2 to make the outer wedge.  (You'll use #1 and #4 to make the thin ring)

 Poke and draw. 

I also squared off the outside corner.  I want a finished 12" square and I'm big on cut-extra-square-up-later.  So the outside edge is 7.25" out instead of just 6.5" 

That worked out really well!  I highly suggest it.

 Grab another bit of folder, make your starting corner again, and use marks #1 and #4 to create the thin ring.

Carefully cut them all out with you non-fabric scissors along the outside seam edges. You can see in this photo that I marked the 45deg diagonal on each to find the middle of the pieces.  I ended up not using that at all.

 VERY carefully, cut out all you pattern pieces.

Here's what I did.  I held down the folder bits really tightly, then rotary cut double layers of fabric.  Ended up with a deep slice in the edge of my thumb.  I didn't bleed on any fabric, so that was good.  Not sure how else to get perfectly smooth edges....keep your fingers out of the way!

 So, you have a big pile of pieces now and have to join them together.

Finger press the center in each part, then lay them just like this.  It looks like a smile up, under a frown down.  Don't try to start with the curves going the same way.  It doesn't work like that.

Place a thin ring that curves in - right side up, and an inner circle that bumps out, right side down - match up those two center points - and pin.

 Since I was only making two of these blocks, I decided to go that lots-of-pins route.  Didn't want to experiment with other methods and use up my cut fabric, especially after taking that chunk out of my thumb.

I pinned the middle, then the ends, then worked in the edges in between.  It doesn't seem like it will fit, but it does.  You know, geometry and all.  Here are a couple all pinned and ready to go.

 I stitched with the convex (bump OUT) piece on top. Slowly keeping my 1/4" seam, and pulling pins as I went.

Pull it off the machine, flip the edge, and HOLY COW!  It lays perfectly flat.  I pressed all seams toward the print.  This helped a lot when it came to final block construction.

Smile, dance, and show all your family - explaining how totally cool it is, as they won't understand.

 Make your way through all four quadrants.

Now it's time to line up that inside ring perfectly.

You want the inside wedge to be exactly square and the same size for all four parts.  Take your ruler, and place the same mark on top of each side of the ring's edge.  You can see for my block, that I placed both sides right on the 3.5" mark.

Hold firmly, and rotary trim just those two edges on every square.  Don't worry about the other two edges right now, we'll square them up at the end.

Join up your four blocks with the 1/4" seams.  I pressed them open .

Happy - Happy - The rings all line up!  Square up the outside to your final block size.  If you made the outside wedge tad larger as I did, you'll have just a bit to trim on all four sides to end with a perfect square.

Iron and dance some more!  I did! 
A bit of a project - but a wonderfully, satisfying challenge.

Thangles {Shoo fly} : a tutorial

I think everybody has their favorite HST making method. My favorite is to sandwich two squares, sew the diagonal twice, then cut apart. Thangles are kind of like that, but you don't cut the squares. (I'm not a Thangles seller or anything - just a new thing I wanted to share)

Last October my local quilt shop started up "Buck a Block". You signed up and chose a color scheme: modern-red/white-batik : plus purchased a package of Thangles papers. Then each month you go in and for $1 you get a package of two WOF strips and a pattern for a half square triangle style block.

Interested in trying out something new, I signed up and chose modern. After a few months I realized that perhaps they weren't really modern quilters, and bought the block but didn't assemble any. Each individual fabric was nice, but the pairs were horrible in the context of two-patterned HST blocks.

So I decided to pair each with Kona charcoal instead and send them out to my bee buddies, and hopefully they will enjoy learning a new technique!

So here's how it goes. How to make a shoo fly block with Thangles....

I sent everybody two pieces of Thangles 2.25 paper, a 2.75x18" solid strip, and a 2.75xWOF print strip.
To use Thangles, you cut your strips 1/2" wider than your finished square size - that finished size is printed on each paper.

From the WOF print strip, cut and square off a tiny bit of the folded end, then make four 2.75" square cuts - you get eight total squares since you're cutting the doubled fabric.

Cut two single 2.75" squares from the solid fabric.

On your cutting mat, place the solid fabric, then one strip of the print fabric right-side-down on top. Line up the long edges nicely.

Close to one end, place a Thangles paper on top of your strips. Line up the edges nicely, again.

Without moving your little stack, carefully pin it all together in each triangle section. Run pins parallel and to the side of the dashed stitching lines.

They say that making your stack and pinning in place on your met will make it easy to have everything nicely lined up.

Sew.
The Thangles are made on paper that is supposed to be easy-tear and they say you do not need to shorten stitch length. But I did a bit, just to make the removal process even easier.

Sew right on top of each dashed line.

Now, you need to cut them apart. See that solid line - when you get close it's actually a double line. This cut actually makes the outside edges the correct finished size, so the cut needs to be accurate.

Aim for the white down the center of the double line.

The diagonal lines are in the seam allowance, so they aren't that critical. Just cut.

One strip of paper gives you four triangles at this point.

The way the shapes sit, one of the dog ears is already gone. The remaining point can easily be trimmed perpendicular to the long edge, at the end of the stitches.

Time to iron!
Thangles say they are printed with heat proof ink, so you can press right on the printing without making a mess. So just set the stitches first.

{When I started quilting, I saw this set-the-stitch press thing and thought it was a silly time waster. But I found that it really does help with seam-size accuracy}

You press the block open with the paper still attached to help avoid seam distortion. Usually an open-seam gal, but the side press is easiest here.

Lay the blocks solid-side up, open up and press the solid flat.

Four nice, square 2.25" blocks from one Thangles strip.

Carefully pinch the end, so your stiches don't pull out, and just rip off the papers.

Make eight blocks, using both pieces of Thangles paper.

Almost done!

Lay out your HSTs and the squares we cut at the beginning in a nine patch-shoo fly shape.

Sew them up! Twice.....

Two Shoo fly blocks!

It's not as complicated as the million steps seem.

My thoughts on Thangles: The paper pinning and tearing add a few steps. I think it may be a bit more fiddly than making the HSTs my normal way.

BUT, the finished HST block is much more consistantly square (without having to trim square them up) than any other methods I've tried so far. Less stretching when sewing along the bias and elimnation of variation that happens when original patches aren't cut totally square.

Thangles are made for finished block sizes of .5" to 6" in steps of a quarter or half inch. I'm not sure I would use them for large sizes, as I just square them up easily. But if you're making a bunch of small HST blocks, they might make your final creation easier to assemble with nicely square pieces!

I can't wait to get the shoo fly blocks back from my bee partners - I will be interested to see just how precise the Thangles generated blocks end up.

Airplane Hexagon Production

So, the important info. How many did I make?
(and I'm remodeling the blog, so ignore the crazy if you clock over from reader)

I made just over 90 - with about 75% of those on the flight there. I got lots of interest from others on the way to the bathroom and the flight attendants. They loved the cuteness.

I didn't have any trouble at all carrying these on - both long flights and the inter island flight mid week.

I used a latch-lid container. Nice and slim but room for all my stuff.

Here is my little set-up. I took on a TON of needles and pins both. No scissors, but they are allowed under a certain size.

This was my best idea. I hot glued several craft magnets to one edge. They held perfectly. When working, it was much easier to place my pin or in-work needle on the magnets than inserting into the travel case. Also I wasn't worried about them flying around with all the bumps from air and people.

I used this needle threader with the little cutter on it. One less thing being able to leave scissors at home. And after threading large tapestry needles with yarn and embroidery floss for so long, I seriously can not thread a sharp needle. It is so annoying!

This little Clover thing worked very well with, no surprise, the gold-eye sharp Clover needles. A few other types I tried didn't work at all. Even one that was labeled as "large eye". I would thread up about 7 needles at once and line them up in my case. That way I wouldn't have to stop so often.

This fun little pile is a sample of some goodies I found in my post-vacation mail!

Kauai Sunrise

{As Mark photoshops our vacation, I'll probably be posting some Hawaii faves for a while.}

Hanalei Valley Rainbow (double!)