An Autumn Trip - Tutorial - Part 1

Well .... here is the start of my tutorial for making this quilt (Fig. 1). Writing up this tutorial has made me very nervious as I am terrified of making a mistake. So, with this in mind, my figures and instructions have been checked and rechecked a dozen times. So here goes ....

The quilt size (before quilting) is: 59-1/4" x 79-3/4" Yardage for centre portion:


You will need 3/4 yd. of 5 (five fabrics) (this includes extra fabric in case of any booboos and if you are like me you will need it ... trust me, I made a few mistakes in cutting and was glad to have the extra amount! If you are anxious about not having enough fabric, then buy 1 yd. of each fabric.)


Yardage for borders: (extra fabric has been included here)

For the inner and outer borders (light blue) you will need 1-3/4 yd.

For the middle border (rust) you will need 3/4 yd.

Cutting:

Of each of the 5 fabrics, cut 9 strips 2-1/2" wide x WOF (width of fabric)

For the light blue, cut 14 strips 3-1/2" wide x WOF - these will be used for the borders (you will be using 7 strips of this colour for the inner and outer border).

For the rust, cut 7 strips 2-1/2" wide x WOF - these will be used for the border

Sewing: Referring to Fig. 2, this is the order that the strips will be sewn together using a 1/4" seam allowance. Make 9 sections which will include all of these colours. A section will have 5 fabrics (one of each colour).

Fig. 3 - For this tutorial, press open your seams. For any of you wanting to quilt-in-the-ditch once your top is made up, this method with the seams will not work for you. You will need to chose another quilting idea. You can press your seams to one side, but it gets complicated later when making up the blocks.

Fig. 4 - Cut out 2-1/2" strips from each section. Can you see how masking tape is aiding me for cutting these strips? I had to put it there as too many booboos were happening. Also, when cutting the sections, the open seams are facing up. The section lies flat on my cutting board and it makes cutting easier.

Fig. 5 - After cutting out the sections into 2-1/2" strips, leave 24 of the strips as is; the rest will need to be made into a tube. To make a tube, take the bottom of the strip and bring it to the top and sew those seams together.

If you want a quicker method that eliminates sewing a tube for each 2-1/2" cut strip ...

Fig. 6 - Square off one end of the section, then bring the bottom to the top and sew those seams together. There you have a tube.

Fig. 7 - Place your tube on the cutting board and cut 2-1/2" strips.

Now, it is time for this part of the tutorial to finish. Besides, I have to go play with Miss Ashes. She has been begging for attention! :o)

So, until next week when my tutorial will continue, have fun!

Been playing hooky

What can I say .... it is a border thing with me! This is always where my tops get stopped and ..... well ..... other things caught my attention. Anything will do, anything to not work on those borders will do it for me. But after a week of procrastination, I buckled down and started working on them for this project. Just two more borders to do (why or why did I chose to do 3 borders) and then the tutorial to make this quilt can get finished. The centre portion went really fast, it is just the borders that slowed me down.During my time off, I celebrated my 60th birthday by going to a quilt store in the morning with a friend. Afterwards, before heading home, her gift to me got opened and there was a lot of oohhing and ahhhing. Thank you, Mary, I love my gift from you; but next time, skip the mooncake, OK?

Fall comes along on Friday and I've been thinking of changing my header with some photos. So, we'll see how it turns out. My header hasn't changed at all in the last 4 years of blogging and since I have started a new chapter in my life (according to some I'm now a senior), perhaps it is time to change my blog header.

Have a great day, eh!

An Autumn Trip

I'm taking a wee autumn trip ..... right down to my basement studio! :o) During the change of display quilts in our home from summer to autumn colours, guess what? There are not enough autumn quilts to go around. Well, I will just have to do something about that. So, after a bit of browsing through my fabric stash, these 5 colours were chosen ....... .... to make this Trip Around The World (otherwise known as TATW).

Since you have asked and commented about this design before on previous posts, why don't I just make another TATW quilt and give you a tutorial so that you also can make your own? Makes sense, doesn't it? Besides, I really do need another autumn quilt! :o)

For now, just bear with me as I work on this quilt and tutorial. Just think of what colours you would like in your own TATW.

Have a great day!

Two different borders

It is interesting working on two projects at the same time. Now that the centre portion of this quilt has been machine quilted ...... .... the borders are getting a simple wiggly line in the border area. At first, I wasn't sure how this would look with the line being wiggly and not straight, but it looks just fine to me. Only 3 more borders to do.

The days will be getting cooler and it will be a pleasure getting back to doing some hand quilting on the borders of my pumpkin quilt. With Fall just around the corner, this just has to be done soon.

Can you see the simple leaf and vine? Only 3 more borders to go.

Now, I'm wondering which quilt will get finished first? :o) It really won't matter ..... as long as they get finished.

Have a great day!