Why Stitch in the Ditch?

Why stitch in the ditch (SID)?  Well, you don't HAVE to, so let's review the choices that impact the decision.

Have you ever noticed what a tied quilt looks like?  Big, fluffy bunches between ties.  Same thing happens when a sandwich is pinned with safety pins.  This is not bad or good.  It just is.  It looks like this photo of the ice from my hike last week:

The ice on Dream Lake.  The wind blows it as it freezes,
but we still hiked across the lake on the ice.

The question is:  Are your seams going to bubble up this way?  Do you like the piecing seams to behave this way?  They will if you are quilting designs into areas defined by the seams.  On the other hand, an all-over design will cross seams in an irregular way and keep them from bunching and creating unsightly ridges.

So...why bother?
Stabilization.  Basting will stabilize your quilt.  I hate basting, but I do pin.  I SID to stabilize the quilt before doing the fancy quilting.  The pins can all be removed and there is no worry about the quilt going wonky when you are concentrating on the decorative free motion quilting (FMQ).  Once the quilt is stabilized you can work anywhere you want without distortion.  I stitch with Superior MonoPoly thread (clear or smoky) for SID.  This can be a great way to learn to control your FMQ technique.  You can also use any thread of a color that disappears into your fabrics.  For straight lines and borders I use my duel feed foot, and it is awsome. It gobbles up excess fabric and smooths it all into the puff.

No bubbly seams, tucks or puckers.  I have 28 pieces in each block of my quilt and they will mostly be quilted with enclosed designs.  I do not want seam ridges so I am SID-ing in every single seam.  Time consuming, yes, but WOW does it ever make it look nice.  My quilt would look fine with only the SID, but since I like the fancy stuff I know I won't have to worry about the antics of recalcitrant seams or tucks or puckers.

Before:  Rumpledy, bumpledy before SID

After:  All seams stitched down.

Straight borders.  Borders look best when they are nice and straight.  Show judges will nail you for crooked borders every time.  SID will set the borders nice and straight from the get-go whether you quilt on them or not.

You want to show your quilt.  Take careful note of all of the above because the judges will be looking for straight seams and borders, smooth curves, no crumples and perfection in the hanging.  This is impacted by blocking after all is done, but you can't block out internal wiggles after they are set in stone....errr thread.  They will notice the track of your SID especially any stitches that stray from the ditch, so if you choose to do it, learn and practice to do it well.  There are many online tutorials so I am not going into the "how to."

Don't bother:
If your quilt will be a "dragger" to be loved and washed repeatedly.  It won't matter.  The exception would be if you choose to do all the quilting SID and don't want to mess with the fancy stuff.

If you are going to quilt an all-over design that tramples and ignores seams.  In this case the seams generally disappear into the quilting motifs.

If you don't show your quilts.

If you don't care....and that is OK.  It is your quilt.  Do what suits your style, your time, your passion.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you time to practice some stitching-in-the-ditch.

PS.  Last week's hike:

Hallet and Flattop peaks from Dream Lake.  Rocky Mountain NP.

When Points are Really Points.

Last week I dealt with fabric "spaghetti" caused by a design flaw (my bad), where I had too many points coming together in the same place.  It was a mess, but was solved relatively easily.  Spiral quilts have many points and it takes some experience to be able to think ahead about the difficulty, or lack thereof, in sewing them together perfectly.   This week I will show you some lesser pitfalls of quilty points that come together in seams.  When paper piecing it is relatively easy to get sharp points, but it is not so easy to maintain control when they come to a point in a seam.

Don't bother with lots of tiny points coming close into the center (see here) unless you want fabric spaghetti.  Likewise it doesn't work well to have tight points coming together at a corner where you plan to attach a mitered border corner.  In the situation below I could see trouble coming as soon as I sewed the seam.

Tiny point at the corner.

I could tell that this was going to be a nightmare if I wanted to achieve perfection.  I am sure it can be done, but I chose not to hassle it.  So here's what I did:

Corner redo.

I took some border fabric and created an arrow effect in each corner.  I will quilt along the original seam lines to give the effect of a ghost point and to carry through the idea.  No problem getting that perfect.  It also looks nice on the quilt as a whole.

Wide angle points should also be sharp, and they are easier to manage.  There are two of these in the above photo.  The light blue corner (top of photo) and the dark blue of the added piece where it meets at the seam.  You glue the raw edges of the seam allowance together, but add extra glue on the seam allowance of the point fabric all the way to the seam line.  Make sure the folds of the two pieces come together perfectly AT THE SEAM LINE.  Press.  Carefully check the right side.  Sew and it should be perfect.  If it isn't you can easily un-stitch, pull the glued edges apart and try again.  If that doesn't do it, try sewing the seam in the other direction.  You could also baste across the meeting of the points.

TIP:  Again:  Use only Elmer's School Glue.  It is completely washable and will not harm the fabric.

The tiny, points at a seam line are a lot harder.  From a distance they may be fine, but look closely to make sure.  They much prefer to nest than line up.

TIP:  If you are designing a quilt try to avoid having to match teeny, tiny points in a seam.  Think ahead about how you will stitch every single seam and whether you are willing to accept the consequences (ripping and re-doing) if it doesn't go together the way it did in your dreams.

Unacceptable mis-match.

I restitched this twice by the above method, but was still unable to achieve perfection.  So, on to another solution.  I unstitched about 3/4 inch across the point.  From the back I took a tiny stitch or two at the point of the light-colored fabric to make sure the folded edges came together perfectly where I wanted them.  Then from the right side I used tiny ladder stitches to close the opening.  By doing it from the front I could manipulate needle and fabric to make sure all was in line.  It is well secured, and quilting will later reinforce the hand stitching.

Perfect point.  (Sorry, color variation and poor focus spoils the effect, but it is perfect!)

TIP:  Try, try again, but be careful not to destroy your fabric.  Sometimes hand stitching works best.

Sew a happy seam this week.  I wish you perfect points always.

Galaxies

Did you figure out how Galaxies was made?  It is all paper pieced, but you already figured that out.  It is made from several major shapes, which are broken down into a log cabin type design using triangles instead of rectangles.  When the shapes are put together they create a 60º wedge.  Put the wedges together and you have a hexagon.

I think I would call this an advanced design for quilters.  There are a lot of difficult seams to match and points to stitch correctly.  It takes time.  The top black pieces are all part of a triangle shape so it is made of little paper pieced triangles like the colored part.  The side black pieces are large pieces of fabric - no seams.

Coloring in the little triangles is what makes the design move.  All of the triangle shapes have mirror images of each other, either horizontal or vertical, and with the same or different coloration.  The hexagon and pentagon are just what they are.  However, on each side of the pentagon notice the rhomboid shapes (skewed rectangles or parallelograms with unequal sides and angles).  They have been colored differently from each other to give movement to the hexagon.  They also create an unusual black shape at the bottom because some of the little triangle pieces are cut from black fabric.  Below is the the complete drawing of the design.  Add black fabric for the corners and you have a square quilt.

Illustrator drawing of Galaxies.

See last week's post to see the actual, finished quilt.

You can take a design like this, color it differently and have a totally different looking quilt.  Tons of fun!  I always color one wedge and then let Illustrator rotate it around the center to see the complete design.  Then I live with it for awhile, present it to my husband, incorporate his thoughts and try again.  This generally goes on for days, but it is fun to have him involved in the design process.  He has good ideas.

TIP:  What can I say?  Have fun.  The design process takes time.  It needs to percolate through your days and your nights.  It is easy to make changes at this stage.

Negative Space

RETRO:  Before I start this post I must refer back to my last one.  I never mentioned the value of "needle down" for FMQ.  If your machine has it, use it.  It is invaluable for keeping the quilt in place as you reposition.  Also, I didn't mention that I do all my quilting on my Viking Sapphire.  No space for a long arm machine.

TODAY:  Now for a discussion of negative Space:  What is it?  What am I supposed to do with it?  Is it important?

Negative space is a place where nothing lives.  It can be a plain block between colorful pieced blocks or it can be empty space around a central motif.  Note the quilt below.

Look at all that black around the spiral design.  It makes the spiral look a little lost.  I had finally reached the place where I was able to draw lovely feathers and all that space is heavily quilted with trapunto feathers.  I used a dark grey to stitch the feathers.  When you get up close you can see the quilting, but from a distance it might as well not be there.  The spiral itself is all done with stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.

Galaxies detail

This quilt was juried in to two quilt shows and I was quite pleased with that, but didn't win anything.  One judge dinged me for too much negative space.  The other judge found seam(s) that didn't match up.  Two lessons learned and acted upon with following quilts.

What is to be said for seams not matching?  Not much.  It takes fastidious pinning, sewing and persistence to get it right when there are several seams coming together in one place.  Next time I am going to forget the pins and glue baste.

TIP:  If you are interested creating exquisite quilts, it is important to pay attention to technique from the time you cut fabric to the time you finish the binding.  This is critical if you want to show your quilts.  If there is a mistake, the judges will find it!

As to negative space there is a lot that could have been done and my instinct kept nudging me that I needed something in those corners.  I didn't listen.  Another lesson learned!  I could have put a colorful quarter star in each corner or some sort of appliqué.  I could have quilted with a bright color of thread.  I could have (and may yet) added color to the feathers with Shiva Paintsticks.

TIP:  Pay attention to your creative muse.  It is usually right.  A creative muse is a source of knowledge reflecting an inborn sense of design, experience, vision, inspiration, technique, and external learning.  It will guide you to excellence, but only if you listen and act on what it is saying.

Off Topic:  Can you figure out how Galaxies was made?  I'll share that next week.

Spiral Quilts - Sew it Together

You have finished all the paper piecing and are admiring the completed shapes on your design wall.  Now you get to sew those shapes together, which is exactly like sewing the pieces of any quilt together. First, you sew the shapes (pentagon and triangle here) of the wedge together until you have all your wedges complete, then sew the wedges together.  With only two shapes this is a relatively simple matter.

You will have points to watch along the seam lines.  Be sure they look the way you want them to before you go on.  Some of my points refused to behave at the seam line so I cut out little flowers from one of the fabrics and appliquéd them over the offending areas (see right side of photo).  This was a better solution than redoing seams until the fabric died.

TIP:  Covering up faults is not cheating.  It is called artistic innovation.

Another problem area may be the very center where all the wedges come together.  This design has a lot of seams jammed up tight at the center point and it was impossible to put them together nicely.  My solution was to make a 4 inch kaleidoscope of six small wedges from my feature fabric, and appliqué it over the bulky center.  From the back I cut away the bulk.

TIP:  One way to avoid problems in the center is to use a single fabric at the point of the wedge and choose a hexagon or octagon for your design (6 or 8 wedges).  That chosen fabric could be fussy-cut to yield an interesting design.  This solution would have to be included as part of the original design.

I have not tried it yet on a spiral quilt, but on my next one I am going to glue baste the seams together instead of pinning.  See Christy Fincher's tutorial on this process.  I tried it on a recalcitrant border on my current work in progress and it was fabulous.  When you think about it, no matter how careful you are with pins, they distort the fabric.  I have spent way too much time redoing seam junctions, and with spirals there are often more than two seams coming together.  RaNae Merrill likes to keep the paper in until the seams are sewn.  I prefer working with the fabric without paper so I tear off at least the seam allowance.  You'll have to find what works best for you.

TIP:  Take your time, work slowly and carefully, and it will be beautiful.

Pressing is a major issue as the bulky seams have a mind of their own.  I just let them play their own game as long as the piece looks nice on the front.  The only time I try to control them is when I have three or more seams at a junction.  Then I like to have all the seams flat in the same direction so I end up with a nice little rosette at the center.  That often means that a seam will have to twist somewhere along its length.  To tell you the truth, I have never noticed those twists when the quilt is done and they don't interfere with the quilting.  They are less bulky than the seam junctions.

Finishing requires placing the circular design onto a background, and I leave it to you to figure out how your special design will be displayed.  I put mine onto a square or rectangular background by sewing large pieces of fabric onto the edges of the spiral however they will work and be easiest to sew.  You can face the mandala, cut away excess fabric after it is turned, and appliqué it to a background.  If you do this, you will have a circular border around the finished spiral.  The heavy seams of the spiral will not turn under neatly so they have to be sewn in a way that allows them to lay flat.

This is the finished quilt that I have been describing.  In my next post I will talk about quilting this type of quilt.

Reverie

Fabric for Rhapsody

Did you have fun creating a design?  I always do.  I love what Paul Nadelstern says about creativity:
"Please, let's not allow external pressure to dictate that we conform to an imaginary standard based on the mythological perfection of the quiltmaking legacy.

My next step is to go back to the little 8x8 inch initial drawing and assess the fabrics that I want to be my background.  The drawing is just that:  a background that will support appliqué.  I cut the fabrics to fit the various elements in the small design and glue them to the appropriate spot on the dull side of the freezer paper with glue stick or double-sided masking tape.  A mirror can give an idea of what two or more triangles will look like together, but I prefer to take a digital photo, bring it into the computer, and rotate to see how the four corners will look together.

I no longer have a photo of my chosen fabrics for the quilt I am describing so I just filled the spaces with color on the computer to give you the idea.  Below is the total design with color.  It would be more lively with real fabric.

Now that I know what fabrics I want where, I go back to my full size freezer paper corner (20x20" for this quilt, which will give me a finished quilt about 40x40"), and make a copy of that full size corner.  Did I mention that if the drawing is not done on a perfect square, the pieces won't fit together?  It pays to be fussy at the very start of the process.  I have no way to do a machine copy so I just hunker down and carefully trace it by rubbing or using a light box.  This will serve as a reference copy in case I need it down the road, and it pays to do it carefully.  Ask someone who knows about this!

TIP:  Don't have a light box?  If you have a plexiglas extender table for your machine, take it to a table or the ironing board, put a goose-neck desk lamp underneath and you have your lightbox.  No fuss, no muss, no expense.  You can also buy a square of plexiglass and set it on book stacks leaving space in the middle for a lamp underneath.

When I am satisfied with what I have done so far, I take a ruler and draw lines on the freezer paper that are parallel to a straight edge through all the elements to indicate the fabric grain.  This kind of quilt can easily go wonky with its seams wandering all over the grain and bias.  Cutting the pieces with grain in mind will minimize or eliminate potential problems.

Pardon my inaccurate drawing.  I did it on the computer for this post, long after finishing the quilt.  

This is why I draw my designs on paper with pencil and eraser! 

TIP:  I use a colored pencil for the grain lines to avoid mixing them up with seam lines.

TIP:  In spite of my slipshod example, I must stress that accurate lines and a perfect square make a beautiful quilt.  Skewed designs will not work and you will end up wearing a turban after pulling out all your hair.  The sloppy line design above will NOT work because the square is not perfect nor is the diagonal.  You can see where the fit is going to be pulling, rippled and rumpled.  My original was done carefully by hand and it paid off.

How Do You Make a Rhapsody Quilt?

I used to look at some quilts and wonder how on earth anyone could have sewn them.  On a whim I bought Ricky Tims' "Rhapsody Quilts," then discovered it meant doing a lot of machine appliqué, which I did not want to do so I closed the book and hid it in my library.  Some months later I picked up the book again and discovered that he does his appliqué with a machine blanket stitch.  I loved the look and tried it out with great success on my Bella Bella Blue quilt for the flowers in the center and corners.  I was ready for a new challenge.  Thus began the designing of my own Rhapsody quilt.  I will share an overview of the procedure for the interested and curious, but if you really want to make one of these quilts I highly recommend purchasing the book for in-depth directions as I do not intend to rewrite the book here.  There are no patterns...you must do your own.  Even my overview will take more than one post.

Initially I cut a square about 8x8 inches from freezer paper.  Size here is not critical as it will be used only for establishing the basic lines of a design.  I prefer a pencil and eraser rather than the computer for this process.  I folded the paper on the diagonal, shiny side inside, and drew a shape on the dull side to form a border line.  Then I drew a few lines below the border line, straight and/or gently curving.

TIP:  A mirror is helpful to see what the design will look like after the mirror image is transferred to the other side. 

When I liked what I had drawn, I refolded the diagonal line of the square so the shiny side is out and used the side of a fork to rub over the lines until they showed up on the empty, dull side of the square.  Remember doing that when you were a kid?  Magic!  Then I opened it up, traced the markings so they were more visible, and I had the main building block of my design.

TIP:  You have to rub the lines with enthusiasm and check often to see if the lines transfer.  They will be light, but should show enough to draw them accurately on the dull side of the paper.

TIP:  Remember that the diagonal line in my drawing is black like the seam lines.  In actuality it will only be a fold line and the elements that cross that line will each be cut in one piece.  Try it.  You will see what I mean.

Each line (except the diagonal) will be a seam so I checked carefully to make sure that all the seams and their intersections would be possible to sew.   It is important to plan out how to put this together, so I numbered the pieces in the order they will be sewn.  I also like to see what the design will look like when I put the four corners together so I scanned it into Illustrator and rotated copies of the corner to see the whole.  Mirrors work too.    

Finally, I transferred one corner of the design to a large piece of freezer paper, or two taped together, to equal 1/2 the measurement of the finished quilt.  This must be a perfect square.  I copied my lines freehand onto the large freezer paper folded diagonally just like on the little square.  I refolded it shiny side in, rubbed, and traced the design to the other dull side to complete the full-size square corner.  I added registration lines so I could line up the seams correctly...like notches in clothing construction.

TIP:  Allow an extra 1-2 inches outside the border to provide leeway when the quilt is done and ready to bind.  I missed that part of the lesson and I ran into difficulties at the finish line.

Give it try and see what it looks like.  It is fun.

Bella Bella Blue

I saw a fascinating quilt hanging in a local quilt store and loved the color and design.  I asked about it and quickly bought "Bella Bella Quilts" by Norah McKeeting, which I read through carefully.  I had to make one of those quilts and I settled on the one she calls "Venice Rose."  I call mine "Bella Bella Blue."

Bella Bella Blue 72" x 72"

It is made in an interesting way with excellent instructions in the book.  No sense going through the whole process here.  The design is constructed with two spokes, one the reverse of the other, and they are quite long.

The two spokes of the wheel.

The pattern comes with the book with paper piecing directions.  Instead of using the usual foundation material I used freezer paper.  I did it the usual way, but instead of sewing through the paper I ironed it down, folded it back, added the next piece of fabric, and sewed alongside the fold, catching only fabric.  I found I needed to put a pin in the last piece sewed just to be sure the pattern didn't slip.  This thing gets to be a snake by the time it is finished.  The freezer paper foundation can be used over and over and there is no paper to pull out later.  Putting the spokes together requires great care in matching the angled seams.  I did and redid many of these intersections.

TIP:  Matching seams is critical for a top notch result and a good method is shown on this website.  She talks about getting points right, but the same method works for matching seams.

TIP:  You have tried twice and still the seams don't come together with precision?  Carefully pin again as directed in that website, then turn your quilt over and sew it together from the other direction.  This almost always solves the problem

As to adding the circular border, I direct you to the book.  I designed my own appliqué, but I didn't want to needle turn the edges, and I am not crazy about satin stitch (probably because I don't do it well).  I discovered Ricky Tims' "Rhapsody Quilts" and was interested in his method of using machine blanket stitch for appliqué.  I used it on my motifs and was very happy even with this first attempt.

The quilting is all feathers with one in every piece of every spoke.  In the diagonal joins I did a wiggly grid.  It is hard to see on the front in these photos, but here is what the back looks like.

Backside shows the quilting.

My problem #1:  I ran out of the dark blue.  I had that fabric in my stash for years and loved it, but it never quite went with anything else.  Finally, here is the place for it.  Then I ran out!  Fortunately, I had a piece of selvedge, which showed that it was a Jinny Beyer fabric and I was able to buy an expensive one yard online.  I finished the quilt with a small handful of very small scraps.  Too close for comfort.

TIP:  Figure your fabric before you sew!  You might not be as lucky as I was to still be able to find an almost outdated fabric.

My problem #2:  I carefully marked the quilting design with blue marker on the white and a Clover iron-away white marker on the dark.  By the time I finished quilting the first two spokes the white marker rubbed off all the rest of the quilt.  The blue marker stayed the duration.

TIP:  Test your marker by rubbing it with your hands and scrap fabric.  If it doesn't stay you may have to mark as you go along, which is what I did.  Remember, practicing the quilting design with a marker will help you do a better job with the quilting.  I love the "SewLine" ceramic marker, and it has different color refills.  It rubs off and if there is any residue, it washes out.

Medallion and Borders

A medallion quilt is made up of one border after another around a center motif.  You can see my first medallion quilt in an earlier post.  It actually lies flat and straight on a bed, but is hanging wonky in the picture.

Another medallion quilt is my "Lifetime" quilt, and you can refer back my March 12 post for a photo of the quilt's centerpiece Mariner's Compass.  You can follow the building of that quilt in the next few posts as I relive its construction from design to finished quilt.  You may have noticed that I mentioned a narrow, 1/4" border around the center motif.  A tiny, narrow border does not need to be scary if you do it right.

Start by cutting a strip of fabric the appropriate length and 1 inch wide.  That gives you 1/4 inch for the border itself, two 1/4 inch seam allowances, and 1/4 inch extra.

Sew the border strip to the centerpiece with an accurate 1/4 inch seam (see the TIP below).  Press the seam making sure that it is fully ironed so there are no pleats at the seam line.

With the pressed centerpiece and border to your left (for right handed quilters), lay your good ruler with the 1/2 inch line at the seam that connects the centerpiece and border fabrics.  Cut off the excess 1/4 inch with your rotary cutter, and you will have a perfect 1/4 inch seam allowance for attaching to the next piece of fabric.

I use this method for larger borders too.  It gives a measure of safety and keeps the measurements precise.

TIP:  I find a 1/4 inch Edge Stitch foot invaluable for stitching quilt seams.  See the little guide on the right side of the foot?  It rides along the edge of the fabric and allows the needle to sew a perfect 1/4 inch seam.  You will probably need to move your needle to the right, so take the time to measure and find out where the needle needs to be to create the perfect 1/4 inch on your machine.  By moving the needle this foot can be adjusted to sew greater or smaller seams…to a point.  Accurate seams allowances are critical for precise piecing.  Check with your dealer about getting one of these.

1/4 Edge Stitch foot from Husqvarna

If you can't get a foot like this for your machine, you can attach 2-4 layers of narrow masking tape to guide the fabric edge.  There are also numerous seam guides available made by different companies. Many of them adhere temporarily to your machine.

Love of Lone Star

This post features my first Lone Star Quilt and I learned so much in doing it.  I used a pattern from "Lone Star Quilts and Beyond" by Jan Krentz, and strip pieced the diagonals in the points.  This made it so much easier, but dealing with the wonkiness of bias remained a challenge throughout.  I found that it is very important to create a template, pin the points securely to an ironing surface, measuring and adjusting to fit the template.  Then starch and press.  This made them go together very nicely.

Another challenge in Lone Star quilts are the Y seams.  See the U-tube directions of Kaye Wood on this subject.  When the seams are done well they lie flat and lovely as in the following close-up of the same quilt.

I love Asian fabric and I had these wonderful birds.  I chopped the fabric to pieces, cut out the bird motifs and attached them with needle-turn appliqué.  If you like handwork you can spend a lot of time doing this.  I wasn't exceedingly precise because my plan was to quilt over the edges to blend them into the background.  That plan worked out very well.

I mentioned that I love fussy cutting so I put the center together with eight triangles cut exactingly the same.  It is important to sew the center points carefully to the place where seam allowances come together.  If you press the seams all the same way they nest together on the back and form a flat, unseen flower.  This presents another problem if you have open seams at the Y-seams.  Somewhere you have to let the seams change direction and press.  Some people say this is a no-no, but others find it doesn't affect the finished product.  I have done it many times and am comfortable doing it.  After all, you want both the center and the Y-seams to be perfect.  Here is a close-up of the center kaleidoscope.

At this point I was just beginning to learn to machine quilt.  I did 1/4 inch lines in each diamond, breaking thread in every one.  It was insane, and I thought I would wear out the quilt turning it four times for each diamond.  The borders were also done with 1/4 inch straight lines.  The black background was medium stippling.  I am told that is a very difficult way to start, but I didn't know it at the time.  By the time I finished this quilt I had just about decided I never wanted to machine quilt ever again.  That has changed as you will see in future posts.