Tutorial week again

Today kicks off "Tutorial Week", which has been part of the Finish-A-Long since it's inception.  While the link-up for Finishes is open, we share some tutorials for you all to enjoy. They are varied, interesting, and usually helpful, so take some time to investigate and visit the blogs below on their scheduled day!

• July 3, 2018 - Sandra of Studio Sew of Course - The Finish-A-Long Project List - keeping track of your FAL projects

• July 4, 2018 - Ella of Throw a Wench in the Works

• July 5, 2018 - Felicity of Felicity Quilts -Mini Charm Pack Zip Pouch

The Quarter 2 Finishes link up opened yesterday, you can find the link up HERE or on any of the hosting blogs. There is still plenty of time to link up or finish those projects as the link up does not close until July 9, 2018, 11 pm EST.

And whether you had a lot of finishes, or none at all this quarter, or you missed Finish-A-Long Q2 altogether, you can always join in for Quarter 3 which is taking off on July 10th, with the link-up opening for your List of Proposed Finishes. We hope you will join us!

Sandra

Last Tutorial of this Quarter

- the linkup for your finishes for Quarter 1 is still open -

Just a short message to remind you that Lynne of Tinking Along is posting her tutorial for the Finish-A-Long tutorial week today. Her post is great for anyone wanting to sew packing bags, storage bags, or any sewing with rip-stop fabric really! So go to the "Ripstop Nylon Packing Bags Tutorial", and check it out!

And have you seen the other tutorials this week?
Marci and I posted a round up of last year's tutorials (all last year's tutes in one place), and the day before Marci posted a very clear step-by-step on how to Link up your Instagram photos to InLinkz using your computer. It may come in handy for linking up your recent finishes, or to link up your Q2 list next week!

There are a few more days left for a last-minute finish this quarter, just don't forget to link it up in time!

Sandra

First Tutorial of the Quarter

- find the linkup for your finishes for Q1 of the Finish-A-Long HERE -

The first tutorial of this quarter's Finish-A-Long Tutorial Week is up now. Find the post "How to link up your Instagram Photos to InLinkz via your Computer - A Tutorial" at Marci's blog.

In the mean time I am re-checking my list for this quarter, but I am afraid that whichever way I look at it, I have no finish at all this time round... Better get my list ready for Quarter 2, and work to achieve a better result next time!!

Sandra

Taming Seam Allowances - a Tutorial

- This tutorial is part of Finishalong Tutorial Week. The full list of this week's tutorials can be found in the Finishalong Quarter 3 Linkup post. -

A full list of my tutorials can be found on my Tutorials page.

Simple quilts have them and complicated quilts have them.

Quilts from solid fabrics and quilts from printed material have them.

Quilts with straight pieces and quilts with curved pieces have them.

The only quilts to have none (or almost none) are wholecloth quilts, or appliqué quilts.

I am talking about seams and seam allowances, of course!
And since patchwork quilts tend to have a lot of those, I thought I show you here how I use the seam allowances to help fit pieces together, and to avoid creating big lumps where a lot of seams come together.

Pressing is our friend

To fit patchwork together accurately, pressing the seams well is almost as important as keeping a scant 1/4" seam allowance.
Take care to not distort your patches while pressing. Especially when your fabric is cut on the bias (often when working with triangles) distortion is really very easy. Exception to this: when you need your fabric to be distorted to make your piece fit better. This may happen where pieces don't quite fit perfectly, for example in improv piecing. See "Ironing Out Inaccuracy" on my Tutorials tab for that.

Seam allowances pressed open

Machine stitched seams can be pressed open (not a good idea with hand stitched seams). This can be the preferred way in some cases, and is perfectly acceptable.

Open the seam allowances at the back, and finger press:

Turn the pieces over, and press the patchwork pieces firmly apart with your iron, making sure that the seam allowances are still open on the back. Pressing from the front this way prevents any pleats at the seam:

Seam allowances pressed to one side

This is my preferred method!
Traditionally, seam allowances in patchwork are pressed to one side. They have to be pressed to one side when the seams are hand sewn, and when you want to quilt "in the ditch" for structural reasons.
Pressing your seam allowances to one side can also be helpful to "lock" seams in place when sewing cross seams, which is why I usually do this.

After sewing two pieces together press the seam flat while the patches are still facing each other. This "settles" the stitches and makes the seam straighter and flatter:

right how it comes off the sewing machine, left pressed flat and "settled"

Next, open the patches and press, keeping the seam allowances flat on the ironing board and they will both be behind the top patch. Make sure to open the patches fully at the seam, you can be quite firm!

the seam allowances will be pressed to the side of the top fabric

seam opened out and pressed

seam allowances pressed to one side

Cross seams

Patchwork consisting of squares and/or rectangles comes in many patterns and styles. But as far as seam allowances are concerned they are all the same, really. They have seam allowances running vertically and horizontally, crossing at the corners of the patches.
Pressing your seam allowances to opposite sides help align the cross seams, like here for a four square block:

seam allowances towards opposite sides

seam allowances "lock" the crossing seams in place

 

arrows indicate the direction of the seams

Now we make the seam allowances "spin", which means that the directions of the seam allowances go round in a circle:

Stitches at the "crossing" seem to prevent the centre to lie flat, but if we tug at the seam allowances a little, these stitches come undone. Don't worry, your patchwork is not coming apart!

Pull the seam allowances apart at the centre until they lie flat, then give them a good press. In the centre of the four square block a miniature block appears:

And your block is flat as can be:

Multiple cross seams

When we are joining strips of more squares (or rectangles) we can do the same thing, but we have to alternate the directions of the seam allowances:

top row: seams left - right - left - right... bottom row: seams right - left - right - left...

To make our seam allowances "spin" we make sure the directions of the seam allowances are going in a circle around each "crossing" or "corner":

Half square triangles

How I press the seams of half square triangles (HSTs) depends on how they are used.

When HSTs are used with plain squares I prefer to open the diagonal seam on the HST unit to avoid unnecessary bulk:

pressing the units flat

open out the seam

"dog ears" can now be trimmed

The resulting HST unit can now be treated as a square, and when it is used in further patchwork the new seams will be pressed as for squares. You will get open and to-one-side seams in one project.

Windmill block

However, when HSTs are used in a windmill block, we can really make some seams spin:

four HST units to make a windmill block

directions of the seam allowances in the HST units

 When joining two HST units, the diagonal seams will lock and prevent shifting while sewing:

Two pairs of HST units for the windmill block

Direction of the vertical seams (black) follow the direction of the diagonal seams (grey)

When the windmill block is all joined together, the seams should be made to "spin" around. Like before, a little tug is needed to loosen a stitch or two at the cross:

And just like the four square block, we will see our block appear in miniature on the back at the centre:

A very flat windmill block is the result:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. More tips and tricks can be found on my Tutorials page.

Remember to link up your finishes at the Finishalong Quarter 3 linkup if you haven't done so yet.

Want to join in with the Finishalong, but don't know where to start? Have a look at the Finishalong page, and join us when Quarter 4 starts on the 1st of October.

Sandra

Faced Binding - a Tutorial

- this post is part of the 2017 Finishalong Quarter 1 Tutorials Week -

A full list of my tutorials can be found on the Tutorials page.

Most of our quilts get finished with "ordinary" continuous double fold binding (also called French binding), but there are several other ways to finish the edges of a quilt. In this tutorial I show you how I do a FACED BINDING. A faced binding neatly and securely finishes off straight quilt edges, but does not show on the front of the quilt at all. It is often used for art quilts, but it can be used for any quilt where the binding may distract from the front, or when you want your colours or shapes to continue right to the edge of your quilt. If you need your quilt to be a particular (accurate) size, take note that the faced binding may reduce your quilt size a small bit. Depending on the thickness of the quilt sandwich this could be 1/4" or more.

For this method, we are using double folded binding strips as a facing (where I mention binding, I mean the binding strips that we are using here to face the quilt). I am using this method to finish one of my quilts for this quarter's Finishalong anyway (my only finish, it looks like). The complete quilt will be linked up shortly.
I have also used this method for another quilt, have a look at my wall hanging HERE if you like.

So let's start!

Your quilt needs to be all quilted and any threads tied off. At this stage DO NOT trim the wadding and backing (yet)!
If you have it, use a walking foot, or engage the top feed of your machine. It will help you stitch through the quilt layers smoothly without distorting. Also make your stitches slightly longer when stitching through the layers, this will help prevent puckering and distortion of the edges.

To secure the layers of the quilt, stitch down the edge of the quilt through all layers, just about 1/8 inch from the edge of the quilt top or so:

We will need FOUR separate strips of binding (= facing) 2" wide of the following lengths:
Two strips - the LENGTH of the quilt top PLUS 0.5" - these are your SIDE strips.
Two strips - the WIDTH of the quilt top PLUS 2.5" - these are your TOP/BOTTOM strips.

If needed, join strips with a diagonal seam (iron seams open) to make up to the correct lengths, just as you would do with the usual continuous binding. I needed to join a small length to each of my strips, so I cut five strips, joined them all in one long strip, and cut four strips to the required lengths from it.

Fold and press the strips double lengthways, wrong sides together, as you would for any double fold binding, to make a crease along the middle.

The main issue for faced binding is too much bulk in the corners, so we cut the ends of each strip at a 45 degree angle:

Open your strip flat, and align the 45 degree line on your ruler with one long edge of your strip.

Trim the corner, making sure to keep the correct length of the strip intact.

Trim the two ends of one strip angled in OPPOSITE directions!!

Fold the strip double again.

Position a SIDE strip along the SIDE edge of the quilt top, raw edges together. The beginning and end of the binding strip should extend about 1/4" beyond each corner of the quilt top. Make sure that the strip is positioned so that you will see a small triangle of the WRONG side of the fabric at the trimmed corner of the strip.

Stitch the strip onto the quilt sandwich with a 1/4" seam. You are stitching through all layers (use your walking foot if you have it). To guide a 1/4" seam from the edge of the fabric you may want to move your needle over so it sits 1/4" away from the edge of the foot.

Repeat for the other side edge with the second SIDE binding strip.

Trim the sides of the quilt at 1/2" from the stitching line (this should be approx 1/4" from the edge of the quilt top). Do NOT trim the TOP/BOTTOM yet!

 

Trim the wadding at the corners to reduce bulk.

Press the binding strip towards the edge of the quilt. If you have used polyester wadding, be careful when ironing, the polyester may melt! In that case, you may be better of just finger pressing the strip outwards.

Stitch the binding strip down onto the seam allowance, about 1/8" from the seam. This is called understitching, and helps prevent the facing to roll towards the front of the quilt when we're done. Make sure to push the binding strip firmly outwards when understitching.

This is how that will look:

Now start on the top and bottom of the quilt, using the TOP/BOTTOM strips. These strips have been cut a bit longer, since they have to stick out by about 1 1/4" at each corner. Position the strip with the raw edges level at the edge of the quilt top.

Mark at the corner where the seams of the SIDE strips are (about 1 1/2" from the point of the TOP/BOTTOM strip). You don't want to sew down the very corner of these strips, sew only between the SIDE strips.

Starting at the mark, stitch this strip down with a 1/4" seam allowance as before.

Repeat for the second TOP/BOTTOM strip. All four corners will now look like this:

Trim the edges of the top and bottom of the quilt at 1/2" from the TOP/BOTTOM strip stitching (again, approx. 1/4" from the edge of the fabric). 

Like you did for the SIDE strips, again press the binding strip outwards firmly, and understitch the strip to the seam allowance. Your corners will look like this:

Trim the corner of the backing fabric away at the very corner, so it doesn't stick out beyond the corner of the quilt top.

Now turn your quilt over so the back is facing you. Turn a SIDE binding strip towards the back. Because it is understitched, the whole quilt sandwich will roll with it. Pull the binding over so far that the whole binding strip lies onto the back of the quilt. The front of the quilt will show a little when looking at it from the side, but should not be visible when looking straight at the back.
Repeat for the other SIDE strip. The corners of the TOP/BOTTOM strips will be sticking out quite far:

Fold the corner of the TOP/BOTTOM strip to the back, slightly angled towards the raw edges of the SIDE strip. Pull the corner firmly around:

Roll the TOP/BOTTOM binding strip to the back. The points of the strip will be tucked inside, and the raw edges will all be covered. Repeat for the second TOP/BOTTOM strip:

Check that your corners look neat and square from the front:

If you are happy, slip stitch the binding strips in place at the back, making sure your stitches do not go through all layers, so they are not visible from the front.

This tutorial is part of the 2017 Finishalong Quarter 1 Tutorial Week.

Here is the complete schedule so you can visit them all:

• March 27 - Abigail of Cut & Alter
• March 28 - Sandra of Sew of Course - you are here!
• March 29 - Judith of Just Jude Designs
• March 30 - Marci of Marci Girl Designs
• March 31 - Ella of Throw a Wench in the Works

If you are looking for the link-up for your Quarter 1 finishes, you can find that HERE or at any of the other hosts. The link-up will be open until 4 AM (BST) on 2 April. If you want to know exactly when the linky closes in your time zone - I may again be one of those last-minute linker-uppers myself - check at the bottom of the link-up. It says how much time you have got left before the linky closes!

I better get to it and finish my quilt ready for some blog-worthy photos!

Sandra