Ironing out the inaccuracy - Tip on Thursday #2

Pressing and Ironing

For a full list of my tutorials go to my Tutorials page.

Earlier today I showed off my new project with improv curved piecing, tentatively named "Energy". I was very happy with the top, but to be honest it was rather wavy and not as flat as I liked.

This was to be expected I suppose, because there was no extra fabric for seam allowances added to the pieces due to the method I used. This caused the pieces to not fit exactly, and especially with the "curvier" curves the result is not quite flat. It is particularly noticeable on the left side and in the top left corner, and it bothered me!

So out came the iron, ironing board, and a wet cloth. Often we are admonished to "press, not iron" our patchwork in order not to distort it. It is usually good advice, but the reverse is true too: If you use your iron well, you can "encourage" your distorted patchwork into a better, in this case flatter, shape. This is what I did:

Step 1: Press/iron your patchwork so that seam allowances are pressed to the right direction, and the fabric is as flat as possible (as above).

Step 2: Lay your fabric on the ironing board, making sure straight lines (edges and seams) are positioned straight, even if this gives waves or lumps in between. You can even pin crucial points in place onto the ironing board (put the pins in as flat as you can, and preferably small pin heads). If the patchwork is larger than the ironing board, I usually start with the middle section first, though if one section is particularly bad, I may start there. In this case the middle section included the waviest bits, so that part got the treatment first. I did the top and bottom sections after.

Step 3: Pat down the fabric to even out any lumps and bumps as much as possible. Then gently iron as flat as possible, leaving each section flat in place until cooled then moving to the next section. In my case this was not enough, though sometimes this is all that's needed.

Step 4: Lay the wet, but not dripping, cloth on top of the patchwork. Pat down as much as possible with your hands, making sure there are no creases, either in the pressing cloth, or in the patchwork underneath!

Step 5: Press with a dry iron, one small section at a time. Lift the iron from place to place, the cloth will steam and gradually get slightly drier, though there is no need to iron the cloth completely dry. When the cloth is no longer very wet, the ironing can become a bit firmer without the cloth moving about, but keep a gentle touch.

Step 6: Lift the cloth from the patchwork. The patchwork will be (unevenly) damp, and disconcertingly wrinkled, though unless it was severely wavy, the large waves will have gone.

Now iron out the small wrinkles, a small section at a time, using the tip of the iron. Pay particular attention not to distort bulky corners and (straight) seams, since distortion here can be extra visible.

Step 7: Place the full iron on the piece, going around the whole area bit by bit. Don't hold the iron in one place for too long, you don't want scorch marks! But keep going round until the piece is completely dry.

Leave your section lying flat on the ironing board until the fabric is cooled, then repeat the whole process with remaining sections until the whole piece is done.

Isn't this much better? It's not completely perfect, but the small waves that are left will hardly be visible once layered with wadding, and the rest will easily quilt out!

Sandra

A productive morning

For a while now I wanted to play with some curved piecing. I had some ideas in my head, percolating away for ages! Big, bold curves and solid fabrics. Bright colours. Big pieces. Modern look.

Finally two days ago, it was such a grey, gloomy day that I had to take out some colourful fabrics to play with. I picked my (limited) selection of solid fabrics and chose some dark reds, oranges and a lime green/yellow. That day this combination of colours said "warmth and cheerfulness" which was exactly what I was looking for.

I cut freehand curves through two fabrics, and sewed them together, building up one fabric at a time from the middle outwards. Trimming was done when needed, and a straight seam entered at some point too. I thoroughly enjoyed my morning, and ended up much more cheerful, and extremely satisfied with the result:

I am hesitating what to name this one... I thought of "Energy", but I am not sure yet. The centre shape reminds me a bit of an eye, though on its side... Then again, there is something of an Earth shape on its tilted axis... And isn't the Earth full of energy?

The problem now is that this is 27" wide x 32" long. It seems a good size for a (bold yet small) wall hanging, but how many wall hangings can I hang?! A throw might be much more useful, but then I need to "grow" it a bit more... And what would be more appreciated if I wanted to give it away? I have been thinking about it a lot, but I can't decide.

If I do need to make it larger, I do not want to add straight borders around the edges. Maybe a border of blocks, each containing a different improv "eye" shape? Maybe different borders at different sides?

So, what do you think? Bigger, or not? And if yes, how? Any ideas, suggestions and/or comments much appreciated!

Linking up with AHIQ at Sew Slowly and Fret Not Yourself
And yes, this top is a rather wavy, but I solved that too!

Sandra

Perfect quilt binding - Tip on Thursday #1

To find all my tutorials go to the Tutorials page.

In the last few days I posted some pictures on Instagram which got unexpected comments. Apparently the method I was using for attaching my binding is not as common as I thought. Which made me realise that there are probably quite a few tips and tricks that I may have picked up in the twenty-odd years I have been making quilts. Starting with the way I attach "ordinary" continuous binding, here we go...

Sewing on binding

I used to trim my (quilted) quilt straight and square, and then attach the binding, raw edges together, to the edge of the trimmed quilt.

NO MORE! 

I found that the edges of the quilt stretched while sewing on the binding. And the quilt felt very hard to control under the machine.
While the use of a walking foot helped to some extent, the right feed dogs were never quite gripping the fabric since it was trimmed, and I was struggling to keep the quilt going straight. And the edges of the quilt still tended to stretch, resulting in wavy edges. Not my preferred look.

So these days I sew my binding onto the quilt before trimming. The raw edges of the binding are stitched level with the edge of the quilt top and sewn on as usual through all the quilt layers. Then I trim the quilt edges.

And then... I trim the quilt level with the quilt top, yes?

Well, NO! 

It depends a bit on the look I am after, how wide I cut my binding, but I always aim to trim the edges of the quilt so that I end up with a well filled binding while stitching the binding to the back at the stitching line. In this case, my binding was cut at 2 1/4" wide (my usual size) and folded double. It was stitched a good 1/4" away from the edge of the quilt top. Some difficult calculations Measuring the width of the binding from the stitching to the folded edge gave me 7/8" (approximately). So I cut the quilt edge just under half that size at 3/8" away from my stitching line, allowing a little for thickness (I used only light, thin wadding).

For ease of turning the corners, I trimmed away the very corners of the wadding. The corners are usually bulky enough.

And there you have it, perfect binding! Don't you love the effect the check gives?!

But hold on, what if your quilt is not quite as straight as you would have liked? Shouldn't you trim the quilt first to straighten it?

Some may prefer to do that, but I don't. When the edge needs adjusting (this happens often enough - how do I know...), I draw a line where I would previously have cut the quilt, and then line up the raw edges of my binding with that line. Afterwards I cut the quilt edges straight, parallel to the stitching line.

Sandra