Piecing Perfect Corners

Stitch and Press

Being self-taught, I have experimented with different pressing and joining techniques. While I prefer pressing seams open as I feel it gives a flatter result, there are times when pressing to one side helps you to obtain a perfect corner. This is one of those times and we can use this technique in this weeks blocks.

I'm joining my 1.5" squares together, so first I join a black to a colour with a 1/4" seam. You can use the chain piecing method to make this go faster if you like. Next I press the seams towards the black with my iron.

Line up the Seams

Now we need to line up our centre corners. When you take your two pieces and put them together you will notice that the seams are facing opposite directions. When the corner is lined up correctly you will feel that they seem like the pieces are interlocked. Initially I found it helped to pin at this point and I still do pin when sewing a larger project - for example I used this method to line up the rows from my rainbow basket weave quilt. With something as small as this I find pinning unnecessary.

Stitch...

Of course we're using a 1/4" seam to join these blocks together as well. Don't be afraid to unpick your stitching and have another go if you are not happy with the results.

Open up and Check

Have a look at your work! If you are happy with it, press the seams open. You can see that the corners have lined up perfectly. Enlarge the photo and have a close look if you like.

I hope this helps you with your piecing. Time for me to get on with my other blocks from this week...

Making a Circle

Gathered Circle - Back View

Breaking out of squares and straight lines can be difficult but rewarding. Any unusual shape in quilting is usually applied with some form of applique, whether the stitching is decorative or hidden. In this instance I wanted a circle so that I could crop away all the unwanted background on my custom printed fabric.

1. Create a template using quilters template plastic. It is only a couple of dollars and I've made several projects now with the single sheet I bought to help me create a perfect shape. It is also transparant so that before you cut your material you can ensure that your shape is large enough to show the desired area.
   
2. Iron on interfacing cut to the size of the finished shape, then sew about 1/4-1/2" outside of your template with the longest stitch to gather. One this instance I made two gathering lines at 1/4" and 1/2"
   
3. Position your template plastic on the back of your fabric and carefully pull one of your threads to gather the fabric.
   
4. Carefully iron the edge of your shape, being carefull not to melt the plastic, then remove the plastic. The shape should hold while you ease out your template... give it another iron. I placed a tea towl over the front for final ironing so I could get some good heat through without worrying about damaging the fabric.

One more thing you may want to consider is whether you need interfacing. In this case I did use interfacing cut the size of my final shape. Sometimes it is not needed.

The fabric used here is the custom printed fat quarter as seen in this post.

Stack & Slash

Stacked and Slashed

The stack and slash method is quite an easy way to get started straight away and make some interesting and colourful blocks. It is often used for crazy quilts. First you need a number of squares cut to the same size and stacked one on top of each other. Mine were 16" squares.

You will need a Rotary Cutter, Self Healing Mat and a 24" ruler.

You will need one square of fabric for every block you would like to make. 9 squares of fabric will give you 9 finished blocks. In this case I used 12 squares of different fabric because I want 12 unique and different blocks.

After making the first cut through all the layers, anywhere you like, some people like to mix up the blocks by taking the bottom piece from one stack and placing it on the top. I didn't want to worry about lining everything up again, so I just cut.

Repeat until you have done 4 cuts. This should give you 9 pieces similar to mine. Next take these pieces and spread them out in a pleasing arrangement, then sew them together. I joined mine together using 1" strips of black cotton.