Show off your stitch work.

David Owen Hastings uses for backing and batting as a foundation for patchwork and stitching that balances complexity and simplicity.

Next, Sandra Lee Chandler uses Sachiko and other distinct stitches to transform mending into an artistic statement.

Let's see those stitches on today's episode of Quilting Arts.

Quilting Arts TV is brought to you by.

The Bernina 990.

If it can be imagined, it can be created.

Gentle fuse fusible web made for quilters from Maywood Studio.

[Upbeat music] David Owen Hastings is making his quilts from back to front.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- I know.

So what's with that?

Well, it's because I'm basically an efficiency expert or wannabe, let's say wannabe.

- Okay.

I love to save time, and if I can save a few steps and have a quicker finish, it makes me very, very happy.

So this is basically just an approach to making a quilt, getting some of the tedious elements out of the way first, Okay.

- And then you can have fun enjoying the pleasure of creating the front of your quilt and have a very quick finish.

- Nice.

Okay.

- Yeah.

- So where do you start?

Oh, this is an example.

This is an example of a finished quilt.

Small small piece.

You know, I do do this on a larger scale too.

But this is a great example of kind of a piece that I would apply this to.

It's this is basically a modified log cabin kind of approach.

where there's a central element that I built around.

So I started here.

I added this piece in next.

This piece, this piece and then this one across the bottom.

And what I'm doing is using the backing and the and the batting that I've prepared in advance, like a foundation and sewing these front elements onto it.

Okay.

- Yeah.

So I like to think about how I'm going to engineer this and structure it so I can make this work.

But this starts with an idea first.

And the first first thing you have to decide is how big this quilt is going to be.

Okay.

- What are the dimensions.

And that's sort of the take off point for getting the the elements that you need in place.

So I'll start out with just sketching out a few little simple ideas.

We can help put that aside.

I'll sketch out a few ideas.

Again, this is thinking about this modified log cabin approach, where there's a central element that I'm building around, and I don't always do it like that.

Sometimes I think in terms of columns of design that I build from the center outwards, but that'll be the starting point.

And the decision was to make it 15.5in square.

Okay.

- That's that's where I start.

Then it's time to make the backing and a stickler about labels.

I love labeling my quilts I think is a very important thing for all quilt makers to do.

Absolutely.

Yes.

So I'll create a simple layout for the back of the quilt that incorporates the label right into the fabric of the backing.

Oh that's great.

- And from the start.

- Yes.

So then once it's quilted it's in there.

It's it's harmonious with the quilt.

It's not a stuck on thing.

So I like to make them on my computer.

I've got that graphic design background that comes in handy.

But really this is pretty simple to do.

Just setting up a little text file in any kind of word processing program.

Creating the text for your label.

In this case, I print.

I took a photo of some fabric and put it as a background layer underneath my text.

That's how I get the white text on a colored background.

- Nice.

and printed that out.

And you could do different options.

This has enough room to do four small labels, or maybe two big ones.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Okay.

So when that's finished, create my create my backing.

Next binding A lot of my small quilts use a face binding, and I like to cut my binding vertically from the length of the fabric.

It's a lot more stable that way.

- Okay.

And these are face binding strips that are twice as wide and then folded over.

And I've even made some little tabs in advance that are.

That are going to hang over the bamboo.

Okay.

- Yes, exactly.

So that's out of the way.

That's the one that I hate the most.

Binding.

Oh.

Who knew?

Then let's let's put it all together.

Here's the back.

Let's go this direction.

There's a quilt back with the label sewn right into it.

I've created my my basic layout.

Cut a piece of batting that's a little bit smaller so that it's not quite going to the edges.

- Okay.

That gives me some area to begin and start, start and end my quilting lines.

And then I don't know if you can see this, but I've added the dimensions of my individual shapes they're drawn on to the.

- They're drawn on.

Yes.

- Okay.

Yeah.

So I drew this out on paper on my computer.

You could just easily do this with a sketchpad and a pencil and paper.

Or graph paper.

- Yeah.

You don't have to get this fancy, but I planned out what the sewing order is going to be.

What The size of the elements that are going to be to to cover my 15.5in square piece.

- Yep.

And then I drew it up to size on a piece of tissue paper.

And that allows me, let me have it going the right direction.

That allows me to transfer this design.

Let's say I want to make multiples of these and put them together into a bigger quilt with a join.

I call it a gusset joint.

When you use a strip of fabric front and back to join fully quilted blocks together.

To kind of cover where that seam is.

Yes.

- Between the blocks.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

But to get this design onto my batting, I'll just use a use this drawing, a big quilting ruler.

Align it with one of the lines of the design and then pull this back.

And you're holding on to that ruler a little bit.

- Yes.

Yeah.

Leave the ruler in place.

And then draw with a fabric marking pen against the edge of the ruler.

So smart.

Okay.

Yeah.

- And then.

You keep that in place.

Yeah, you keep it in place.

Move to all the line segments that you have, draw the lines in, and now you've got your foundation to build on.

- Great.

And you know exactly where everything's going to go.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Super handy.

So that's kind of like I think about this as getting the canvas ready for the painting layer.

Nice.

- It's prepping the canvas I often use a little bit of a pop of color with an overall neutral palette.

And to add a little more surface, design, a little more texture.

I'll create one of these accent strip sets, often sewing the wrong sides together.

So putting not typical to what we do with quilting, but putting wrong sides together, - Yeah.

pressing it open with a seam on the front, and then that becomes part of the texture of the surface.

And you have these kind of raw edges.

- Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.- Great.

If you do this, I recommend using a very short stitch length so that it's very tight, maybe 20 2.0 or 1.75, so that the stitches don't come out when you cut your little skinny narrow strips.

Right.

Because if they're really skinny, they would start to the stitching what's come out.

Absolutely.

Okay, so now it's time to start sewing.

We've made we've made our elements.

Let's just audition them here in place.

I pre sewn the wings or the elements of design that I'm going to have.

Getting them to the right size.

Here's a little extra thing I do.

Sometimes I'll add a little extra batting behind some elements.

- Trapunto.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's like trapunto.

So that will be behind that element.

This one will be in that spot, this one in this spot.

And then my sewing order will be one, two, three, four, five.

Kind of go around counterclockwise this way.

You are so organized, crazy organized.

Okay.

Makes sense though.

- Thank you.

Makes perfect sense.

- Yeah.

But now I've done.

I've done all that tedious stuff.

Gotten it out of the way.

- Yeah.

The binding is ready for when I finished this quilt.

I can have a really quick finish.

Yeah.

Okay.

- So let's go.

So some of this down.

That sounds great.

- At the machine.

- I'll get this out of the way.

All right.

I'm just going to set aside the elements that I'm not sewing right away.

So they're out of the way.

And I love this.

Using the the batting right on the backing as a foundation.

What that does is secure all these elements in the.

Once they're all on, I can get right to the quilting, the machine quilting or hand quilting and everything's quite secure and I don't have to do any basting.

So I'm going to start with sewing number one face up here.

Number two is right next door.

It's going to go face down.

And before I do that I'll just show you that I've got my elements lined up with my grid that I drew onto the batting.

So we're going to put this one face down on top of its neighbor.

Line it all up there.

- Line it all up good.

Now if you if you like to pin, go ahead and throw a couple pins in.

I'm kind of I'm kind of of the mind that I've already pressed everything really nicely.

And I don't have to do much pinning at this point.

Okay.

So what I would like to do though, is make sure that the backing stays nice and clean.

So I'm going to work to bring my bobbin thread to the surface here, holding on to the top thread with my left hand and I can drop the needle down once and pop it up again while I'm holding on with tension.

And that brings the bobbin thread.

And if you happen to have a little tweezer, you could grab that and pull it up from the bottom.

There's another way you can do this that I think is pretty elegant too.

Let me show you that real quick.

So if you don't.

It's good to have good thread hygiene.

- Yeah.

I think I call it.

- Yes.

Yes, clean threads.

If you look at your walking foot and I'm doing this with the walking foot on, there are some nice markings on there that help you line things up really nicely.

So I'm going to drop the needle once, pop it up, then bring the presser foot up, and then I'm holding on to the top thread like a tea bar - Right.

And sweeping it underneath.

You're flossing it.

Yeah, flossing bobbin floss.

And then you can grab it and lay it down in the right spot and reconnoiter your positioning.

Okay.

- So I like to put this under the presser foot and just hold it back here, out of the way while I stitch forward.

Once you learn these habits, they come second nature Absolutely.

It does.

Yeah.

So I'm going to stitch to the end of this line.

I'm going to try to try it up a stop close to that marking that I made.

And then instead of using the thread cutter automatic thread cutter, I'm going to pull out some thread and use scissors and manually cut these.

So you have long threads there.

- Yes.

And what I'll do is pull this up I'm going to grab a pin.

And if you can see this.

So bring the bobbin thread back up.

Yeah I'm going to bring that bobbin thread at the end of the line up.

You can grab it with a by putting a pin through that little loop.

And now both threads are on the surface.

They're out of the way.

I can open up number two here.

And you just finger press that.

A little bit.

- Yeah.

Yeah I just use the back of my thumbnail actually I score it.

- Okay.

And give it a little press.

And then I'm ready to add the next piece.

- Okay.

Should we go ahead.

- Yeah let's go ahead and do that.

- Yeah.

Oh don't trap any dirt under there.

Oh yeah.

Especially under a white fabric.

Yes.

- Or threads if.

- You had to be very careful And that's actually that's a good thing.

You mentioned that, Susan, because I've got some darker fabric next to some lighter fabric.

I want to make sure that this lighter fabric extends a little bit beyond the darker fabric.

So I don't get any shadowing.

- Okay.

So I'm going to position it.

So it's definitely going a little bit beyond I'm going to rotate this.

So I'm sewing center out which is always good practice to keep things nice and flat.

Position this bring my bobbin thread up.

And you're taking great care and going at a slow pace.

Yeah.

- Make sure you get it all right A lot of people rush through things and then it looks sloppy.

It's good to take time.

- Yes.

Yeah.

And then we're going to sew from the center out here.

And since I'm going out to the edge of this piece now, I don't have to pull bobbin thread up at the end.

Just making it.

- Just go.

I just go off into the trim zone.

I call the perimeter of a quilt at this stage, the pie crust.

I like to think of it in in food terms.

And the pie crust is the zone that's going to get cut off eventually.

But yeah, we're almost done.

Let's pull it out.

Take a quick look.

- There we go.

So you just continue on that way - Yeah.

- And then.

Build your other the other elements.

What a creative way to do this.

- Thank you.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

My pleasure.

And we'll be right back.

Sandra Lee Chandler is a fiber artist and an educator, and she's known for these amazing denim garments.

So you do like visible mending, but in a really creative way.

Tell me about it.

So I love taking a good pair of jeans that fit me well and maybe opening up the side seam, maybe adding some patches where maybe the jeans were a little worn, or maybe not.

I just want to add my own personality to them.

They certainly have that.

They're wonderful.

I was looking at this pair and tell me about the different kinds of stitching you were doing and why.

So this happens to be a Sachiko piece of fabric that was actually printed.

And then I used the Sachiko stitching to actually stitch all of this handwork.

Now I stitched the patch first.

Okay.

Then I left this outside rim, which I then stitched on to the actual jeans.

Okay, so only this line of stitching goes all the way through the denim.

- Absolutely.

Right.

Because that can be hard work sometimes to get through.

Absolutely.

- Like especially 100% cotton denim.

It's very hard to stitch through sometimes.

- Correct.

So that's how I did that one.

This happens to be an orphan block.

We all have orphan blocks.

It didn't make it into a quilt, but I loved it.

And I thought I would love to put this on a pair of jeans.

So what I did was I actually stitched all of these on to the jeans.

So I took the block, placed it on my jeans, and then I took and I stitched right through.

But there's one trick.

Or I wouldn't call it a trick, but it makes it a lot easier.

Make sure you stitch one quarter of an inch outside of that seem.

So you're not going through three levels of denim.

Correct.

- Okay.

- So I call it shadow stitching.

And so that's what I did.

And then I stitched around.

Now you notice got some fraying here.

That's the beauty of it.

You like that you want to have that funky edge to it.

Correct.

So we went down.

We had another block that we put on here, and then we went to the side scene and we cut open that side seam.

Hold this open a little bit.

- And let's show you here so you can see it's so cool.

And I love the vertical stitching in here too.

It just accentuates those lines.

Absolutely.

So you know what I want to show you how to do this.

I want to learn.

Let's go.

- Okay.

Get this one out of the way.

So first step.

So find the jeans that fit you well okay.

This is a pair of jeans that I love.

They fit me well, but they're a little plain.

So what I did first was I took my seam ripper and I went up, and I ripped up the seam.

Now I know you're going to ask me how far.

- Right.

So how do you decide whether it's going to go up to your thigh or just your knee?

So that's all of your interpretation.

It's up to you as the artist.

You could go up to your mid calf.

You can go up to your knee.

You could go all the way up to your hip.

So for these I want it to go about up to my knee.

If you notice you can see the wear.

And I know that's kind of about the the area that my knee would sit in.

So I took and I ripped it open just like this.

And then next I got to make that inset.

Right.

- So we've got to figure out the wedge shape that fits in there.

So what I love to do is and I'm going to move all of this over and we're going to really talk about the wedge shape.

What I tend to do is I'll take a piece of paper.

Maybe it's my printer paper, maybe it's a roll of paper.

I will take.

- Grocery bag.

- Grocery bag.

And what I do is I fold it in half.

So it's a long piece that I fold in half.

I would then measure on my jeans how far my opening is, because that's how long I want my inset.

Okay.

- So now that I know how far then I would take and mark up and that's where I would start my ruler.

So I'm going to show you right here.

And you leave a little at each end for the seam and for the finishing at the bottom.

So it depends.

Do you want your him to be ragged or jagged, or do you want to actually have like a quarter inch or a half an inch turnover?

It's up to you.

- Almost a binding on a quilt.

Exactly.

- But right at the at the base of the jeans.

Right.

So it's up to you.

So then once I've measured.

So now I know if you remember, it was about with my tape measure.

I was about this.

It was about this long.

So it looks about 18 right.

So what I would do then and this one's already cut.

But let's pretend like it wasn't already cut.

I would then take my ruler and depending on how wide I want it now, the width I think is determined by your jeans.

If you have straight leg jeans or a bell or a boot cut, that all depends on how wide I want my opening, because if it's a narrow jean, my opening, I probably don't want it any larger than the size of that one front panel, the pants leg.

Because otherwise it'll come down straight and then it'll flare out too much.

And it may wrap around your your leg.

You know, in the old days when jeans weren't cut or pants weren't cut straight on the grain, they would wrap around.

So in order to not have that, I would say make sure whatever the half of the inset is not, is not larger or wider than what the pants leg was.

Okay.

Makes sense.

- So we're going to go here.

We're going to measure all the way down.

Do you need something to mark it.

- Yes.

And then we're going to bring our pants back over.

That's more like 20.

Yeah.

So we're going to do this.

No, that's about right then.

There we go.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Okay.

So now that we have our template we've got to make our inset.

So many times I like to start with something like half square triangles I so the two together I keep going and I end up with something that looks like this.

Yeah.

Like flying geese.

- Exactly.

Now people are going to say, well, do you want them to fit inside?

Generally I use a set template size.

So if you notice these are all the same size.

And then what I'm going to do is just lay my pattern on top Need a marker.

Yes I need the marker.

- Purple?

I'm using the ruler.

Yes ma'am.

And we're just going to mark it.

And knowing you, you probably saved the scraps and use them for something.

Oh, absolutely.

And so this template includes a seam allowance.

Absolutely.

- And how much is it?

Like a quarter inch or is it.

So what I do for the seam allowance is I sew right back into that seam where the jeans were sewn.

So then you're going to get a natural turn.

You don't have to worry about pressing the jeans to make sure that the pants leg isn't bulky.

- Okay.

- Right.

So we're going to use that as our guideline.

So now that we have our template we're going to take our rotary cutter.

Get this stuff out of your way.

So we're going to cut.

Remember always cut away never towards you.

We're going to move this around.

We're going to go back here.

Now you're asking why isn't there a point.

The reason being is that's a Y seam.

And if you do a point, we want to stitch all the way up to a quarter inch or the width of the seam allowance, and then we're going to pivot.

And I'm just going.

To come up basically to right to there.

- Yes.

And then come down this way.

Absolutely.

- Okay.

So see now we have our inset.

I just happen to have a pair of jeans here that we already put them in the inset in.

And I've stitched on one side.

So what you would do is you would take this and you're going to pin it like this.

So this is inside out already.

- Absolutely.

Okay.

- The pants are inside out.

Now remember we were talking about that.

If I want to hem my inset, I'm going to mark it all the way up to the bottom.

See that of that?

Because then when I turn it around, I'm going to sew the inset in.

And then this will be turned under.

- Right.

So you have to think about that.

- Make sense?

- Yes.

But if I don't then I may.

If I want it raw edge, then I would just pin it to where I know the him would be.

Okay, so it's up to you.

Did you pick this?

- Yes, ma'am.

We're going to pin it now.

And then I go all the way up and I would pin it all the way up.

Let's go to the machine.

Okay.

Let's go.

All right, so you've already got one side sewn.

You're going to show us the other side?

- Absolutely.

So this is where we're going to look at real quickly.

We're going to so this down using the existing seam already there okay.

And I'm going to start at the bottom because it's a y seem.

So I'm going to.

So all the way up to a pivot point.

And I'm going to show you that real quickly.

It's very easy to do.

So I'm going to slip my fabric under there.

Right.

Okay.

I'm going to lower my presser foot.

And then I'm going to start stitching.

I like to do a little backstitch.

I'm going to go back just a couple stitches.

Watch when I'm doing this.

The foot the the right hand side of the foot is actually what I'm lining my fabric up to.

Okay.

So I'm going to make sure all of these are together.

Now these are right sides together.

You notice I don't have it pinned.

Yeah.

Because you don't necessarily need to pin it.

I think when you pin it, you pull it, it moves it.

It's better if you just place it just like this.

And look how smooth the machine.

It knows what to do.

It's going right in there.

And are you using heavier thread or?

So what we are using is a needle that is for denim.

So we do have our denim needle.

The thread.

No I'm not using any heavier thread.

And we're just going to go right.

Now you're going to watch when I get up to the top right here.

See where that stitch where I ended that.

That's where you need it.

That's where my knee.

Yes, absolutely.

- Okay.

Almost there.

And we're going to have to wrap up.

Bullseye.

Got it.

And you backstitch and you're done.

Backstitch and I'm done.

- Terrific.

So fun.

I'm going home to look at my jeans.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

And we'll be back in a minute.

From applied design theory to innovative technique.

Learn what fellow artists are up to within the art quilting community.

Join us for finishing touches.

Hi, Marcia.

I love these.

Tell me about them.

Oh yeah, these are both vintage themed quilts, and I put them together because they both sort of have a narrative.

You can just tell there's a real story happening here.

Right.

- And this first one is an embroidered dish towel with a picture of the artist's mother in the kitchen.

Oh, and is this a tablecloth around here?

It sure is.

Good guess.

And as a matter of fact, the border is part of a tablecloth that this woman used to put on her pies when they were cooling.

Oh, how sweet is that?

- That's great.

So you get to keep all those memories.

Yeah.

All in one piece.

- Really really cute.

And it ties like the cook and the cook.

Yes.

- Right.

And then this one also has a strong narrative, as you can tell.

This is, I think, a great grandparent.

And it's somebody who is an ancestor that the artist that the artist never knew but wanted to have known.

And this is a believe marriage certificate.

- Marriage certific And the way it was put on here, it makes it three dimensional, almost like you feel like you could almost turn a page.

Yeah.

I saw you trying to do that.

Yeah.

- Look at this.

Isn't that really interesting use - Yes.

of the fabric that looks exactly like a frame.

That's a kind of frame in that era they would actually use.

So I don't know how she found that fabric, but the date on the marriage certificate is 1906.

- Yeah.

So it's it's been a minute.

- Isn't that great?

And then just as a final piece on this one I thought was so sweet.

Look at this.

- Oh, nice.

That almost looks like the Hardanger that my Norwegian grandmother used to do.

- It's beautiful.

What a neat way to finish it on the back too.

Make sure to make time for contemporary quilting every day.

Visit our website QuiltingArts-TV.com for access to selected project instructions, ideas, tips and techniques from this season of Quilting Arts TV.

If you enjoyed today's episode and want to see more contemporary quilting techniques and inspiring guests, a digital download of the entire Quilting Arts TV series is available for $29.99 or receive both the digital download and a subscription to the magazine for $59.95.

Available at QuiltingArts-TV.com Quilting Arts TV is brought to you by.

The Bernina 990.

If it can be imagined, it can be created.

Gentle fuse fusible web made for quilters from Maywood Studio.

[Upbeat music]