It's autumn, so we're celebrating by stitching a quilt called Cascades Fall Foliage.

This three block quilt features falling leaves, piece to chaining, and a delightful pieced border.

Sara uses an alternate fabric palette to incorporate textures and prints and even couches yarn for extra coziness.

Join us in the autumn woods and today's episode of Love of Quilting.

Funding for Love of Quilting is provided by.

The Bernina 990.

If it can be imagined, it can be created.

APQS longarm quilting machines allow you to express your creativity.

APQS quilt forever.

The Warm Company manufacturer of battings and fusibles for quilts, crafts and wearable arts.

Panasonic, maker of the 360 degree freestyle, cordless iron, magic quilting and crafting collection, ironing sprays, and more.

You're watching the 4700 series of Love of Quilting.

I'm Angela Huffman and I'm Sara Gallegos and Sara The quilt you brought makes me, like, crave apple cider and a walk in the woods.

It has a whole fall.

Lovely flavor to it.

Yeah.

This is Cascade's Fall Foliage by Joanna Rogers.

And she did hers with all these really, like, bright, vibrant batiks and I decided I wanted to make mine a little bit more, fall in Michigan and throw in some different textures and kind of like cozy sweater weather, you know?

So I had a lot of fun with this quilt, but I made a couple of changes to it.

Yeah.

So one of the things that I started with was instead of just doing batiks and a couple of different colors, I decided to play with a fat quarter pack and there were a lot of different colors.

I think I actually got two of them and just kind of auditioned the colors that I liked the best and sort of set aside the ones that didn't go with the theme, and I got to really pull like a bright, bold red, which we do definitely see in the trees in Michigan.

And we've got that bright gold, which reminds me of the aspens here in Colorado.

So just a lot of fun and a lot of different color variation and also some different textures.

Yeah, so much texture.

So we've got some plaids in there that are woven.

And what's really neat about these, they're kind of right side, wrong side indifferent.

The print goes all the way through.

Same thing with the linen that I worked with.

So if you do a flip over a piece of fabric, it doesn't really matter.

And I did work with the batik for the background, so just a really pale yellow.

And again, if you kind of flip a piece over it's not a big deal.

So with the fat quarters of course they've got all these.

Yeah.

Lots of wrinkles.

Yeah.

So many wrinkles.

So what I do is I just gently spray each fat quarter and just lay it down.

And then I'm going to add the next one on and just spray it again.

And I let these just sort of hang out and let some of that fluid just kind of absorb through all the fibers.

And then I come through and just cross them all and that.

So it makes it really fast.

And I was able to get all those creases out.

So you can just kind of set that aside and work with it later.

Yeah I got a little pile over here.

Okay.

So the next thing that we're going to do is start working on one of the blocks.

There are three blocks in this quilt.

And then there's a really interesting pieced border.

And we're going to try and show those today.

The first block is our leaf block I love it.

Yeah.

And on Joanna's she did a really pretty fusible bias cut stem for her leaf.

But I was thinking sweaters and fall and yarn and texture and texture.

So I found this really cool yarn in my stash because sometimes I fancy myself in there too.

Because, you know, we've need more hobbies.

So, yeah, it's like neat.

So I pulled that out and thought this would be really fun to work with.

A yarn couching foot.

There are lots of different types of yarn couching feet, some of them have grooves in the foot.

This particular foot has a couple of interesting little pieces, so there's a guide on the side of the machine that just sort of holds the yarn out of the way, and then you use a little needle threader to put it right into a hole on the side of the foot, and then it goes directly into the needle hole, and it's meant to be stitched with the feed dogs down.

So it's actually a free motion yarn couching foot.

Wow.

Yeah.

So I've got a piece of the fabric that will become the stamp block and a little stabilizer underneath, because I did find without the stabilizer, it puckered on me.

Okay.

And then I'm just doing like an arc.

Yeah, yeah, just an arc.

So the feed dogs are down, so it's free motion with a beautiful texture of yarn.

What kind of stabilizer?

You use a tearaway.

So maybe a medium to have you weight.

Tearaway.

And I would definitely practice and kind of get a feel for it.

I did just a long piece and kind of practiced.

One other thing you could do is you could stitch one long, continuous piece and then cut your stem blocks out of that might save a little bit of time.

But yeah, I like the tearaway because then we're going to be able to just rip it right off the back of the fabric, and it won't affect the hand of the quilt at all.

That was super simple.

I guess you could draw a line if you needed to follow a line.

But it's not necessary.

You can just do a simple arc and then each one of them is a little bit different.

Isn't that neat?

So fun.

Yeah, I was really excited about that.

Like printing.

And then again you can just you've got a straight line of stitching on the back.

This just tears right off.

So easy.

And we're ready to piece that right into the quilt.

Okay, here's a bust.

Very nice.

So now we can take off the, yarn couching for it.

And I'll take the little guide off here.

Okay.

And then the foot, has a little, lever on the back.

Yep.

So you'll lift that lever up and the foot should drop right down.

All right, I got it.

And so put just a regular piecing foot on a quarter inch foot on.

That's right.

So you could do the couching before or after, but we're going to be using that quarter inch seam for the whole rest of the quilt.

So that makes it pretty easy.

All right.

And then I have to tell the machine what foot I have on right.

And lift those feet dogs back up because we actually are going to need them now.

Right.

That's right.

So I'm going to pull down the walking foot and then and you've got it on the foot icon and that's for your, feed dogs is a little button on the side of the machine near the power button that you're just going to push in, and it will reengage those feed dogs for you.

You got it.

Okay.

So we're going to start first on our leaf block since we just did the stem.

And first we've got to do a half square triangle unit here.

So we're just going to stitch on both sides of that marked line.

Good place to get into that quarter inch seam.

Yeah.

There you go.

Okay.

And you ruler.

And then we're going to cut apart between the two stitching lines right on that marked line.

There we go.

I like that you chose a background color that is a little softer than a white.

Yeah I thought that with these bold fabrics I needed something that was going to be a little quieter.

So I didn't use a really dark fabric.

But I do like the texture that you get with it being just, like you said, a little pop of color.

So then once you've cut those apart, we're going to press them and you've got your two half square triangle units.

I've got one done here already.

Now we need to make what becomes all of the different parts of the leaf.

And this is really similar but slightly different.

We've got a rectangle here and I've got that same marked line, but instead of stitching on both sides we're going to stitch directly down the line this time.

Okay.

And if you've got a foot that is open an open toe like this, you can see that line a little bit a little bit better.

That's right.

And so this one now will go towards the the right right side.

So then we're going to make a mirrored unit as well.

So I've marked my line in the opposite direction okay.

And when we end up cutting that and opening it up we've got this.

Yep.

And then this one's going to give us that.

And you're going to do this with a lot of different fabrics and also different sizes.

Like here's an example of another size that we're going to make.

So just make sure you follow the pattern so that you've got the right amount of left and right and different sizes as well.

Nice.

So what I've got over here is our whole leaf block sort of blown up here.

So what we're going to do is this is where we get to kind of like, have fun and audition a little bit.

Okay, I'm gonna slide some of these over here.

We've got several of those little pieces to sort of keep track of.

Yeah, we've got this big red one from the center, which I love.

Just kind of makes the middle of the block really, really just all rectangles with, with a flip.

Yeah.

Really easy.

You just have to pay attention, attention a little bit to direction here and then here we can kind of pick, you know, you get to, like, audition your pieces.

What do you like better?

The gold or the plaid?

The plaid.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

So now we can start kind of stitching this together.

So first is going to be these two pieces okay I'm going to go ahead and cut off the excess yarn here.

Give it a little pony tail trim.

That's right I don't know.

So just a basic quarter inch seam.

There we go.

And now we're going to attach these two while I press that okay.

There you go.

And we'll just kind of do the first half of the block here so that we can really see how it in cases, the ends of those yarns.

Otherwise we've got raw edges hanging out.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It surprises me that I thought when you said linen, I thought this was going to be a little flimsy, like a little thinner.

Sure.

But it's got a nice hand.

And this is a linen that's kind of specifically made for quilters.

So it's got a little bit of, heavier hand to it than what you might picture your, your summery linen pants.

Yeah.

That's, that's what I had in my head when you said, when you said linens, they're fun to play with.

And there's lots of different colors and textures.

So now we're going to stitch that together okay.

I'm going to press this guy.

We go right.

And I definitely had to keep everything laid out on the smaller mat because it's really easy to flip something over and start going the wrong direction.

Okay.

So let's see how our pressing placement is going to go.

This is going this way.

So the seam I'm going to press toward the plaid.

Great.

And I would just take your pattern and put little arrows on it.

You could even take a finished block and put little sticky notes on it to remind yourself of which direction it goes.

I've even seen arrow pins.

That would be cool too.

Okay, so slip stitch this big long seam.

Okay.

And so when you were doing the, when you're planning, are you going to make each of these leaf blocks you gave me the choice to make that plaid or that goal, but so are you going to have them kind of slightly different?

I really played with the the fabrics.

And because you make so many of that long center vein, I think it looks better if you make the rest of the block scrappy, because they're all going to have a different center portion.

So then the little spikes coming off of it might as well be scrappy and fun, right?

Right.

Yeah.

But I would definitely lay them out, and audition everything before you start sewing, because it's the worst when you get to the very last block and you realize that you've got all yellow left and not enough of the coordinating colors.

Yeah.

So just just play a little stacking game, you know?

Okay.

So let's take a peek at this.

It's the first half of the block.

And look at just completely in cases that raw edge of the yarn.

So really easy to work with.

Nothing to be afraid of.

And then once you've completed your blocks, we end up with something like this.

So pretty.

Yeah.

So you can see there is one with the yellow center vein.

There's one with that bold striking red.

So you can just play mixing matchy and have all kinds of fun with it.

Yeah.

All right.

So we'll just put these aside.

And what we're going to do next is going to be a strip set that becomes a part of a couple of different blocks.

So we've got to make a couple of different strip sets with the light green and the dark green.

So while most of the leaf pieces are pretty scrappy, I did commit to a specific light and dark green that would become the chains within the blocks.

And then I did kind of commit to something specific for the rest of the chain block.

So that's where we do want to make some decisions.

And when I was working with these strip sets, I found it really handy just to press.

And we're just doing clean up cuts.

So I like to do one and these get cut into 2.5in pieces.

So I know you like to do this too, but I just kind of do a little bit of quilting math in my head two and a half times two is five.

So I can kind of get two pieces like this.

And then I'm following backwards to the two and a half and watching for those three edges.

And that's going to give us what we need for our chain blocks.

And I kind of thought at first I was going to be making mixing matchy.

You don't you use the same pieces for your strips.

Yeah.

So we'll just layer those together and then stitch with the quarter inch seam.

Yeah.

Anytime you're trying to draw the eye diagonally across the quilt, it's going to be helpful to use the same fabric.

Right.

Because the eye is going to notice the pattern, it's going to notice the symmetry and it's going to carry itself across the quilt.

And when you make it super scrappy, the eye kind of has to find the diagonals.

And especially with the three block quilt, having them all the same is going to be helpful.

I think so too.

Yeah.

Okay, so then we'd make some more that way.

And we have this really important unit that finds itself in a couple of different spots.

So just a four patch though.

Just a four patch really easy.

So we're going to start with doing the star next okay.

So we've got this really fun star pattern that emerges.

And I did mine in a couple of different colors.

And I went pretty high contrast.

And I just want to talk about my plates for a minute here.

Yeah I like the plates.

They're kind of built.

Do you do that kind of fun.

Yeah, yeah.

So this quilt has so many different pieces and parts that I was kind of having a hard time keeping it organized, especially to present on the show here, but even just at home.

So I kind of just put everything in plates that have these ridges, and I labeled the sizes of the pieces I was working with and what unit it was, and that just kind of helps me to keep things organized as I go.

So here I've got where we're going to start with our stars, and it's really easy.

So, no tricky piecing here, but I do want to look at my pattern and make sure I go the right direction.

So we're going to be piecing together.

And I get that.

There we go.

Yeah.

You got to play the spinny game.

So these two right sides together here we go.

And so you've got a lip on those, plates so that if a strong wind comes by, they are going to scatter.

That's great.

Right.

Like that.

And you've got them all labeled too, with the size.

So if the wind does scatter it, you can pick it up and measure it and go, oh, I know what unit that was.

Yeah.

Nice to have both the size and the unit indicator lever or whatever you've worked with.

So I press toward the dark and then we're going to add this.

I'm here you go.

And I'll press this one.

Yeah a lot of labeling involved.

And that definitely made it easier.

Take the time to just get out your little stickies and label everything, You can even write it right on the plate.

But this way I can reuse my plates.

There you go.

Yeah, I've heard about some people using, other things to keep it all organized.

Even an additional mat or something like that.

Sure.

Yeah.

Whatever you got.

There you go.

Okay.

This one too, with really, really tiny pieces.

You know what I use?

What?

Muffin tin?

Oh, yeah, and I just.

That was a tip at the tip table, is it?

I know I've done it here before, too.

When I did my.

Oh, gosh.

What was it?

I think it was the storm at sea.

Well, and I had so many pieces and parts for some of our viewers, they'll use a silverware tray.

There you go.

That's a good one to keep.

Like a log cabin, like all the strips in the knife area and the.

And the fork area and this, spoon area.

That's a good one.

Whatever it takes.

Right?

Whenever we need to stay organized.

All right, so for each star block, we're going to need four of these.

So let's just kind of lay that out I've got a couple extras over here okay.

And we get to have this nice bold color right in the center.

Yeah.

That golden.

That's really pretty fun.

Yeah.

And with this way then we need our four patch units.

So dark goes in the top right and bottom left.

And they point toward each other.

So don't get that mixed up.

And then we have these and then just sort of point to each other.

Yeah.

So then you're going to stitch all of those together.

Just work in rows and then join and you've got your leaf block.

Yeah.

And I did just for fun.

These two really bold color ways.

Look at that.

Yeah.

So instead of keeping them all the same I went really high contrast with the contrast of what's in the original quilt.

And I thought it would be fun to have a few different shades as well.

Okay.

Just like the trees.

Just like the trees.

All right.

So we're going to take this away.

And now we get to look at our third block.

Yeah.

Which is this chain here.

Okay I see the four patches again.

That's right.

So I got to get my plates organized okay.

Here we go.

So we need to make this unit right here.

And we are going to be making it into different color palettes okay.

So the first thing that we need to do is create mirrored sets of these rectangles with squares in the corners.

So we want to sew diagonally down here okay.

And you want me to mark it for you.

Yeah.

Mark it for me.

Do you have a pan over there.

Oh here we go.

Okay.

So we're just going to mark that diagonal.

And on this one you're going to stitch directly on the line.

Got it.

Here we go.

You know I recently had the opportunity to see you said the gold hues were kind of like the aspens and how they turn color.

And I tell you what, there is nothing like standing in a grove of aspen trees with that beautiful golden color.

It's amazing.

It's like it's lit from within, almost.

Yeah, yeah.

We are fortunate enough to come to Colorado to tape the show, and one of our tapings is typically in the fall.

So we get to really see those beautiful trees and it just feels like such a gift, you know?

It's like I have to travel to Colorado to hang out with Angela and make quilts.

It's just such a fortunate person.

Okay, so I'm going to stitch that one up or cut that one also, and we'll give a press.

So do watch because this whole like going to the right and going to the left is important.

And stacking them up so that you don't get a mix.

I would do like all of the right hand ones all at once and all the left hand once, all at once.

Yeah, keep yourself organized.

Definitely.

It's really easy to get lost in the block.

Okay so there's that.

And then we're going to need one of these.

And I like to keep a little extra guy laid out here so that I don't get confused.

So this is what we're making.

So I have the wrong one.

Yeah.

Here we go.

So like that and then nope this one goes here.

Yeah.

And this here okay okay.

Now we need one little square.

One little square plaid.

That's right okay.

So I use stitch that I'm going to find my square.

Yeah I do, I do have a Japanese maple at home in my front yard.

And the red color that comes off of that in the fall is absolutely gorgeous.

And then I have a big Ole oak tree that just drops acorns all over everything.

But he's so glorious.

But goodness, is that a mess.

The mess.

Yeah, yeah, I have a lot of leaf cleanup to do as soon as I get home in Michigan, because it is that time of year.

So there's those two now, and I have a new puppy who, of course, the squirrels are drawn by all those acorns.

And the new puppy just discovered squirrels for the first time.

It's it's quite it's quite exciting.

Does he like to chase them?

He doesn't go out to chase them.

He likes to chase them from window to window to window to window inside the house.

But, Yeah, the squirrels are quite fascinating.

That's fun.

Yeah.

My girl likes to go outside and chase squirrels, and they run up the tree, and then she barks at the tree.

And the squirrels.

Squirrels are quite noisy when a dog is yelling at it, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

So, like, they get angry, they make all those funny little sound.

I think the sound is ha ha ha ha ha.

I think that's awesome.

That's exactly what it is to.

Oh, I love it.

I'm going to think of that next time I watch her chase the squirrel.

Haha in my head.

All right, so we got that one.

So then we're going to take two of each color away.

So we do have to make two different color ways.

Right.

And they are going to lay out.

Let's just pull this forward a little bit beautiful like this.

And then we're going to go opposite like that and like this.

Nice.

So we've got all of our points coming together in our chain traveling through that block.

And you'll make several of those.

So those are the three blocks that are in the quilts.

We've got our chain our star and our leaf.

But what's really neat here is there's a piece border.

Yes.

The fancy border.

Yeah, the fancy border.

Some come I got my pieces again.

And we've seen half square triangles.

This way.

Your triangle squares.

And you're going to be making them out of two different fabrics.

And it's the same throughout.

So sometimes I like to actually just stack these right on top of each other.

Nice.

And if you line it up really, really, really straight we can cut through two at once.

Just be careful.

Here we go.

I start played bingo.

And now we are going to press those both toward the darker fabric like so.

And then we nest them so that we have opposing colors.

Mark on both sides of the lines and stitch.

So I've got that right here.

So I'm just going to cut that one open.

So it's an hourglass unit.

We're making an hourglass unit with three different fabrics in it instead of just two.

So that's how you know by opposing those fabrics when we stack them after it's stitched, we got this plaid on one side and the gold on the other.

That's right.

So that's one of the units that's in that border.

Yeah.

Then we've also got a flying these unit flying geese line goose.

We always decide how do we see geese.

So it's just the typical flying geese done.

Two at a time.

And I think I'm.

I don't need you to stitch that once I've got one down here.

Oh, good.

Then we're going to have some more of our strip pieced units.

So I've got those here and then we get to lay it on.

The plates are necessary.

Exactly.

Because now I'm going to go home and try to figure out what all of this was.

Well, and I will say that like, this would be a beautiful table runner too.

Like, it's a gorgeous quilt.

It could be a beautiful table runners.

Yeah.

If you don't want to do all of it or don't have the time, there's a lot of choices.

And on this particular portion of it, we do instead make a two color four patch.

So you're using both of those strips together nice and tight.

Yeah.

And I really found it helpful to take a look at the pattern when I try to lay this out.

Our little goose unit goes over here leading the way leading the way I like that.

And then you've got a solid that's going to fill some space.

And then you're going to keep traveling around the quilt and lay it out in such a way.

So pretty.

And the space here does help because it's not like it's an entirely piece border.

Yeah, I kind of like that.

And I would picture my friend Angela doing something really interesting in that space with her quilting.

I'm thinking leaves leaves be really, really pretty.

And that's how the quilt was quilted with was with a kind of a spiral Wendy with leave accents.

Really pretty.

It's just like falling leaves have it.

Yeah.

It's gorgeous.

I love the colors.

I love the plaids.

Just beautiful.

Thank you very much.

Grab a pencil, tips and other useful information.

Coming up next.

Angela, this tip comes from Carol Woodruff of Vancouver, Washington.

She says, hello, love of quilting.

I've been watching and learning from your show for years.

Like others, I love the tips from viewers.

Here's mine.

So she saved leftover binding and sashing strips to audition with quilts in progress, it doesn't take very large pieces to help you decide on the color and pattern style for bindings and sashing, so she keeps them on a little binder clip on a nail.

And the second picture kind of shows you her process where she's got them all laid out on the side.

And so for this quilt, she opted for the black with the little stripe there o stripes, you did a good job for the stripes.

Yeah.

So yeah, this one was sent in from Sherri Peters from Lincoln, Nebraska.

She says I'm submitting this tip on behalf of my mom.

Hi, mom.

Elaine Peters of Wood River, Nebraska, when she needs to rip out some stitching in an extra pair of hands aren't available to help hold the fabrics.

I use my sewing machine to help.

I set the needle down to hold one piece of the fabric in place, while I pull gently on the other piece of fabric, and this makes it easier to use my seam ripper.

That's a great idea, because trying to get all of that apart with your fingers is hard and excellent.

I like that.

Okay, here's one from Coralee Keefe of of, Binghamton, New York.

She says hello ladies.

I love watching your show and really enjoy the tips at the end.

Some are very unique.

My tip is to use clear vinyl over my two thread holders.

She has one for sewing thread and the other for embroidery thread, and the vinyl is draped over the holder and allows her to see all of her colors, but it keeps the dust off.

So look at that.

You can see, I mean, yeah, that's a great idea.

Yeah.

This one is from Sally Long from Louisville, Kentucky.

She says I like to use a regular thimble when quilting, but sometimes a thimble feels too big and will slip off my finger.

So what she does as she wraps a small piece of double sided tape around her finger.

And then that thimble stays in place perfectly.

Oh, that clever idea, I like it.

Good one.

Thanks so much for sending your tips, and if you have one to share, you can send it to the address on screen.

And of course, we love it when you send us a little visual too.

We'll see you next time.

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