Inspired by childhood memories of homemade blueberry jam.

This quilt plays with different shades of blue to create transparent layers.

You'll learn to piece strip sets and sashing and then sew a partial seam to create this unique block.

And we'll even play with color options so you can see all the ways to make this quilt delicious.

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The Bernina 990.

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[Upbeat music] Hi there, and welcome to the 48th season of Love of Quilting.

I'm Sara Gallegos.

- And I'm Angela Huffman.

And Angela.

I love this blue palette you've chosen.

Don't you?

It's yummy.

Right?

Yeah.

- It is.

So this is “Blueberry Jam.” I like to say blueberry jam and biscuits because it's got a little hint of the little cream color in it.

Very sweet.

And it's based on a vintage block that's called Let's Jam.

It was first appeared around late 70s.

That's what you mentioned.

Yeah.

And anytime I see a block that I can't immediately tell how it goes together, I'm like, ooh, I want to do that.

- Yeah.

I want to figure that out.

So that was this block for me.

And it plays with color transparencies a lot.

So you see this kind of lighter blue color and that more rich blue.

And where they overlap.

And that's what provides that color transparency.

And so when you're trying to figure out what colors will give you that overlap, look, so this is our background, and these were those two kind of focal blues.

Sure.

And so I kind of think about, okay, if these were the mommy and daddy, what were the baby look like?

Okay.

- Is is the only way I can kind of figure it out.

And it takes some playing with.

But I finally kind of thought this kind of, gray blue was a good, tone for that transparency.

In between.

-Yeah.

But it does take some playing to kind of figure it out.

And sometimes it even takes, if you take a picture with your phone and you put that photo into a monochrome, you can kind of see a little bit more.

The colors sometimes lie to you.

So sometimes that'll help you find that color transparency.

This is why it's so important to have so much fabric in your stash.

- Right.

So you can play, right?

- That's right.

Yeah, you can play.

And it was fun to do it all in solids as well.

So, we're going to be making a number of strip sets.

And so the first one that we're going to do is we're just going to make it from this lighter blue color.

And I have gone ahead and I used some fabric spray.

And I gave it a nice crisp, fold.

But you can see this top here is kind of jaggedy.

So this is how it just came off the bolt.

And so what we want to make sure that we do is a clean up cut.

And we talk about a clean up cut all the time.

And this is why.

It's because when you get it off the bolt, it may not have been cut straight.

-Right.

Absolutely not.

I mean, you're in a hurry cutting all that fabric.

It's good just to make sure.

- Right.

And so I've just got a little piece here, but when I go to cut a strip set, I'm just going to kind of hang it in the breeze and give it a little shake.

And I'm looking to make sure that it looks like it's hanging politely.

- Okay.

And if I have it off, it's not going.

It's going to look a little bit like it's not hanging.

And the happy.

Way.

- Right.

It's fighting with itself.

- Like there's a It's a there's a fold or something there that I need to take a look at.

And then generally when I lay it down, I lay it down with that, fold away from me, and then I pull the, other half of the fabric up on top.

And then this little fold right here is really super important, and I can feel as my fingers go down if all those layers aren't kind of sitting inside of themselves.

And if you don't have them folded well and sitting inside themselves, when you cut your strips, you're going to find that you open it up and it has like.

A little.

- Right.

- V or a little beak to it.

So like if, if one of your layers is up a little higher and the others are lower, you're going to have that unevenness.

Which is going to give you a really poor cut.

- Yeah.

And you can really feel when it sits down in there nicely.

And if you feel and it doesn't like right now here feel it there, you can feel it doesn't sit in there super nice.

It's not in there.

Got a little ridge.

So just give it a little jush towards the top and then now feel it and it's in there.

Ready to go.

- Ready to go.

Okay.

So we're going to do a 2.5in cut.

And for this strip set we're going to need two of this color.

And so generally rather than doing two and a half cut two and a half cut I'm going to do a five.

I'm so I'm going to cut at five inches.

And so I always have to count one, two, three, 4, 5.

And I'm going to put a clean up cut first.

-Right.

So let's cut this edge off.

So I'm looking at that fold and I'm lining it up with a nice strong line on my ruler.

And I'm going to make sure that when I do this clean up cut I will go through all of the layers so I can see that I'm going to go through all four of those layers.

I'm going to spread my hand out nice and wide like a spider to hold this, ruler nice and stable.

And then there is a cut.

So now I have this edge here that I trust.

So I'm just going to rotate this around, and I'm going to cut five inches.

So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

And then I'm going to line up my ruler against that fold.

I like to always use the fold of the other fabric to line up against my ruler, and not kind of these flappy bits that are hanging out in the wind.

- Right.

That's the trustworthy side of this.

So there's my five, and of course five divided by two is two and a half.

And that's what we're after is our 2.5in strips.

So one, two and a half.

And I think it's worth saying too if this if you haven't recently this is your reminder to change your blade.

Yeah.

- Just flows through that fabric so much nicer.

So because I cut that clean up cut pristine, I know I can trust it every time you cut that clean up cut, you might have to go through.

If you're doing a lot of strips and do a clean up cut again and again.

- Do another one.

So we've got our two here and I'm going to do one more.

And we're just going to put two of these together.

So and I would refer to the pattern as far as the number of strip sets that you need and the colors that you need.

But finding that color transparency is going to help, really give kind of the visual impact of this quilt.

It's got a little punch to it.

So this one, I have a turned around, but here's my, folded edge.

So I've got it lined up on a nice, strong point on my ruler.

This side is against that clean up cut.

And there's my 2.5in strip, and Sara, if you would sew one of these together Sure.

- With one of those light pinks, we're going to do a two or a quarter inch seam There you go.

So, this quilt was named after, a very distinct childhood memory that I have of, my neighbor Miss A. Miss Adair.

So she would have me, you know, this was in the days where there was, you know, three channels on the TV.

And there was no internet.

So.

You had to get up and change the channel.

You had to get up and go do something.

Yeah.

And so I would wander over the see Miss A. And she would always, have different jams and jellies ready to go for me and biscuits.

So yeah, obviously.

- That's fun.

she wanted me to be there because she would kind of, have little things for us to talk and chat and, eat blueberry jam and rhubarb.

I guess it's jelly and strawberry jelly.

And she had all kinds of of different, jams and jellies in her freezer.

- That's cool.

You could make this quilt inspired by any of your favorite jams.

Yeah.

- It would be beautiful in a berry palette.

It would.

Well and later Sara we'll play with color.

- That would be fun.

And we'll we'll see like, what other colors we could do.

There you are.

- Okay.

So you're going to do that strip set.

And then in order to iron it, I'm just going to use my iron to kind of warm that seam up that we just did.

And of course we're using a red, thread.

I would not use red thread to do my piecing.

I would use something more neutral or a kind of a gray color.

And then I'm just kind of being very careful and cautious about how I iron the strip set so that I don't add a wobble to the strip set.

It'll start to kind of do the wa and you don't want to do that.

The pointy the edge of the iron is nice for getting into those seams.

- It is.

Yeah.

So I'm going to show you the strip set because we're going to I'm just going to kind of speed up time here.

So this is what we just did.

So we did it would have been this way.

So we did that light blue with that blue gray.

And then you would do another light blue with that midnight blue.

And you're going to need two of them.

And you're going to cut these in 2.5in strips.

So notice this strip set slightly different.

We're highlighting that brighter blue color.

Sure.

So 2.5in strips and I've got them here already cut.

So I had cut that 2.5in and I had cut that 2.5in.

So now we're just going to make kind of a little checkerboard design.

And there and it's going to be positioned like that.

- Nice.

One thing that I noticed is that it's going to be easier for you if you plan your pressing with this, because it's going to nest well, - Right.

and that will, that will bless you in the end.

And what I noticed is that when I did that, I noticed that, Oh no, they all do.

Oh, I thought I had it, I thought I had it upside down.

If you ever have one where it's pressed in the incorrect direction and you don't discover it until you get to the pressing station, if you have some kind of little water pen or something to kind of warm up that seam with a little bit of water, you can talk it into going in the opposite direction, so you can get that nesting because that nesting is going to be really helpful.

So let me turn it around so we don't get mixed up.

There it is I'm going to stack this on top of each other.

Okay Sara So put a quarter inch seam in that.

That'll give us that checkerboard for the center.

And I generally if I trust my strip sets.

I don't typically pin them, but I do stop every so often and just kind of let that foot lift off and adjust if I need to.

You can feel it.

I can feel it pushed coming together.

Yes.

And I love that the needle stays down in the foot comes up so I can make any little adjustments I need.

Yeah, sewing needle down does help because that needle then acts as a pin.

There you go.

All right.

So there is our checkerboard.

And you're going to press that.

And I've already got one here pressed and ready to go.

The next thing we need to do is we need to make some eight at a time, half square triangles - Okay.

And so you're going to need two different color ways of this You're going to need that light cream biscuit color with that gray blue and then also that light cream with the midnight blue.

I've already done this one.

You're going to mark, diagonal to diagonal.

You're going to sew a quarter of an inch on each side.

So this one's marked.

So if you would just sew a quarter of an inch on each side.

Sure.

And then I'm going to show what we do after we have that.

So for this one I've already sewn that quarter of an inch on each side.

And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to cut this apart.

And I typically will cut the north south and east west first.

And so I'm just lining up my ruler with as many places like as I can.

I'm going to make sure that that rulers bisecting that center square that gets made and this is going to, make eight at a time.

So it's a good way to make them very quickly.

If you have a spinny mat, you could certainly spin it.

You could spend your body, you could spin if you put a second mat on here, all that would work.

But try to keep them together and then set the ruler back down.

And the reason I do the north, south and east and west is that, the diagonals are kind of trapped between the seams so.

I just want to show one of my favorite tricks for doing thi Yeah.

So instead of cutting and taking the time to wait for the machine to do a thread cut, when I stop at the end of one of those seams, I like to just kind of tug it backwards to get a little extra thread.

Then I can just whip it right around that needle, and I found that it doesn't pull my edge tight that way.

I've got enough extra slack in there that I can just pick it up again.

Yeah, if you whip around that corner, too fast, it can, drag the point of that, around with i Yeah.

So I like to pull that little ex thread, and then it doesn't do i All right, I'm going to do the last cut here on that diagonal, and that will get us.

So now we have eight half square triangles of that midnight with the cream.

And then I would press these towards the dark and maybe trim up those dog ears, these little bits that are hanging off here at the end.

You can square up these, these half square triangles, get them squared up.

And I've already got that done.

Right here.

So I've got our cream, our biscuits and our midnight and our biscuit and our, light blue gray.

- Nice Now, set this aside for just a second, because the next unit that we're going to build looks like this.

And you're going to need one in both colors.

So I've got that bright blue and I have that lighter blue.

And it's just a rectangle with two little flippy corners on it.

And so I've got a just a white because this is a dark, color.

So a chalk, kind of pencil is going to be your friend here.

And I'm just putting my ruler up against those two diagonals.

And this time, rather than sewing to each side of that chocked line, you are going to sew on the chalked line.

And I typically when I'm doing this, I cheat just a little bit like a kitten's whisker, to the outside of that line.

And that's just in case the width of my needle and the width of my thread, or eating up too much.

I want this to be, the right size and not too small.

So.

And it's a kitten's whisker.

It's really.

I know that's an official term, but, Well and I've got a little guide beam here that I can place right down next to that seam.

So I can see that I'm exactly away from it.

And I think one of the other big tips there, too, is just to make sure that you're using a really nice, fine, 50 weight piecing thread.

That helps a ton too.

Well, and I was also noticing how you put it in the machine, because you can put it this way, but you actually had it rotated around the other way.

So those feed dogs can kind of grab that fabric.

Grab that fabric to start.

Those feed dogs are doing some hard work, so give them as much, fabric there to, to grab on to, to move it through the machine as possible.

Okay, there you have it.

All right.

So then we're going to just cut away the excess.

So a quarter inch away from what you've sewn on each side.

It's kind of a modified little top half of a snowball really.

That's what we're making.

Right.

And then I'm just going to iron that.

And so I'm going to iron it towards the dark.

And I'm just going to let that seam get warmed up and then use the edge of the iron to help that move away.

We do have a wool mat here that also helps get those seams nice and flat.

Brings the heat up from the bottom just like it's hitting it from the top and let things lay a little flatter.

So if you haven't become a believer in the wool mat yet, you should definitely give it a try because you'll be surprised by how much more crisp your seams are that way.

Well, and there's a lot of seams in this block, so if you have a lay flat then their accuracy is going to go way, way up.

All right.

So then we're going to put on our biscuits on to here this way and this way.

And I have those already done.

So again a quarter inch seam.

So that's going to get us we had it rotated that way.

Okay.

So that's going to get us those.

We'll put those aside.

Okay so we've got the checkerboard and we've got these.

We need to make these we need to kind of marry these to to another strip set.

And that strip set is super duper simple.

It's just it's just a two piece strip set.

And again, it's 2.5in strips cut off of that strip set.

So let's do let's do this one first.

I've got him here.

Sara lay it out so that we can kind of keep track of what's going on.

So that one.

Oh this is actually for the another portion of the block.

So let's set this one aside because I need it without the half square triangle for this part.

So I have this one.

And these two now are going to go together like that.

So if you would sew that again quarter inch seam And then you'll do the same for that other color way.

So you're going to need one for both because this is where.

I. Every time I look at it I kind of see a heart almost too.

- It is kind of a heart shape.

So you've got balance.

You've got that bright blue one and you've got that lighter blue one, and you'll be doing the same thing to both.

Okay.

And this one too?

I just love how those bright blue kind of zings in the block.

Yeah.

I think just having that extra bright just gives such a nice little zing of color and a nice little pop.

It's pretty.

- And I will say in the pattern, it talks about navy blue and dark blue.

So you might have a little color swatch, little snip of the fabric sitting beside you.

And you label the colors the name so that you can keep track of it.

Yeah.

So you're going to have two of those.

- Okay.

And then you'll be attaching a, navy blue square to each side.

So I think it looks like a little goose head.

Do you see the goose?

- Sure.

I think it looks like a goose.

I think it does.

Okay.

There you go.

Maybe it's me.

That's what I see.

- Oh goodness.

So one of the cool things about this block.

So it's it's either, I've seen it in “Let's Jam.” I've seen it in “Jam Session” as far as the name of this vintage block goes, but it uses a partial seam, and partial seams are so cool.

And they are not hard at all.

But it allows you to kind of create blocks that will make the eye kind of go.

I don't see the piecing and that's what I thought was just the coolest about this.

- That is neat.

So let's lay this block out, Sara.

So we've got our checkerboard center and you're going to see when we lay this out, I'm going to move this little ruler over just so that we can see well.

You're going to see when we lay this out why it has to be a partial seam because it just won't go together.

There you go.

In a standard and a standard way.

Okay.

And so, what's going to happen is we're not going to sew you can see like this would hang off the edge.

So we couldn't sew that whole unit together.

So it goes like that.

And so you're going to start about oh midpoint and just so midpoint over to that edge.

- Okay.

And that is the, the partial seam.

So it sounds fancy.

Totally not.

So start about in the middle and go down to the end.

Yeah I like I like the ease that partial seams create.

And it gets you away from Y seams right?

Yes, yes.

I would do a partial same all day long.

Y seams?

I have to be in the mood for a Y seam.

I would agree.

Yeah.

Okay.

And of course we've seen on the show y seams w seams u seams all kinds of interesting seams.

All the seams.

All the seams.

Okay I'm just going to press that then towards the dark.

I'm not going to press all of it.

Just that little part that you, actually sewed and that will get that seam flat so that this next slide now will fit on.

And then I'll do that.

- Okay.

And the other thing that I like about this block is that the center, that checkerboard, it did have a lot of seams coming together where you had to really pay attention and kind of get them to line up, but the rest of it does not is not fussy like that.

Yeah.

There's this one little spot here to nest and that's it.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

And then press that and then we're ready for.

And when you do have a lot of like this has a lot of seams coming together right here.

So if I just kind of this has a thread conditioner in it.

So it'll help, a fabric conditioner in it that'll help that lay flat, nice and flat and that'll help get that, seam to be nice and crisp.

All right, so there we are.

Now this side goes on like that.

- Nice.

You know, my mom, she has, three siblings.

So there's four kids in her family.

And when she would talk about her childhood growing up again next door to Miss A or Miss Adair, she would talk about, like, sleeping on the front lawn and hanging out on the roof.

And I never really understood why.

But of course, it was before air conditioning.

So that's why they were sleeping on the front lawn and Miss A Miss Adair would come out and bring them, goodies and and fun things to eat.

And then there were so many people.

In this little tiny house that they would go and sit on the On the roof just to kind of have some quiet time.

Because.

- Probably be a nice breeze out there.

There was a nice breeze right?

Watch the people walk by.

- Right.

And of course, all the neighbors, knew each other well.

Okay.

So let's go ahead and we'll put this on and then we'll get that last seam done, which is the final hurrah.

So go ahead and put that quarter inch seam there.

Okay.

It's going to flip that little seam over and nest one little corner here.

So your biscuits nice and.

- Yes.

Pointy I guess you wouldn't have a pointy a biscuit, but you know what I mean.

- You could.

It's called a scone It's called a scone.

You're right.

Oh, I love scones with raspberry jam.

Raspberries?

Yeah.

When this be fun in that raspberry color?

Those berry colors.

Okay, so here's the big to do ta da moment.

- Okay.

And that is how to finish up from that partial seam.

So it's as simple as you're going to press that seam out.

And now you see there's what we had not sewn.

So now you see when we lay this back along you can finish that seam and your block will be done.

Easy.

Yeah.

Not scary at all.

So if you see a block, you're like, I don't really understand how that goes together.

I'm betting you it's a partial seam.

And that's exactly the block the Angle is always looking for.

It is.

It is.

If it lights up my brain, I'm doing it.

Okay.

The sashing is super simple to the sashing that goes around is just again a strip set.

And there are cornerstones there, a little biscuit cornerstones and lighter cornerstones, and the whole thing comes together with some nice, negative space to play on with your quilting as well.

So “Blueberry Jam.” - Blueberry jam and biscuits.

- And biscuits It's really pretty.

So I think it would be really fun if we get the computer out and just take a peek at what this might look like - Yeah.

In a raspberry jam.

In a little bit of raspberry jam Yeah, let's do it.

Sara I've got the quilt, here in some software.

And this is how I typically design.

I typically design in monochrome because the colors in the fabric kind of are too distracting.

I get pulled into that rather than the design.

Oh that's smart.

And so the monochrome allows me to see it.

And even like right now, do you see that?

It's like the star that I just hadn't even seen before.

Right.

That comes out in places that I hadn't expected.

So once I have, kind of structure the bones of the quilt that I like, then I start overlaying, colors on them.

And in this case, because I knew I wanted that color transparency, I knew I wanted solid colors.

I just started playing.

So, that one kind of that peachy peachy and red, some teals and blacks.

That one's looks like strawberry jam, doesn't it, with the green.

And I like the green.

Yeah.

That's cute.

And, Yeah.

- Strawberry tops.

Here you see that star, I think so much more in the middle of the block.

You do.

Yeah.

And the pinwheel that's kind of hidden behind in the crosses there.

- It's pretty.

So everything kind of comes out at you a little bit differently.

I like that one too.

It's like raspberry with the dark, with the black accents.

Moodier.

- Yeah.

That one.

Yeah.

Yeah, that one is super, super cool.

I like that.

- Raspberry jam and biscuits.

And so I just wanted to show you kind of how I did that.

And I'm just going to bring that quilt into, the edit area, and I'm just going to go into fabric and I'm going to click on randomize.

And, and it's this little wand that I can click on the colors and it will just randomly pick other colors.

And so let's see what it picks.

Oh that one's bright.

Yeah.

- Whoa that's bold.

That's like a pina colada.

Yeah.

And so sometimes you might not like them and other times you might as you go through you might go, you know what I kind of I kind of do like that.

And so if there's one that you like you can always save it and go back.

And I do this kind of multiple times as I start to play until I see a color combo that looks like Christmas.

So you don't start the quilt with the color palette in mind?

No, I get way too distracted and it's too hard to decide.

So.

Yeah.

And that one's a little bit softer, a little bit nicer, and some of them will have that star come out at you, and some of them will start to have that transparency.

This one definitely has a nice transparency come out.

So you can just kind of play with colors and find the one that speaks to you.

It's a great way to get a little springboard for the color palette and take a little bit of help from the computer.

When you kind of over analyze.

- Love that.

- That's really fun So fun.

Thanks for sharing.

Grab a pencil, tips and other useful information.

Coming up next.

Angela, here's a fun tip from Kim Okapiec of Manitoba, Canada.

She says love your show.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

She made this ornaments for members of her local quilting group in southeastern Manitoba.

Love it.

- You can use any kind of empty spool and glue colored yarn to it, attach jute or whatever you like with a little bead and put your ornament hanger on.

Isn't that cute?

That's very cute.

I think if your thread spools are on wooden, it's probably time to craft them It's probably time to make an ornament out of them.

Yeah.

- Yes.

So this is from, Sheila Schweiger from Rogersville, Missouri.

She said that I have found that a finger cot rolled over your thimble will keep the thimble in place, and they can be ordered online.

Okay, so she sent a hand with her tip.

So there's the there's the thimble, and then you put the finger cot on and it keeps it in place on your finger.

Great suggestion I like it okay.

I like this one too.

This is really pretty.

Look at this.

Beautiful quilts.

Patricia C Wallace of Covington, Tennessee, says I wanted to hang a design wall, but I didn't have any place where I could put up something permanent.

I used painter's tape to hold up an old flannel sheet, and when I'm done with the layout, I can take down the sheet with no damage to the wall.

Great suggestion.

And I love those blocks too.

Isn't that pretty?

- Yeah.

Just gorgeous.

All right.

This one Sara is from Lorraine Cooper from Issaquah, Washington.

She said, my tip is for all the gals that appliqu I use leftover binding and cover the outer edges of my background fabric to prevent fraying from handling.

And this is especially helpful if you're appliquéing several layers or have many pieces, since you'll be able to handle the fabric more.

I really enjoy your program.

Thank you for presenting new patterns and ideas every week.

Oh thank you Lorraine.

Thank you so much for being a part of our program.

We absolutely love to see what you're working on and to see those ideas and tips come in.

Additional quilting ideas are available in the pages of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine.

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