Tulips and twirls.

Decorate our sewing center today on “Love of Quilting.” We'll use charming five inch precut squares to create pinwheels of blossoms that dance across a table runner.

- And we'll showcase a few options for making your table runner outdoor ready.

Tiptoe through the tulips with us in a springtime patchwork Paradise.

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[Upbeat music] Welcome to the 48th season of “Love of Quilting.” Im Angela Huffman.

- And Im Sara Gallegos.

Sara, I love the fabric that you brought, and it is such a sweet quilt.

Tell us what you brought today.

So this quilt is Tulips and Twirls by Jen Daley, and it's a really fun project for five inch square precuts.

So, on Jen's, she went a little bit more subtle, a little a little bit less contrast.

And I decided to make mine a little bit punchier And I had a lot of fun with it.

So what I kind of did working with this was I took charm packs of main prints and also some blender prints, but they're all from the same designer.

They're multiple collections, but they just kind of work really nicely together.

So if you're ever looking for like, you know, a coordinate and a bold print and you're not sure how to mix and match, you could always get things from the same designer, different collections.

A lot of times they'll work together.

Not always, but in this case it worked out really well for me.

And so what's the size?

- Yeah.

The five inch square precuts here.

- Five inch squares.

Yep.

And one thing to kind of keep in mind when you're working with precuts like this is it's a really good idea just to kind of measure to find out where is the five inches.

Because on some of them, we've always got this pinked edge.

And on some of our, our pre cuts, the measurement is from the inside of those little crimps.

And on others it's from the outside which is the case here.

So my five inches is right to the very tippy point of those little pinked edges.

Not inside of it.

So when you in most manufacturers cut them the same way, but different manufacturers, it can range.

So definitely just take the time to measure that before you start cutting it apart.

And that's going to help you with that precision in your blocks.

Yeah.

So let's like play mixy matchy a little bit.

- Okay.

So on Jen's she did kind of monochromatic tulips where the center was a different print but the same color as outside.

But I decided just to kind of mix and match and play.

What do you think, Yeah.

So I don't know about polka dots for it, but I can definitely see it.

That looks like a tulip.

- Definitely.

Yeah, I like this one.

Kind of.

For the inside.

It's kind of dramatic, though.

It is.

- It might kind of work better with that one.

There you go.

- Yeah.

So that was kind of the process of elimination.

- So he's friend And I think these two are definitely friends.

Definitely friends there.

- Yeah.

All right.

How many friends do we need?

- Don't know we could like - Ooh Look at how pretty that one is.

That ones a very good one.

That one might be a little much.

I don't know I like it.

- Yeah.

What about stripes for the inside.

Well, you could do that.

I kind of reserved the stripes and the dots for the setting blocks between my pinwheels, because we do also have some pinwheels to play with.

Good idea.

- However, we certainly could.

Okay, how about just a smaller print that has some greens in it?

Definitely could do that.

Okay.

-So that gives us three little matches.

Is that enough?

So this is exactly what I did - Yeah.

- When I started putting this together.

I was kind of playing with my friend Annette.

We worked at it together and we just made these little pairs, and that way we took it aside and said, okay, those are going to be for our tulips.

Then we kind of came back through and said, oh yeah, we definitely think this would be fun.

For one of those squares.

- Polka dots.

And then maybe we stick with these smaller little prints for the spinning pinwheels throughout the block.

And so you just kind of go through your five inch squares and like set little piles a side of tulips, pinwheels, solid blocks, right.

Okay.

Solid blocks.

Super fun.

- Yeah.

Then you start cutting.

All right.

So just a fun way to kind of put it together.

Oh, and then you do have to pick a background I went with instead of a white.

I chose this kind of more bone kind of color.

I thought it was nice and subtle with those prints.

And then you need a green for your grass and your stems.

And I thought that was really pretty.

Now we are ready to construct our tulip block.

So I've got everything kind of lined up here.

And it's just a whole bunch of your favorite thing.

Yay.

- We're doing a gazillion flippy corners so we could start first with the stem here.

I have already marked lines diagonally, and instead of sewing on either side of the line, we are going to stitch directly down that line.

And I did notice that your, the little stem part.

He's a very skinny piece of fabric.

- Yes.

So did you find that you had to kind of treat him differently?

Because that's a very that's very skinny.

Well, when I'm working with a skinny little strip like that, I'll actually show you when we do it.

I usually put that on the top layer instead of on the bottom, because that way I can see that that edge is staying nice and straight.

But no, I mean good quality fabric here.

And it didn't really misbehave much for me.

- Yeah.

Okay, so I'm going to just cut on the outside of that line.

What did you have in mind?

What would you think you might do with a skinny strip like that?

I would starch the heck out of it.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

He's just so small.

It's hard to get ahold of him.

I actually starch most of my fabrics before I begin to sew anything.

Hard to do with the pre cut, of course, but yeah.

But for yardage.

Yardage for sure.

And do it before you sub cut it.

Treat it treat it with some kind of fabric treatment or starch.

Makes a big difference.

It does.

- Definitely.

I also always starch if I'm going to do decorative stitches or embroidery of any sort.

Okay.

So we'll set that down.

And you'll notice that I kind of left everything here with the lines drawn and the angles I need to sew them, just to kind of help myself keep it all together.

But now we are ready to put that skinny little strip on there.

So again, I would recommend putting that on the top side so you can really see where that skinny little edge is.

Sometimes your feed dogs will shift things around a little bit on the underside.

Yeah.

The little guy, you want to keep your eye on him?

Definitely.

Because he can drift on.

That's right.

And I just made a whole bunch of tulip stems and then I moved on to the buds.

- Yeah.

Oh, I didn't get the cutter.

There we go.

I know oftentimes I'll reach up to get my cutter and I lift my foot or something, Yeah.

- Touch the wrong button because I'm distracted.

Well and sometimes you can - Okay, so I'm going to press that out.

If your machine has the ability to program, you can, like, make one part of the foot be the cutter and one part of the foot be That actually is set up that way That is how I set it up, - Oh yeah?

because I like it that way, too.

So if you were to put your heel on the back of the foot pedal.

Okay.

- You would definitely have that happening.

All right.

So now we'll add that second piece on.

And you are kind of starting with a lot going on in one edge there.

But I think you'll be all right.

I think I'll be fine.

- Yeah.

Nice sharp needle.

Yes.

I like to program the machine to do as many jobs as possible with the push of one button.

I know.

Yeah.

- Makes everything faster.

It can, though, if you've got that foot, programed, it can surprise you if you're hitting the wrong, the wrong side of it.

- Yeah.

Another little tip for a lot of sewing machines.

Have a foot that will do two jobs.

And if you were to like, imagine that this is a presser foot.

Or your foot pedal.

A lot of people Sew like with their heel down here because that's how we drive a car and you're just using your toe.

But then we accidentally put pressure on that back part and it will cause it to do whatever you programed it to do.

Thread cotton needle up.

So a recommendation is if you were to put your whole foot on the foot pedal, that way you're kind of actively pushing down on the heel and the toe.

So not like when you drive your car, but fully on it.

That'll help you to not, you know, engage the wrong thing.

I like to sew without my shoes on so that my toes can kind of grip.

I couldn't possibly sew with a shoe on.

- I know.

Barefoot sewing is just about the only way to go, just don't - Isn't that funny?

drop a needle on the floor.

- Yes.

But other than that, that's the preferable way.

We have a little tulip stem.

- It's very nice.

Now we get to make the, top part of our little buds.

So here we've got with these little guys, and we want to make sure that we're sewing them in opposite directions.

I don't know if it's more comfortable for you to stitch one and then put the other one back on there, whatever you prefer.

Alright.

We'll see.

This parts easy to get mixed up.

- And we're just going right Right on the line.

- Yes.

Yeah.

The whole thing is right on that line.

This part's easy to get mixed up, so I do like having either a practice block nearby my machine, or just a picture of the instructions so that I can kind of reference it with each stitch, because it's just so easy to twist one around.

And you can do both of these, before you trim and press because they don't overlap.

They do not.

So that's a nice little efficiency.

Yeah.

I really like this.

That that fabric with a little white - Texture to it.

Texture.

- It's really pretty.

It's going to be nice inside of our little tulip.

I am always on the lookout for fabrics that have something unusual, - Yeah.

- So I love it if it's got a little slub texture to it.

Or maybe like a woven stripe, just anything that's a little bit different in texture.

I just think it's so much fun and gives different dimension to projects.

So that's kind of what I tend to stock up on when I Yeah.

- Go shopping.

I tend to look at the machine quilting process as that's where I'm going to add the texture, whether it's a background filler or it's a higher loft batting.

I'm going to over quilt in some places and under quilt and other places.

So it kind of has a dimension to it.

Yeah.

I've seen, and worked with some of the fabrics you're talking about that have kind of the that really loose woven kind of kind of, texture.

And they give a very interesting look at the end.

They do.

- They do have a tendency to unravel a little bit to have little ravly bits.

- I was just going to say - Yeah.

That's something you definitely want to spray starch.

Okay.

So same thing on this.

- Okay.

Yeah definitely good to starch those.

And I feel like there are some fabrics and projects that are great for taking on a quilt retreat or in a hotel room, like I like to cut stuff out.

And there are others that you need to cut it out and then sew it in the same space because when you move it around, things unravel.

And that would be those wovens, right?

- Yeah.

So those are, like cut it today and sew it tomorrow if possible.

Okay.

So again, I've just trimmed off little bits.

And now I'm going to press and on all of these I'm pressing out toward that lighter fabric that does break our rules a little bit with the pressing to the dark side, but it lays a little bit more naturally.

We could make a choice on that next one to do it the opposite way, because that will allow us to, maybe nest something, but it just kind of wants to naturally go that way.

So that's what I've been.

I've been letting the fabric be the boss, I guess.

Okay, so here we've got the first little side.

Yeah.

- I will trim this and then maybe.

- Sew that.

You could sew that.

- Yeah.

There you go.

Yeah.

And I can see where with those little tiny pieces, using the tip of that iron, it's nice and pointy and would also be be your friend.

And we're also, pressing not ironing.

So let's take a peek at what that looks like.

So a lot of times when we're like ironing a shirt, we're doing this.

And that can really, you know, stretch stuff.

So that's not really what you want to do with quilting.

We want to just set that seam so nice hot iron on top of the seam.

And then I'm going to just finger press that little piece out.

Use that tippy point to push it and then stop.

Now I am pushing it.

But I'm not like stretching it.

So you just want to be careful of that, especially with triangles.

So again we're just going to kind of fold that open push and like just rest your iron there.

To let it really do its work.

Yeah I've had students say oh I'm my cutting.

I can't get my cutting to be the right size.

And sometimes it's not the cutting.

Sometimes it's the pressing.

- Right.

Oh goodness.

There are so many things to think of with quilting.

And the more we slow down, take our time, do the right way, the better things go together.

All right, so let's see here.

One more to go.

This fabric too because the motif is smaller.

And these are such little small pieces it really, makes it sing.

It kind of showcases the little florals.

It's very sweet.

- It is sweet.

I did think that Jen's was very sweet too.

- Yeah.

It was a little bit more subtle in the colors.

I tend to like mine a little bit more bold, but - Yeah.

- there's lots of different choices.

I could see it as being a good centerpiece to a little, Tea Party.

Yeah.

- It could be an outdoor picnic.

Hint hint.

We're going to be talking about ways to make it outdoorsy too.

Oh yeah?

Outdoorsy.

- Outdoorsy sewing.

Alright.

My mother takes a sewing machine out onto her deck.

And sews outside a lot.

And, I think, man, I need to get that set up going when it's a nice warm day.

Yeah.

And a beautiful view.

All right.

Big, strong breeze comes by and all your little pieces.

- Some days you need a little anchor?

Yeah.

Oh, good.

How sweet.

Now we just attach this to the bottom stem.

There you go.

All right.

And we end up with all these little bits.

Trimmings.

They get stuck to everything.

Just going to do a little finger shift into place there.

Yeah, I probably should have, pinned it, but I'm going to kind of use my fingernails as a pin here.

There you go.

Scratch it in place and get it to behave.

There it goes.

Beautiful.

One more press.

And we have ourselves a tulip.

There you go.

- All right.

Nice.

Yeah.

I really enjoyed this project.

I just think it's so darn cute.

I could also see it in a red, white and blue.

A patriotic, That would be pretty.

- Kind of quilt for 4th of July.

Absolutely.

There we go.

So sweet.

- There's our tulip.

So we just make a whole bunch more of those.

And they've just got a little sashing strip in between.

So you've got your field of tulips.

- Little skinny.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Very cute.

Now we're going to create one of our pinwheel blocks.

And these are done kind of individual pinwheels.

So we've got little squares to sew into the corners of these bitty flying geese we're making.

And then we're going to end up adding some little bars to that as well.

And we do need to do these individually because they are going to overlap.

And again I'm just going to line up that cut edge with those little - Teeth.

Teeth.

- Yeah.

- Of the pinking stitch.

And then stitch right down whichever direction you prefer.

And I'll line a couple of them up for you.

You definitely want to be precise in cutting, because we are using every bit of that - I bet.

five inch width on these squares for our pinwheels Line that up.

Sometimes you see those precuts and you think, oh, I love it, but what in the world am I going to do with it?

And this is a nice way to use up use one just for the plain, because you can also get the, the plain fabric, you know, solid fabrics - Absolutely.

In pre cut size as well.

Pre cuts are my pack of gum at a quilt shop.

- Are they?

You know it's like it's the thing that I grab - Yeah.

while I'm waiting to check out.

Or Is it typically the five inch squares or.

Or the mini ones that are 2.5in.

- Oh those are adorable.

- I love those.

I don't even want to open them up.

They're just too cute.

- Yea They just sit there and smile at me.

So fun for zipper pouches.

And if you do decide to crack into one and you know, just to have a quick instant gratification project, it's nice to be able to get something done in an afternoon.

And that's a good way to start.

Okay, so now we're just going to trim a quarter of an inch away and on all of them, and I'm going to trim two and line them up for you to sew.

And then I'll keep going.

There we go.

- Yeah.

The the bundles that have the fat quarters on them, especially the are the ones that like I look at and it just kind of I don't want to open them.

Right.

- They're just too pretty.

So they're kind of just decorations.

In the sewing room.

My decorations are the 2.5in strips that are all twisted together.

- Yeah.

and those I have a hard time breaking into.

Even though they make the fastest like serger quilts I can put them together in a quilt on my serger in an afternoon.

I do love that very much.

Okay, so I've pressed two of them, and now we're going to place another one of our marked squares and stitch on the opposite diagonal.

Oh okay.

- Teeny tiny.

Little bits.

All right.

And here is another.

This is a good time to really practice that quarter inch seam, because it does kind of need to be accurate with these tiny little pieces.

Well it's a itty bitty little pinwheel.

Yeah.

It is adorable I don't know if you can tell.

But in Jen's quilts half of her pinwheels spin one direction and half spin the other way.

Oh.

- Yes.

And I kind of missed that when I just was chain piecing all of mine.

So, you'll compare and contrast.

So if you make a mistake and you've sewn all of your pinwheels in the same direction and not half the other direction, what would you do?

Would you rip them out and redo?

I would say the wind was blowing in one direction that day and and never changed direction all day long.

Exactly.

It's okay to veer from the pattern a little bit and save yourself the time.

And it's like it's that whole give yourself a little grace thing, right?

Yeah.

- It's still a pretty, pretty table runner.

Yeah, that would not bother me.

No.

- No.

- Good.

I'm glad we're on the same page.

Okay, we'll trim these.

And our sweet little pinwheel is almost done.

There's one more.

Do you do much with teeny tiny little pieces?

I do not do much with teeny tiny little pieces.

Yeah.

And a lot of that is simply time.

Just trying to get things done.

I have started doing a lot of, giant blocks lately, like 16 inch, 18 inch blocks.

Oh that's fun.

With, still a lot of piecing, but it's piecing with larger units, so.

Okay.

- It just gets, gets done.

But then I see these, like, I mean, come on, that's just that is adorable.

So.

- Kind of makes you want to try a little.

Yeah.

I do like them for small projects, but if I want to make a bed quilt, I probably don't have the patience to do something this small.

I'm with you.

I'm going to.

If I could do an 18 inch block.

Yeah, yeah.

- Why not?

- Go fast.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

But you do see, folks, so like, if you go to a major quilt show, or even your state fair, but they have a whole category for miniature quilts and the pieces, I mean, that oh my goodness, - They're fascinating.

They're so tiny.

So what we're going to do is with all of these, we're going to be placing our seam so that we're stitching on the tip of the goose okay.

So we've got to do those.

- Okay.

Yeah.

Oh there's our other one.

So yeah I just kind of try to remember that it's just going to kiss that little tip of the beak.

And I do tend to like to sew from this direction.

So I can look for my little, V spot there.

So I get a little nice point.

Yeah.

I just noticed that I sewed with this on the top.

You still got it.

- You see how it wandered You think so?

I think you might have gotten it, but if you didn't, we're going to make it happen with iron.

All right?

Okay.

And then one more, and then we can just kind of show how they lay out.

Okay.

All righty.

So I'm going to press toward the blank strip because it's going to lay a little bit nicer.

And you actually did a really good job.

Oh good.

Sewing blind.

It just must be your natural skill.

All right.

One more.

And then we can just kind of start laying them out.

This is where I'm going to struggle and play the spinny game.

Okay, I'll take the other two.

Give a little snip.

Those flying geese are just there.

They're little baby geese.

- Baby geese.

Little baby geese.

Just adorable.

Now you know what to do with your five inch squares.

Or your little scraps.

Or your little scraps.

I don't keep them that small.

Maybe you do.

Okay, so this guy is going to go here and here and then like, no that.

Yes.

No.

Almost there.

- Yes.

Got it.

- Got it.

Good.

Stitch it together Just like that.

- Yes.

No.

- Okay.

So one of the things that we kind of talked about was how can we make this a little bit outdoorsy.

So we thought it would be kind of fun to show a couple of different options if you wanted to have the perfect outside picnic table runner, or you could even do this with a quilt if you like.

So a couple of things they do make a product that you can iron on to your fabric, and it turns it into like a vinyl coated.

So what I've got here is actually a vinyl product that irons on to the back of fabric.

Now, this would be a nice option if you wanted to put it on the back of your table runner, but I don't think it's going to work super well From the top.

- to fuse it on to the top.

Yeah.

What do you think, Angela?

Well, the top has some dimensionality to it.

- Exactly.

It's going to have some ups and downs.

- It's going to rippl And you might you might find some issues.

So what I'm going to do instead I feel like we should save all of these for our producer.

Okay.

- She'll love those.

- Little tinys.

So I'm going to flip this over.

And I do have one more block hiding under there.

There we go.

So this has a paper backing that you peel off and place on your fabric.

So I like to kind of work with it up top.

And I'm just going to lay this on my fabric, smooth it out.

- Do a little at a time.

- A little.

At a time.

Exactly.

Instead of trying to peel that whole thing at once, smooth it out and we'll just kind of shift it down, because the minute you peel this whole piece of paper off, it's going to want to stick to itself, like cling wrap.

Right?

So we're just going to like, let this drop right onto the ground.

And then my fabric is larger than my transparent material.

Then we can just flip it over.

I like to leave it large just so that if I'm not exactly perfect in my little peeling process there, that I've got a little bit of extra buffer room, and this isn't the full size of the table runner backing.

This is just a display piece.

So then you're literally just going to allow that iron to work its magic.

- Yeah.

- Right?

And now it's working.

It is.

- It is.

See how it's fuzing to it?

- So cool.

So then you would just go down the whole entire piece, and this could make a really nice backing for something outdoorsy.

But what could we do with the top of it?

I bet you have a plan.

I do, I found something new.

Okay, show me what you found.

So I found this material - A paintbrush?

- Yeah.

I know you've got to have a paintbrush.

This is We're back into crafting again.

We've done a lot of crafting this season.

- Look at that.

Isn't that cool.

So this stuff is just kind of a little bit goopy.

And you are going to paint that right onto the front of the fabric.

So this allows us to use that paintbrush to really kind of navigate the lumps and bumps of the top of the table runner.

I probably would quilt the whole thing with batting first, - Wow.

but we're just going to kind of take a big old glob of that, and just brush it right on there, clean your brush in between, because I'm realizing my brush is a little crusty because I hadn't rinsed it off.

So you just want to kind of, like, apply that.

I'm working on a paper towel because it is a little bit messy.

And then you can just, you know, scrape your excess back in there and you just want to apply it completely to that piece of fabric, get all those little excess pieces out and then you're going to let it dry okay.

So painting a nice amount on there.

And getting any excess and bubbles out.

Exactly.

It's nice and flat.

It's I did see one person that took like a spackling tool and did that, and then you can choose, do you want to go with one coat?

Two coats.

Still kind of bendy.

- Yep.

Little less bendy.

- Three coats.

Very not bendy.

You could even go to four.

- Whoa.

- Isn't that fun?

And so it's going to be water resistant.

- Exactly.

And it would be on the top.

- And wipe it off.

That's right.

- Very cool.

Never seen that before.

Awesome.

I love this table runner and I hope that you like it as much as we do.

Grab a pencil, tips and other useful information.

Coming up next.

Okay, Barbara, Dangler of Erie, Pennsylvania, says that she uses last year's calendar to make row markers for her quilts.

- Oh!

Isn't that neat.

So you can just put your little - Yeah.

- Row letters or numbers Yeah just cut them apart.

- A's B's C's, Yeah.

- Nice.

Okay.

So this one is from, Clara Tingle from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.

And she says, dear quilting friends, you're probably wondering why I sent you a pencil box.

I use it as a mini sewing kit.

It's lightweight, small enough to fit in your purse or tote, holds the essentials, and looks nice.

In mine I have a needle and a piece of batting, snips, thread on a bobbin, thimble, needle threader, and of course a seam ripper.

I hope you find it as useful as I do.

She's a quilter ready to go.

I like it.

Okay, this is kind of a cute one too.

We've got a little flag here.

Ruth Sabo of Naples, Florida, says, greetings, ladies.

I was working on a bright and busy flannel and my chalk lines kept disappearing.

The guide bar on her machine wasn't quite wide enough for her stitching, - Yeah.

so she improvised with a little sticky note taped to the side that she could follow on her previous row of sticking.

So she's, like, - Oh.

made a little extension for her quilting guide bar.

It's a little flag.

Yeah.

- Yeah, I see it.

- Cute.

Thank you so much for sharing your ideas with us.

It's such a special part of the show.

If you have a tip to share, send it with the prop to the address on your screen.

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If it can be imagined, it can be created.

APQS.

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APQS.

Quilt forever.

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