[techno sound] [happy guitar music] [happy guitar music continues] - Welcome back to Lap Quilting.

Today we want to conclude our pillow study and in case this wasn't quite straight in your mind, I wanna review this just once more.

It's nice sometimes instead of a mitered border treatment to add this sort of treatment where you would have a square in each corner.

When you're doing that, you wanna remember to add your solid pieces first and then I like to go ahead and simply pin, well you could sew on one side but then pin on the other one and line that long rectangle up, making sure that seam is going to meet this seam over here.

Kind of get that in place and then once that is in place, you can go ahead and sew that on both sides and that way you get those square accents much the way it's done on this pillow top that's that's all been quilted.

One important thing I want to mention to you, you all remember our house on the hill pattern and of course we remember that it is almost a basic four patch in that we have a base and then the part that has the door and the windows and then the roof section and then the sky with the two little chimneys.

This has been made in leftover suede cloth and corduroy and the point I wanna make here is that all of the patterns that we've been working with, all the patchwork blocks can be just that.

They can be turned into patchwork pillows and not any quilting on them, so don't throw away those leftover corduroys and suede cloth.

Put 'em into a handsome pillow such as this.

Also, you want to remember that ruffles add a nice accent to your pillow.

Here's our bow tie that we studied with a double ruffle.

Remember when you're putting on ruffles that they need to fall of course to the inside when they're sewn on.

In this case, I've sewn the eyelet first and then the double ruffle has been sewn on and I like to make sure and pin those all the way, especially the corners all the way down.

Then when the sham backing is laid on top, of course one would go here and this would all be falling inside.

Make sure and do all your machine sewing on this side.

Doesn't that make sense?

Because you've got that guide to follow and machine stitch inside that and then you won't ever have any machine stitching, showing on that corner there.

This is kind of a cute idea, Barbara Jane put a patchwork on each side.

This one's for Christmas day and this one's for every other day, so you could have your pillows be reversible if you wanted to.

You might remember these fun patterns with just calico borders, but this is kind of an idea giving you a flat tailored look and the way you would do this would be to go ahead and do a patchwork block, add your three and a half inch borders all the way around the outside and even put your sham backing on much the way I had shown before.

Then at this point, level it and working on a flat surface, you would want to pin this in place and all the way around your block itself, do some hand quilting and what that does then when you go and make your your inset pillow, in other words the pillow that's gonna slip in the sham, that would be a 12 inch square, wouldn't it?

So you would fit that pillow in your sham, leaving you a flat tailored border.

I think that that gives kind of a handsome look.

You really have enlarged the pillow but yet only this side is stuffed and that's nice with velvet or corduroy also.

This is our harem corners.

Remember when we would simply finish a pillow and then reach inside and pull that out and then we would just wrap that around with some maybe a double string of quilting thread and you get that nice rounded corner look.

I think that's a nice way to do also.

This is a nice X and it gives more or less a tailored look on a pillow also.

These are our prairie points or our sawtooth edging.

That's a nice thing to do also.

we can do this same treatment on a quilt and we'll be studying that later.

It's basically a matter of taking a square, folding it into a triangle and then folding it into another triangle.

All your raw edges are on this long side, aren't they coming up?

You would do several of these and then they simply interlock into each other and that becomes a border treatment on your pillow or your finished quilt.

Let's study applique and walk into the workroom.

A sentimental all-time favorite pattern is the sun bonnet Sue or little Dutch girl pattern.

We see it here in a whole entire quilt.

Very simply done quite often using leftover fabric from your little girl's dresses to be incorporated in one whole quilt.

I think all of our grandmothers must have made one of these quilts.

It always has been a favorite.

I have been collecting different patterns.

You can go to the library or perhaps even in coloring books, maybe patterns that have been handed down the family.

Wouldn't it be nice to take and do a sampler of all the different arrangements of the sun bonnet Sue or maybe the little Dutch boy?

Quite often when you look at old patterns, you'll notice the black embroidery thread around each one.

That kind of tied the quilt together, doesn't it?

It adds uniformity even though all the other colors are are varied.

This is a form of applique and I wanna spend some time with it today and more or less examine the different methods and the different techniques of doing applique.

You're probably saying where do we get our designs from?

Well, let's start with one that would be kind of fun.

Have you ever thought of just folding paper?

You could take a square of paper, of course, fold it in half and then in quarters and with your pencil any sort of design.

The simpler the better for a beginner could be put on the paper in quarter sections.

Then I would add a quarter of an inch and go ahead and cut your paper out knowing that this with your fabric folded in the same manner would be the design that you would put on a corner of the fabric.

You can see here much the way this purple fabric had been cut out much in that fashion and then when it's opened up kind of the way you used to do paper dolls probably.

When it's opened up and placed on a solid foundation, this would be the beginning of applique, more or less reminiscent of the Hawaiian method .

Now, one way of securing this loose cutout, this piece to your foundation would be simply to pin it in place.

You might wanna put some more basting threads in a contrasting color and then with a needle and thread without even turning under your raw edges.

This would be one way of doing it.

You might want to then simply start by simply very carefully turning under maybe just an eighth of an inch and slip stitching that all the way around.

Of course, when you come to a a corner such a this, you're gonna have to clip it or notch it when you come to a curve that would go out and we'll talk about this more, but some people are able to do applique without pre-basting.

For myself, I need to pre-baste, but this is one method of doing it and that would be one design that would be completely your own that you would just do on paper.

Another thing to turn to is quite often designs we just see perhaps on a paper sack.

Here's an applique kittycat.

This would be an idea for us to cut out and use perhaps the bottom of our Dresden plate pattern.

Every piece would be cut out, placed on a foundation, basted it or pinned and placed knowing that from there I needed to turn under the raw edges.

Quite often on old quilts that I've studied, the raw edges were left plain and a very tight buttonhole stitch was placed around it with embroidery thread and it might rave a little bit, but then it would stop.

It wouldn't RL completely so that would be another idea.

Let's not forget that children's coloring books are a great place to look and find, for instance, a scarecrow.

You might want to cut the body and the head out, but of course remember to add your quarter inch seam allowance to make it enlarge because that's gonna be turned under eventually.

If we study molas from South America, this is a form of reverse applique and one of the finest examples of really fine, fine applique.

We will notice if we look on the backside a slip stitch, which always gives you more thread on the backside and I wanna demonstrate that in a minute, but this is a good example of turning under raw edges and revealing of course a design underneath.

The patterns that we are working with from our booklet are basically the little Dutch boy and the little Dutch girl and I really feel the best way to do those would be to cut out your designs of course, and then at this point before you'd even pin them in place, you need to take each pattern piece and with a contrasting thread, I like to work on the backside and then turn your raw edge under about a quarter of an inch and I would use a contrasting thread.

make sure the knot's on this side.

That's frustrating later on if the knots are hidden inside.

You can examine here and see this piece, the little Dutch girl, each each has been basted.

You can see the basting thread along here.

Another thing to remember, it's real nice when you're adding either rick rack or perhaps you wanna add some lace on the bottom of a dress, machine sew that on the flat side, you see how that's been machine sewn.

Then when that flips back, do you see how it then is revealed the bottom half of the rick rack and you don't see the machine sewing?

So each one of these pieces has been basted.

Of course the top of a little girl's dress, you wouldn't have to baste.

Then center it on your foundation piece and of course if the hat's going in that direction and the arm, you wouldn't have the foot going that way.

You wanna make sure the everything's going in the same direction.

You can if you want to, insert a little three-dimensional hand here.

This is kind of a cute idea to take a one inch square of fabric, fold it into a rectangle and then just fold it into two more little triangles and you get a little hand that can slip under.

The same sort of thing could go under the little Dutch boy, couldn't he and fit right underneath there.

It becomes something more or less loose that wouldn't have to be sewn down, but your basic steps are that you are cutting out your figures, you are basting under the raw edges.

Then you are securing them with a slip stitch on your muslin foundation.

Now in this case I have added, because this is going to go in a quilt and I've put this on muslin, I've added a little border around here, so this does not run into my actual border and it kind of accents my little figure, but make sure that's centered and then you want to slip stitch this in place all the way down.

Now by slip stitching, I mean to simply take a very tight stitch and then grab your top fabric and come up and most of the thread that will be seen is on the backside.

Where your thread has come up, take another little stitch right underneath and grab some of your print fabric and come up.

When I come down here to the rick rack part, I want to of course secure that to my foundation, so what I'll probably do is a little what we call slip in the ditch stitch.

You can hardly see it, but my thread will come in real down there in between the seam and where the rick rack has been added.

I think you can see how that would be done.

Now, once your loose figures have been secured to the foundation, then you can have some fun with embroidery work and perhaps now this has already been quilted and you can see I've done a little lazy daisy that she's holding in her hand or perhaps a double chain stitch around here.

The little boy has gone fishing.

Anything that you'd wanna do, do it at this point, wouldn't you?

You don't want your embroidery thread coming through to the back of your block.

Then I would go ahead.

If this, for instance, all my embroidery work were done, then in order to do this for lap quilting, I would cut out my batting.

That is going to be my 18 and a half inch square knowing that this would rest on top of the batting and then I would have the backing, which would be just a simple muslin and I would line all these up and of course based all the way around the outside.

Then this will be treated even though we are breaking away from piece patchwork blocks, this becomes a part of our quilt and we've always associated applique with quilting.

Here are two that are already finished and I think it's nice for you to look and see exactly how they're quilted.

I like to highlight each little figure.

In other words, go all the way around the hat and the arm and the leg and then we call this shadow quilting.

With your litmus pen, you can just come out about an inch from the actual figure all the way around and then this is a guideline for you to quilt.

It kind of highlights the the actual little girl and the boy.

You might wanna put something decorative in the corner if you feel that looks too empty and this will of course be going into a tote bag.

It's kind of fun to alternate your borders on a tote bag.

You see what will happen when this is sewn together.

You get your stripe and your check and that would be a beginning.

Now, there's one other technique I wanna show you at the sewing machine and we refer to this as machine applique.

This is not for everyone, but a lot of people are finding that it's one way to finish a block and from here you could go on and do your hand quilting.

Quite often stitch witchery is used and it's a fusible bond type material that you would cut out.

In this case, I'm using a butterfly pattern.

This is something that you could probably find at the library and this is the way it's, by the way, I've mounted this on some leftover cereal boxes.

That's a nice weight of cardboard to use, but we have three pattern pieces and I think this is kind of interesting here.

One of my students made a mistake.

In other words, this was supposed to cut two here and cut two here and of course one center the butterfly.

Well, she came in with only three pattern pieces and had her butterfly mounted like this.

Well, we told her it was just a side view, it wasn't a mistake and I, I thought that was kind of nice.

But let me show you what to do if you're going to do a machine applique.

Once your figures have been placed on your foundation piece, I would cut your fusible material a little bit smaller than your actual wings of the butterfly, then press those with an iron and that will secure that in place.

Then there are really two techniques.

Some people like to come over with a loose zigzag initially, knowing that then they're going to come back and with a little tighter zigzag stitch really secure that in place.

I'm gonna keep my hands back here.

Normally when I'm sewing, I think this is important for a beginner, keep your hands really on both sides of your fabric.

I think it helps to guide it through the machine, but so you can get a nice closeup I'm gonna just bend back and this really gives you a tight finish and for some people this, this is the way they like to treat their applique patterns.

You can see I've already centered the body of the butterfly.

We'll go a little bit further so you can get an idea of what this looks like.

I think some embroidery work would be nice.

Quite often we'll take and draw some antennas up here and with black embroidery thread we can fill that in with a chain stitch.

I would continue of course all the way around and I think having that base of an initial zigzag helps to secure it in place.

From there you would be ready to go on and either add your mitered borders or perhaps this could be part of a tote bag or a pillow.

I wanted to mention one more thing and that was about pressing your blocks and using your 12 inch cardboard.

The important thing to remember after we press all of our blocks, whether it's applique or whether it's patchwork, is to always use the iron on first the backside of your block and then on the front side.

Quite often we get this kind of a folded edge here and by pressing it, it'll make it go all the way back.

And of course the other thing that's going to keep all of our blocks, especially in a sampler uniform, is on the backside after you've finished your entire block on the backside, place your 12 inch cardboard, centering it.

So as you can see here, you've got a quarter inch seam allowance all the way around.

In this case I'd probably use that sliver of soap to go all the way around and then that line that's left there becomes a guide for me to add my borders.

I hope that that becomes more understanding to you.

From here we want to take a look at the hexagon pattern, an old English method of piecing a six-sided figure.

A study of the hexagon pattern takes us back to basic math and I think if we understand how the pattern's made, it might be something you'll definitely wanna try yourself.

We would of course make a circle and then with the radius of our circle, we're going to come in six times, come around and make six points on the outside of our circle and then with a ruler, connecting those points gives us a perfect six-sided figure.

I think it's also interesting to note that with that hexagon figure, we get three perfect diamonds also.

Diamonds sometimes are hard to make on paper and this is one way to get them.

The English had an interesting method, which I'll show you in a minute, for piecing the hexagon.

I think this pattern was probably reminiscent of the church tiles and that was how the pattern originated.

When it came to this country, we originally, I think would just make what we would refer to as a mosaic, just kept adding one hexagon to another.

This was one of my earlier period pieces, probably used to cover a doll bed, and but a woman would work with this and it would just get larger and larger and then pretty soon she thought, why not just make what we would refer to as a rosette?

So I like to treat hexagon as just a rosette and we more or less end up using it as an applique and we will cut out one central hexagon and then six more on the outside and those could be your solid colors or your calico, and then cut out 12 more hexagons and you end up with what we would refer to as a rosette and that's what the colonial ladies finally started doing.

Knowing that then eventually as they were making the hexagon quilt and would put those rosettes together, they would actually join the rosettes with solid muslin, which would become the walkway in the grandmother's flower garden.

I think that's kind of interesting to note, so I would like to refresh our memory and show us how we would put those together.

And of course a step back in time would be the English method of cutting out pieces of paper and that would be a quarter inch smaller than the hexagon.

I have one started here.

You would simply of course with your basting thread and here again I'd use a contrasting thread.

You would simply pull that quarter inch seam allowance over the paper and you would keep basting that in place and pretty soon when they had covered all the paper with the cloth, they would then set their little rosette however they wanted to and then whip stitch all of those together.

Can you imagine how long that must have taken?

I think of course that is one interesting way to do it, but I think we can certainly update that method a long way.

If you notice this and you study the hexagon pattern, the thing that interests me about it is that I see rows forming.

I automatically think, how can I put that together on the sewing machine?

Do you see the rows?

There's one row here, a row here and here and here and here.

Well, naturally, why not go ahead and connect your rows together on the machine so you'd have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 rows.

Then because this is an angle that's more than your 90 degree or your right angle, you can pivot that in place.

Now I've dropped my hexagon on the floor here, but this is much the way I would think that this would be the best way to do this.

Once you have machine stitched your hexagon together, you can either by hand, pivot that in place or let's do it on the machine.

We'll move this back away.

This is the old method.

Now we want to turn to the new method and of course you're going to have just one pattern piece for this whole rosette.

I would then line this up knowing that this side is gonna sew to this.

Now don't let it move any and then simply turning it back, line this up and I'd get my points all even and see where the quarter inch seam allowance rests over that.

I know it's right there.

Here again, we might wanna put a pin right in place, which would kind of anchor that, wouldn't it, when we start sewing.

All right, now once again, we take our quarter inch seam allowance all the way down and when I get to that seam, then I stop and then I turn, pivot in place.

I think you can see how the bottom one turns and this one comes over.

Once again, that seam has got to line up right up here, all the way down, needle in place and then we can lift up, turn again.

To me this is a much simpler way of doing this either by hand or on the machine turn and come back again, you wanna make sure that you don't get anything folded underneath.

It means kind of sneaking in there and getting it pulled out all the way down with needle in the machine, turn.

Now we have twice more to come all the way down.

Make sure we're right on that seam.

You can peek underneath there, turn, and when you come here, notice how this lines up.

Get your points lined up even all the way down and then you're ready to trim off and go and press that of course flat and then treat that just like an applique.

Here it is that it's been put together and is getting ready to be put into a tote bag.

On one side I have turned it under and with a buttonhole stitch I have kind of accented that.

On this side I've got the black on the outside and on the other side I've got the black on the inside and this has been finished off with just a running stitch with black embroidery thread.

Here's an applique example.

The the tip that I wanna give you can be found in this what we would call a calico wreath quilt.

It was done by Phyllis Dexter and she's quite an appliquer.

Most of her work is done in applique.

This has been lap quilted and of course you can examine that on the backside to really fully understand when you see that each block has been individually quilted and you can see that the handwork that's been done on the backside.

But what I want to point out is this point right here.

Quite often we see that not only in in flowers of that sort but on the stems and quite often you think that this is the way to do it.

You'll turn under your quarter inch that way and then you'll come and turn under your quarter inch that way.

Don't do it that way.

Think in terms of whenever you have a point, turning that down first, okay, then slowly turn your quarter of an inch that way, and it's this point that I'm gonna put my basting thread in and I wanna keep the knot on the outside because I know I wanna remove that after a while.

And of course I would go all the way around the outside of this little leaf pattern, barely turning that under.

Whenever you have what we could call a concave curve, it sometimes helps if you'll take a little bit of a, what I could call just a little notch out.

A little notch will help that turn under.

Can you see that little notch there?

That will give your material room when it comes around.

Of course, if that had turned in, I would clip it so when it's concave, when it goes in, clip.

If it's convex and goes out notch it like that and it has room, then when you would get around here, see how nicely that would turn under and you'd get your your nice point.

That's a good tip to remember.

Another beautiful example of applique that has really turned into more or less a table cover for decoration.

The maple leaf pattern, isn't that beautiful?

This was Phyllis's sister-in-law that did this and I think notice the stitches and it's kind of a remembrance that how much our stitches do show up on solid dark colors.

But she has of course turned all of her raw edges under and then she's even quilted all around the outside.

She's put in a lot of work here, but I think this has an autumn look to it and it's very nice.

Next show, I'm gonna give you some homework.

I would like you to cut out two pieces of cloth, three inches wide and 10 inches long.

One could be a calico and we're gonna pretend this is our quilted part and the next one, go ahead and mark it and, and we'll call this the lining, because I wanna show how you can put all your blocks to use into quilted handbags.

We'll see you then.

Thank you.

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