[retro music] [upbeat music] - Welcome to "Lap Quilting" number four.

Today's lesson will be pillows, and our basic nine-patch pattern.

I'd like to be in every one of your sewing room to see how your quilt's developing, and what kind of things are going on.

Have you had problems putting some of your blocks together?

Well, we don't ever say that we've made a mistake, we just say we've invented a new pattern if something doesn't go right, so maybe you've invented a few new patterns, just put your name on it, and you'll have a whole new pattern.

Let's review just for a few minutes.

I wanna catch up on a few things.

You remember our King's X pattern?

We had two pattern pieces, and you saw me put most of it together.

I wanted to give you an idea of the different variations you could do with just this one pattern.

This is our basic King's X.

Now, remember, did you stagger your seams at the center?

Did you make sure and have one seam go that way, and the other seam go this way, which allows that good melding of the middle of that seam.

This is our King's X.

All right, breaking it down into our four-patch.

Why about something like this, a whole new look?

We were trying to think the other day what to name this, how about calling this lightning?

Doesn't this look like streak of lightning, perhaps?

That could be sewn together, a whole new look, same pattern.

This one, same pattern, and this one kind of reminds me of God's eyes, so we could, the yarn that you take with the two stick of wood, this is what reminds me of that, so we'd call this the God's Eye.

We have three ideas, but from the same pattern.

Some of the other things I'd like to remind you of, have you, after you've gotten your block all done and you've pressed it, remember we're gonna press on the wrong side, taking our seams in the direction of which they're sewn, and when you take your 12-inch cardboard, did you put it on your block and you say, "Oh my, I don't have any seam allowance?"

Well, that could be a problem sometimes.

It goes back to perhaps in a piece such as rail fence, just taking too big a seam allowance.

In that case, you can either say, "Well, this is gonna be a pillow to go on the bed," or if you really want this block in your quilt, it might mean taking one of these colors, and just adding a little border on here before you add the permanent border for your quilt.

It really should be more, for instance, like this.

When you put your block down, and your 12-inch block goes on top, it should leave a quarter-inch seam allowance on all 4 sides.

I'm not sure if we all understood exactly about the knots last time, and I wanna make sure that that's understood, since that's an important part.

When we put our pillow together on the sewing machine, we will actually be working with something very similar to this.

We have, of course, our knot in the end of our thread.

Don't let the thread be too long.

The the longer it is, it's gonna simply get worn out pulling it through the three layers.

Remember, we're going to start holding on the outside and moving in like so.

We're gonna take our needle, put it in close to where we want it to come up.

Now, it's floating in the middle.

It has not gone through.

We're going to pull it in, and then you can hear that knot, just, you have to kind of yank it sometimes, and if your material is extra tight, it won't come through.

You probably couldn't hear that, but it clicked right through.

All right, now I'm getting ready to quilt.

And with my off hand, I'm feeling that go all the way through.

Each time that needle catches all three layers, I wanna make sure that it's going through.

And, of course, the advantage of lap quilting, I can turn it as I'm going around in a circle, I can just keep going.

One thing I wanted to mention also, if you have the opportunity when you're quilting, do what we call sneaking through.

Take your needle, for instance, if I had gone around this circle, and I wanted to come up over to this next line of quilting, sneak through so I have a floating thread in the middle.

It's more important to sneak through than to stop, cut, and start again.

The more start and stops that you have will just, of course, weaken your quilts.

So just, just keep quilting, and let's pretend again like I have just come down to the very end, and I'm going to stop.

I want everyone to make sure and know how to end when they're quilting.

Pretend I have run out of thread, let me take just a couple more stitches here.

I've run out, all right, make a loop in your thread, pull that needle through, and then I sometimes take the point of my needle and just run that knot all the way down to the end.

See how that knot's coming right down to the end?

It's right close to the fabric, and then I take a little half running back stitch, something on that order.

Put my needle in behind where that thread is, and it's coming out ahead, and then I can just hear that click in, and I've hidden my knot inside.

Then I'll take my scissors and cut that off, and I'm all ready to start again.

Isn't it nice when you finish the quilting to go ahead and take a sponge, clean sponge or a wet rag, and just moisten where you have just quilted, and that line just evaporates and disappears, and then the predominant thing, of course, are all your quilting lines.

Let's look what we can do, and how we can turn a block like this into a pillow.

Gonna be at the sewing machine now for a few minutes.

When I do a pillow, I like to not only do a sham on the backside, but notice how there are borders, which we of course mitered the other day, but to me it of course makes an 18-inch pillow, which is a nice size, but also, you don't lose the pattern if you just have a pattern or a pillow that ends at 12 inches.

A lot of it is going to, the design is gonna be lost as it makes the curve around here.

I feel the borders kind of accent, and set the whole block off.

I like to put a pillow sham on the backside, and that's nothing more than an overlapping of your backing material.

It frees you of putting any zippers on.

It makes it so easy to remove the inside pillow, and makes it nice for laundering purposes, and I'm gonna show you briefly how to do this.

Also, keep in mind, if you are doing a pillow, for instance, here's our starflower pattern again, and this time it's turned into a clay's choice pattern.

If you put a ruffle on, and in this case I've put two layers, first an eyelet, and then I've taken some green material and put my ruffle on the bias, and have gathered this and applied it to the block that has been quilted.

If you do that, make sure you pinned your ruffle down on the inside.

You want to make sure this is all pinned down, because then your backing that you're going to cut out is going to overlap.

I'm going to place this on top, and in this case, I really don't even need to hem the edges, because I've got a salvage edge, and then I'm gonna put this one on top, see how they have overlapped?

This will be pinned down.

Then all around the outside, these need to be pinned, these two layers need to be pinned together.

The important part to remember, I'm not going to finish this pillow, now I have another one I wanna show you, I just wanna remind you that when you're doing something like this, always sew on this side, because you can see that line where you've attached your ruffle, and you wanna make sure in machine stitch on the inside of that.

When you then open it, and you can just reach in here through your sham, you'll be able to see your ruffle will then turn out, and you'll have a sham backing on your pillow.

Let's take a minute and look how we're going to finish a pillow.

We will have, of course, already quilted it.

This is the backside, by the way.

I like to take a ruler then, and mark off a quarter-inch seam allowance all the way around the outside.

Then I've taken my sham backing, and you'll need, for our 18 and a half inch pillow that's been quilted, you'll need two muslin backings or print, whatever you decide for the back of your pillow, 18 and a half inches by 13 inches, and I'll take the long side of that rectangle, and machine stitch it, just turn it down and hem it.

You could even put a decorative stitch in the backside if you wanna get fancy.

All right, you're gonna do that twice, then you're gonna put the two right sides to this material right here.

Layer this, see how this has been layered?

These have been layered, and then you're going to baste all the way around.

Now, when I get ready to sew that, I'm going to make sure that I'm sewing on this side where I marked my quarter-inch seam allowance, aren't I?

And of course, I'm sewing my two layers together, knowing that in a few minutes I can simply reach in the backing and pull it out.

[machine whirring] Another thing that I wanna show you as soon as I turn this is that how nice it is to do something fun with the corners of your pillow.

Quite often when I finish a pillow, the points will be sticking out, and the batting or the stuffing really doesn't get to 'em, and that kind of bothers me sometimes.

And there is kind of a new decorator look that I really like, I'll show you.

Okay, my stitches are about to meet here.

Back stitch if you want to, and then I would take the time to trim it all down to about a quarter-inch seam allowance if I have any leftover, and at the corners, go ahead and kind of make that into a V. I'm sure you know what I mean by that.

I'm not gonna trim it all the way over.

I wanna turn it inside out.

The nice thing about it is I can reach in, simply turn this inside out.

You're gonna like this pillow.

This one is similar to the other one.

It has kind of a folk look to it, because it has the muslin in the center also, and then I've chosen four different kinds of muted calicos all the way around the outside.

And this one I quilted in green, whereas that one was gonna be quilted in red.

Now, we need to of course remove all of our basting stitches that held our three layers together, that's an important step.

We wanna get rid of that, that's been holding everything together.

And then, we have, of course, our sham.

Now, one thing you're gonna want to do is measure your finished pillow all the way across.

It's going to take up a little bit, because you've quilted it.

All these are going to take up.

Whatever size you get, then take, for instance, an old sheet or some leftover material, and make yourself a square the same size.

I like to then stuff that with just loose polyester.

Now, not the shredded kind, that tends to lump and get too thick or something.

I like this loose polyester for stuffing it.

When you've decided how fat or how full you want your pillow, this could be even flatter if you want it for a seat in a rocking chair, or something like that, then, take this, close it up, and machine sew it on the sewing machine.

Okay, you're ready to put this inside by just opening this up inside your pillow.

Now, for those decorator corners, see how nice and soft that is?

It just softens it.

Reach inside your corner that would be pointed.

Just pull it out, gather it up like this, take some strong yarn, and wind it around there and tie a knot, and look at the nice soft corner you get on your pillow.

You're all set for pillows.

Let's go to our blackboard, and study our basic nine-patch.

Today's lesson is our basic nine-patch.

We're going to work on the blackboard for a few minutes, and show how these patterns are made from the nine-patch pattern.

The variations will be seeing how to sew on the machine will be the Shoe Fly, Jacob's Ladder, 54-40 or Fight, and Ohio Star.

All of these come from a basic nine-patch.

Remember, I like to take a 12-inch piece of paper, could be newspaper or paper sack, whatever you have, and make a perfect square.

Divide it into nine equal parts.

We know that if we divide that 12 into thirds, we're going to have a 4-inch square.

I would then cut out one of these squares, place it on a piece of cardboard, add a quarter of an inch all the way around, and we end up with a four and a half inch square.

That becomes our permanent pattern for a basic nine-patch.

The patterns of course that I use already have the seam allowance already included in all the patterns.

Take a look at the pattern, and even on this little pattern, there are three variations just by assembling and cutting out the different squares, you can get an entirely different look three times.

It just depends on what you decide to do.

For instance, if you're gonna cut five dark, you're gonna get that kind of a look, and then you'd have four light, that would be the contrast.

All right, let's go from a basic nine-patch to a Shoe Fly pattern.

Here again, we go back to the basic nine-patch pattern.

Only this time, once we have divided our block into nine equal squares, let's take the corners and make triangles out of them.

Now, you know we can't take this pattern and divide it into triangles and think we have a pattern, because remember, we haven't added that quarter of an inch on the inside long seam, so we would then cut out this triangle right here, and add a quarter of an inch on all three sides of that.

So, in other words, for this pattern, the Shoe Fly pattern, we have two patterns, our basic nine-patch square, and our triangle.

These become our two patterns for a Shoe Fly pattern.

There is another pattern on the triangle, and it's called Friendship Star, and we can see that when we get to the sewing machine, that would be another variation of the nine-patch.

How about Jacob's Ladder?

Now, that's one that I have heard as the settlers moved west became Road to California, so you might know that about with several different names, but it all goes back to a basic nine-patch.

And in this case, we get a few more little pattern pieces.

Let's take all of these squares, our four-inch squares, and divide those into little mini four patches And we can figure out in our mind the size of this pattern, can't we?

We know if we're working with a four inch square here, that this has got to be two inches, right?

Add our quarter of an inch around it, and we're working with a two and a half inch square.

It's mighty small, but we can get some real pretty patterns with something that small.

Now, to complete the Jacobs Ladder, we're then gonna take our four inch square, and turn these into triangles, and we have a Jacobs Ladder.

Of course, it depends on how you cut out your blocks, where you get your dark going through the middle, and we'll see that when it's in fabric.

So you will use this little square, and we'd go back to the triangle that was even in our Shoe Fly, so we're borrowing one pattern from another to turn out an entirely different look.

Our other pattern, 54-40 or Fight, is very similar to Jacob's Ladder, only we take these squares, and instead of having triangles in them, we do this fun thing, we make this look.

This becomes 54-40 or Fight.

A whole new look depending on how we do our fabric, and this will make a little more sense when we get to the sewing machine, but all of these, we have to go back to our four-inch square, don't we?

Then when we make the pattern, cut out two pieces, add a quarter of an inch around 'em, and we get this size pattern.

Okay, our last one is the Ohio Star.

Basic nine-patch again, but instead of treating that four-inch square into a triangle, we were gonna treat that into four triangles, I'll show you the look we get.

We take and divide a four-inch square this way, so actually we're getting a little smaller triangle, aren't we?

One pattern piece.

The thing to note on this one is normally, the long side of the triangles we've been working with are always on the bias.

In this case, look at that long side, it's on the straight of the grain, because we want the outside the block to be taut, don't we?

We don't want that to be in the bias, so just make sure you notice that when you get to the Ohio Star triangle.

I think we're ready to take our patterns and go to the sewing machine.

It's important to keep those patterns close to you when you get ready to sew.

It's just a good guide to start all your stitching on the machine.

I have some just about the littlest pattern going in this mini nine-patch.

It is kind of fun to talk about.

Do you remember the little wall hanging that I called "Save All?"

Because every one of these little dark patches is an another piece of dark material.

And of course it would come from a bag of scraps that you just saved everything.

Well, it would mean it's a basic nine-patch, but within that basic nine-patch, there is what we call a mini nine-patch, and that little pattern is in the booklet.

I think it makes a very cute wall hanging, and this is what you'd be working with.

In your nine-patch, when you get ready to assemble it on the machine, always think of rectangles, think of getting everything into three rectangles, and then you can go about staggering your seams.

Now, look for instance here, I want those seams to go into the dark, don't I?

So go ahead and thumb press 'em that way so they're going out.

Then that means this seam is gonna come in towards the center, and this one's gonna come in towards the center.

I might show you kind of a cute trick here.

It's nice, because we do not open our seams in quilting, this, for instance, when I first lined that up, this light patch in the middle was a little bit large.

So we call this fudging, which is kind of nice.

You can come back in here and eat up that seam a little bit more without removing the original seam, we just say we've reinforced the seam, but really it was because we made a mistake, but go ahead and do that.

Take it up, and then I've staggered the seams the way I want to.

I'm gonna pin it in place, and I'm gonna pin it on both places to make sure I get that just right.

Pin it right so, and then I'm ready.

Let me move this away so you get a good view of taking this little mini nine-patch.

Remember, my quarter-inch seam allowance all the way down.

If I wanna peek and see if I'm on target, keep my needle down in the machine, all the way down.

Now, I almost have my patch put together.

Get rid of my threads, come back, check and see if you're happy with your seams, and I am okay.

Do the same thing here.

When you get the principle of this, this really is the whole key for putting all your basic nine-patches together.

Line this up.

Now, this could be in the center of a patch.

[sewing machine whirring] And really be the only mini-block in the whole one, or you could do a lot of 'em as you, as I did in the wall hanging.

That becomes your little mini nine-patch.

Okay, if we went to a Shoe Fly pattern, remember, the important thing in the Shoe Fly, and I've gone ahead and done, and gotten this much done, is to take your triangles, and sew those together in a long system.

Remember how we got our little mini assembly line going where they're connected, and we sew on air for a couple of stitches?

Get those connected, clip 'em apart, and then I'm gonna line them up.

Make sure when you line your triangles that have been sewn into squares, that they line up with this square, because when you do that, see how it's been eaten up?

And I wanna make sure from that raw edge, let me clip that dog ear there, and let me get a better view.

From the raw edge down to the yellow, I've got a quarter-inch seam allowance.

Okay, I've sewn there, there and there.

I'm gonna clip, aren't I?

Then I'm gonna come over here and sew down here, okay?

Each time, and don't let that dog ear sticking out bother you, it's going to happen, it's going to be there.

Take your quarter-inch seam allowance.

[machine whirring] What I'm doing is forming my rectangles, aren't I?

Come over here, sew on air twice, lift up your presser foot.

Come all the way in.

Remember to put some masking tape down.

It's a good guide for your quarter-inch seam allowance all the way down.

Line this up, always line your patch all the way up.

Notice how I'm letting the seam fall into the dark side, I think that's a good idea also.

All the way down.

[sewing machine whirring] All right, now I'm going to come here, clip this apart.

Get rid of any dog ears and extra strings.

Now, I wanna remember how this goes.

This is gonna turn this way.

Now, the minute I line these up, I can tell if I'm on target.

I can really see, see?

Oh boy, I've done good today.

See how that's just lining up right, right there?

This one's pretty good too.

You've got a little space here you can ease, there's a little bit of easing to go on.

All right, let the seam fall in that way, and do the same thing that I just did on the mini nine-patch.

I'm not gonna sew this all the way across, but you can tell what I'd be doing because I've lined this up, I'm pinning at the intersection.

It's important to pin there at the intersection, open it up and say, "Am I on target?"

Same thing here, come over and line it up.

This little nine-patch, this Shoe Fly has a lot of clarity to it.

There's such a good distinction between the yellow and the, there we go.

Then I would sew across there and across there, and my Shoe Fly would be done, and I've worked in rectangles.

Okay, now we have our 54-40 or Fight.

Once again, get your little patch up here, and what I have done on this one is made little mini four-patches, haven't I?

And they go in each corner, and they go up.

I want that check in the corner each time.

I want the check in the corner.

The one that I haven't sewn and I've left undone, and of course you know how to do a four-patch by now, that would go right in the center, and then I've got this long string of triangles.

I'm gonna clip that out, I know that one goes there.

That one goes there, and here, and here.

Then, go back to my pattern and say, "Well, the check goes down."

I'm gonna put this pretty close, so you can kind of get the idea of what it's gonna look like when it's sewn together.

And the check turns in this way, you're beginning to see the ladder, the check, there we go.

That's how your block's gonna look, even though each one of these is broken up, it's a basic nine-patch, isn't it?

And my next step will be to sew this little four-patch in the center, and then I'm gonna line up this four-patch in the triangles, sew this together, sew this together, and this together.

Clip it apart, then I'll come back and sew this to this, my triangles and my squares, and I've got three rectangles.

I'm ready to stagger my seams, a pin here and here, and sew all the way across, and the same thing here, and my Jacob's Ladder is done.

Now, there is a variation of Jacob's Ladder, and it's called 54-40 or Fight, and this must have had something to do with the territory lines up in the northwest, what a funny name.

But, this is a pretty pattern.

It has to do with two triangles being sewn to a large triangle, and this you just, instead of using these, this set, you use your other set, and this is the look you get.

Same basic nine-patch.

And remember, when you're sewing this, let a little dog ear hang off the edge, do you see how that dog ear is hanging off?

I'm gonna sew that, flip it back, and then come and sew this on.

I think I've time here, I'll show you how to do this.

Take this, and take your quarter-inch seam allowance all the way down.

[machine whirring] And then, I'm gonna come back here, turn it open, and then come and sew that also, there's a little bit of dog ear that's gonna hang down.

quarter-inch seam allowance.

Now, what happens up here at the top is interesting.

Make sure it happens, or you know you're gonna have trouble later on.

When you open that up, from your raw edge, I'll get rid of a dog ear for you, from the raw edge into that point, do you have a quarter of an inch to work with, okay?

Then that one goes there, that's your 54-40 or Fight.

You could even turn that around, couldn't you?

And have a whole nother star pattern.

Your Ohio Star is the same way.

You wanna remember, it's a basic nine-patch.

And in each case, go back to your little triangles first, get those assembled so they can be the same size as your four and a half inch square.

Now, I have sewn these in one consecutive line and then clipped them apart, and then I'm going to open them up, stagger my seams, keeping them closed, remembering, and put the pin right in the middle, and I'll sew this all the way across.

[machine whirring] Remember to line up those seams so they're even as far as you, on each corner.

All right, after you've got threads clipped, then you're gonna come back.

And of course, here it really looks better to put your square lined up this way against the print.

And then, in each case, I'm gonna line up, sew this all the way down, open it up, come and add my other sets over here, and I've got three rectangles made, haven't I?

Go ahead and stagger my seams.

I'll make sure these seams go to the outside so they don't come in on that little, that light print.

If these go out, then these seams will turn in.

Pins at each seam intersection, and sew all the way across, and my Ohio Star is completed.

[upbeat music]