[bright digital music] [upbeat music] - Welcome to our third "Lap Quilting" show.

When we left off last time, we had finished with our basic four-patch, a double four-patch, the King's X we're going to do today.

We had done rail fence last time, and our pinwheel.

Let's turn to the King's X.

Remember, when we're putting our blocks together, that we wanted to work in a mini assembly line doing one piece at a time so that we can actually not stop and cut threads, but we can just continue sewing in one consecutive manner.

On the King's X, let's review the pattern for a minute.

We have this pattern, and by the way, when you put this on your fabric, the tendency will be, because this is a long line, to put this on the straight of the grain.

If you did that, you're going to be getting this, which is the outside of your block, on the bias, so don't do that.

Make sure, for instance, if this is your straight of the grain, that this is the way your pattern is going to set on your fabric.

In this case, we have four dark, which are the dark brown, and four light, which are the stripe.

We've cut eight of these pieces all together.

And because they're the easiest pieces to handle in this block, I've gone ahead and sewn those together.

When those are done, I'm gonna take these off the machine, cut them apart.

And then, the triangles that complete this block are going to go on the other sections.

One thing I wanna show you about the King's X is when you put this triangle on the small part of the rest of your little piece here, make sure, we call these dog ears, that little triangle that hangs off from the dark part, make sure those dog ears hang off an even amount on each end so that when you start sewing, it's centered.

Your triangle is actually centered the same amount of dog ears at each end.

When I start sewing, remember, 1/4 of an inch in, [sewing machine whirring] I'm gonna take my 1/4-inch seam allowance all the way down to the end.

I'll pick up another piece that has the brown edge, center my triangle, same amount of dog ear hangs off each end and start sewing.

Actually, this little V that's created right here is a good place to, if you're gonna eyeball where you're gonna start, that's a good place to eyeball.

[sewing machine whirring] And just start sewing all the way down.

And you would continue in this manner until you have both sides of this patch with a triangle here, and also, over here.

Notice how your line is just gonna line up straight right here.

Remember, the key being going back to your blocks if your fabric has been cut out following your patch pieces and your templates.

Then, you know your patterns are gonna be sewn together correctly.

Let's take a look at the King's X once we have it all put together.

Then, remember, we're going to come over in this manner and line up our two blocks.

Go ahead and stagger your seams here.

If the brown seam is going that way, let it go fall this way over here.

Notice when you open up how that allows you to have a perfect melding there, and if that is pinned in place, then, you're going to machine sew all the way down here.

Another thing to notice once you have machine-sewn this, let me go ahead and sew it, it's an important part.

I want you to see what happens here.

It's a matter of the seam being taken up in just the right manner.

[sewing machine whirring] I'll do one and I think it'll be a good example to you.

Remember, if you wanna stop and peek and make sure you're on target, keep that needle down on the machine.

When you've come up at this point and you've clipped your threads and open up, make sure, and here's a good way you can tell, from the raw edge into where these two brown points meet, do you have a good 1/4-inch seam allowance?

That will allow you to take this part and sew to this.

Do you see how that's gonna be eaten up, that seam allowance?

And that gives you that perfect V right there.

That's what you're aiming for.

You're aiming for a good intersection at each place.

Much like on the pinwheel here.

See how the points all come together?

And this will happen if you stagger your seams.

The same thing in the rail fence.

See how you've got a center joining here?

The star flower is a block we'll save for next time.

Let's talk about putting the mitered borders on the blocks.

That's an important part of lap quilting because since we're working with a sampler, each one of the blocks are set as an individual story.

Now, I have kind of gone ahead, which will help us get a better idea of how this border is going to go on.

You're going to cut out four borders.

In this case, they're muslin.

The size of each of the borders are 3 1/2 inches by 19, and this is done on paper in the handbook, and you can get a better idea of the dimension.

This would also hold true for a pillow if you're getting ready to make a pillow top.

So you've cut out four of your borders.

In each case, what I find is best is to go ahead and crease the border, find the center of it knowing that the midpoint there, is gonna line up right on your patch, on your block.

I like to sew all the borders on this side.

Remember when you took that 12-inch piece of cardboard and you marked all the way around?

That's the guide that you're going to follow for sewing these borders on.

Come all the way to the point where you marked it.

Now, an important feature of the mitered border is not to run off to the raw edge.

Start sewing 1/4 of an inch in, and actually, you're following that line that you marked with your cardboard.

So I'm going to start sewing 1/4 of an inch in.

These have already been sewn on.

Now, they're kind of in the way, but I think you can get the idea.

When I start sewing, I like to go forward about four stitches, and then, backstitch.

Kind of locks that seam into place.

[sewing machine whirring] Come all the way down.

Make sure you sew this seam in the manner in which you've pressed it.

The same thing here.

Come all the way down.

And once again, I think you can see, don't run off the raw edge.

Come right up to the corner and backstitch.

Once again, you've created, see that little dog ear that you have or that little V right here at the end?

Because you have not run off the edge.

Okay, your next step in your mitered borders, I've gotten all four of 'em sewn on, is to extend this straight and extend this straight, and trim off anything that hangs over.

In other words, this muslin hangs down, go ahead and trim it off.

I do this on all four corners until you have what is known as a perfect meeting point right here.

Now, put your two right sides together.

Keep in mind you can never miter a border perfectly unless the borders are the same width.

In other words, if one were two inches and one were four, you cannot miter it, they have to be the same.

In this case, they're 3 1/2 inches.

One nice way to fold your borders is to let this triangle fall down in, and that frees.

Can you see the machine sewing that stopped here?

You want to take your pencil or your marking pen and draw a straight line that will come from... See, I'm going to have to use a, I can just extend this down.

You're going to have to extend this line following all the way down.

What you will be doing is marking with a ruler, a line from where you backstitched your machine sewing all the way down to that corner.

That becomes your guide for mitering your corner.

That produces your seam.

When you start, I always start sewing all the way in right at the machine sewing.

It's better to start in here and backstitch than to start outside and go in.

You'll accumulate too much.

All right, start sewing.

Backstitch about three stitches and all the way down.

[sewing machine whirring] Then, when you've gotten that done, go ahead and trim this off treating this just like it was a seam on your patchwork.

When you've opened up, you can see that you've got a mitered corner all the way down.

Let's do another one real quickly.

I think if you see it done twice, it kind of reinforces it.

All right, remember, let this material hang straight.

In this case, I've allowed a little bit extra.

I'd rather have too much than not enough.

Have it come down, trim this off.

See how you have that perfect point right there?

All right, then, you're going to come right like so.

Put your two right edges together.

Make sure these are even.

Make sure your outside border edges are even.

And then, you can see that line all the way back here.

I'm just gonna use a straight edge of these scissors right here, I think can give me a nice true line.

A ruler is really what you should use.

Take and put a nice line all the way down.

That becomes your guide, and in this case, start sewing in where you ended your machine stitching, [sewing machine whirring] backstitch.

Come all the way down right on that line that you marked.

Okay, I would do that four times, and you have then added your borders onto your block, and it's all set off.

Gives a nice line, more or less picture frames your block.

It's at this point that we're ready to think about putting stencils on our blocks.

We will take our block over, and always working on a flat surface, and this is a step that we do before we even think about the batting or putting anything else together.

Put this down.

And then, stencils come in all different forms in quilting.

You can make your own stencils.

You can use something repeatedly, in other words, I'm going to take this same design and put it on all four sides of this block.

I have mounted it on cardboard because I know I'll be repeating it and it'll get worn.

It'll just last longer this way.

We have also found with stencils and quilting that if they come on paper such as this, and you can, if your muslin can see through, if you work on, say, a glass coffee table or even a sliding glass door, you can mount your design.

Put your muslin on top of that and see right through it.

And then, go ahead and trace your design.

One of the prettiest quilts that one of my students has made, Sarah Meadows, made this quilt in which she has made really a sampler of all the beautiful different stencil designs that can be put on a quilt.

In this case, I kind of call it a rainbow quilt.

She's taken solid pieces of fabric and she's done a little research in this.

She's gone to the library and maybe she's made some of her own stencil designs, and she has recreated a different design in each block.

And then, she's lap quilted it.

On the backside of course, you could examine and see that each one of these blocks has been quilted individually, and then, put together.

She added a trio, three beautiful colors, on the outside to kind of accent her quilt.

But this is what we refer to as stencils.

You can also have stencils that would be on poster board, and then, have designs cut out.

I like to take my design and center it.

Now, remember that it's important when you use your stencil not to go all the way out to the edge.

You're going to center it right here.

And then, you're going to take your design and take your marking pen, the one that disappears.

It's more or less like a blue litmus pen that you can mark on all of your fabric.

And this will be your guide for quilting.

When you have done your quilting, then, you can take some cool water and it'll just disappear on the fabric.

It really is great.

Years ago, we used to use pencil, or I guess people used to use cornmeal, anything that would leave a mark on the fabric.

You can pretty much see, then, this will be your guide for quilting.

It's at this point, we are then, going to, let's place this block over here and go to our double four-patch in this little theme quilt I'm working on.

And notice that I have the checkered borders on this.

It's at this point that I would need to put my design on here with a blue pen.

I would then, cut out my batting.

And then, I'd cut out my backing, my permanent backing.

I like to then, layer them all together so they're all coinciding, and especially, I want my corners to meet.

And I'll pin those in place, lining those up just right.

I wouldn't want the backing to slip and not have it be the same size as the front.

All right, I'm gonna line this up.

Then, I'll take a contrasting thread.

I think it's important to use a black thread.

It'll just be easier to pull out after I get my quilting done.

Of course, get your thimble out.

Get in the habit of using one if you're not used to it.

It sure will help you once you start quilting.

Get all four corners pinned.

And then, some people like to start basting in the center.

I've handled the fabric enough that I feel confident enough to go ahead and start basting on the outside.

Now, I mean big stitches in a contrasting thread, just holding these three layers together.

This is gonna enable you to lap quilt.

It's gonna free you of using any hoops or frames, and secures temporarily those three layers together.

I would baste all the way around the outside coming over here.

Then, I'll baste in an X this way and this way.

I think you can see on this block where I have basted all the way around the outside, and then, in an X.

If you feel that really isn't enough, you could then even baste like so and like so.

When we start quilting, one of the first things that sometimes happens is on the backside, if we get what I call, garbley gook, that would happen because you hadn't basted enough.

Let's go and get serious now, with some quilting, Now that we have broken our quilting down into small sections so that we can start lap quilting, I've had a lot of people say, "Well, if you're working on sections this small, "why don't you go ahead and machine quilt "this on the sewing machine?"

My answer to that has always been, "Well, you would probably stay just about as warm at night, "but you certainly aren't gonna sleep as well."

So this is where the human element comes in, into connecting our three layers on our blocks.

I wanna give you a few pointers to remind you of the things that we need to have in order to start quilting.

Number one is the quilting thread.

It is on the market.

It's a cotton thread with a wax coating on it.

It has resilience to it and it won't snarl and tangle as much as your polyester thread will do.

The other thing you're gonna need is a short needle, a number seven, number eight, or number nine.

That allows you to get small, even stitches.

We're going to cut off a piece of quilting thread about 12 to 18 inches long.

You're gonna make a knot at one end, and of course, you gotta lick your finger just right.

You've gotta get one knot in there.

If you get a double knot, it's not gonna pull through your fabric.

The idea is that when you first start quilting, you're gonna hide your knot always at the beginning, and when you end and run out of thread, you're gonna have to hide your knot also.

We always want to start quilting in the center of each block.

The last thing we'll be quilting will be the borders.

Just don't grab the fabric.

Start with your offhand.

Now, the offhand is that hand that's gonna feel the needle come through the three layers.

Start here and more or less work in to the very beginning.

All right, I'm gonna put my needle in about 1/2 an inch from where I'm actually gonna start quilting.

The needle will go in and it's caught in between the fabric.

And then, I'm gonna pull and you'll actually hear your knot.

There's a little kind of a click sound that goes on when you've pulled that knot all the way through.

It's caught in between your three layers, all right?

In this manner, I'm going to start quilting in this direction.

So I'll hold my material.

I've basted my three layers together.

And I'm going to start quilting.

Use that thimble on your middle finger.

And it's just a matter of, I usually take around two or three stitches each time I quilt, and run it through.

We've got a basting thread here that's in the way.

I'll move that and you can see a little bit better.

Another thing that you're probably wondering is how far out from the seam do you quilt?

In this case, I'm doing what is called traditional outline quilting.

The quilting line that I will be following enhances the line where we have sewn the block together.

I have seen quilts put together where they would even put a design on the back of your block and quilt it on the backside regardless of the design on the front.

Of course, this is the King's X, so that's what we're gonna quilt it.

I like to quilt pretty close to the the seam line.

Really, the idea being that the seam is a guide for me to quilt straight.

I have seen some people who like to quilt, say, a full 1/4 of an inch out from the seam line.

The further away you get from that seam line, the easier it is to go crooked, so stay fairly close.

You don't want to quilt or slip in the ditch.

You've heard that expression used when you're sewing, where you would quilt right down in that groove where the seam is done.

Don't quilt there, you'll never get to see your beautiful hand quilting.

But you're connecting those three layers.

You're taking two or three stitches at a time.

You're pushing it through and you're quilting.

As you come all the way down, I'd probably come down here and turn and go back that way.

If I've worked in that section and done all the quilting, then, I would come back, start in the center again, and work out this way.

Let's pretend that I've run out of thread.

I'm gonna come down to the end of this block.

And another thing to keep in mind is are you gonna quilt on both sides of the seam?

I think that's entirely up to you.

Here's a chance for you to be creative and decide where you wanna put your hand quilting.

If you quilt on either side of the seam, you will notice that the seam where the seam allowance is turned is a lot bulkier, and it's gonna be harder to get your stitches closer together.

Some people say, "Well, now, how many stitches per inch should you get?"

I feel anywhere from 6 to 10 stitches per inch are fine.

We kid people, we don't want 'em, the stitches to be so large that their big toe's gonna get caught in the quilt, So you don't want basting stitches.

But I think it's a personal thing.

If your next door neighbor has smaller stitches, I wouldn't let that bother you.

All right, let's pretend we're going to end.

One of the true tests of a quilt years ago would be to pick it up and to see if you could find where the person had ended quilting.

With this new technique for ending, it's really pretty hard to tell.

Let's, I think I can just kind of, I'll cut some of this thread and pretend that we have run out of thread here.

We're down to just about the end.

Go ahead and make a knot in your thread by simply making a loop and pulling that.

I usually take the point of my needle and pull that all the way down so that I've got a knot that's pretty close to my fabric.

I'll then, take a little running back stitch, almost like a half stitch, and put it in the fabric and have it come up.

In other words, it's floating in the middle.

It has not gone through the backside.

And then, I will pull that all the way through and you will, well, in this case, I've gotten a little snarl, but you can hear that click all the way through and you have pulled your knot in.

And then, there is a floater thread.

So more or less you've got your knot locked in just as you did from the very beginning.

Then, you'll cut this thread and you're ready to start again.

But in each case, start in the center and go outward.

Let's take a few minutes to look at some of the blocks that have already been completed, the same blocks that we've been working on, and will give you an idea of how to quilt them.

The rail fence, for instance.

This particular quilt has two layers of batting, and I might mention that I think for a real beginner, it's more important to stay with just one layer of batting.

It's fun to get two layers.

You'll get a lot more proof in your quilt, and of course, it'll be a little bit warmer, but it is harder to get your stitches close together and have them consistent.

You can get a good idea on this quilt for the rail fence.

Remember I told you to press all the seams to the outside?

If the seams are going out, then, why not do all your quilting on the inside where you don't have all that thickness to go through?

In this case, I've just quilted one line there and there.

Now, that's entirely up to you.

You might wanna put two lines.

You might wanna quilt like so.

This is your chance to be creative.

Look at the stencil design in the border.

Also, I think it's kind of interesting to see the design that is formed all the way when these mitered corners are connected.

Can you see the pretty design, almost the heart shape that goes all the way the round?

Take a look at the King's X and you can get an idea of where to quilt on the King's X.

Of course, your stitches really show up on that brown chintz, don't they?

In each case, just one line of stitching.

Here again, you could put two if you wanted to.

How about just our double four-patch?

In this case, I took the same design that was in the border and decided to represent it again on the basic chintz on here and over here.

And in each case, just one line of quilting, but you could do two.

And then, we had the broken dishes pattern that we worked on also.

You can kind of get an idea here.

That's a bright block, isn't it?

And then, here, I've just simply put a ruler and gone all the way down and I've broken those triangles up again, so you have 'em in a different space.

That's your quilting and it's at this point that you're gonna go ahead and finish each block, put it aside, and then, turn to your next block.

When all of these blocks are completed, then, I like to take a clean sponge and wet this and get rid of the marking pencil that had enabled me to put these designs on.

And when I finished all 9, or 12, or 15, then, I know I'm ready to put my whole quilt together.

We have time for one more block today, and it's a favorite of mine.

It's called the star flower pattern.

It's made with a square and with a triangle.

It really boils down to a basic four-patch pattern again.

In the pattern, we're going to need four of the gold corners that are the squares, and then, we refer to our triangle.

We're going to need eight of the tiny print, eight of the large print, and then, eight of these triangles that will go more or less in the center of the block.

When you're putting these triangles together, if I were at the machine, I would go ahead and just machine stitch all the triangles together in order to form the squares.

Notice that once they have been formed into a square, then, you're gonna come and line these up to exactly meet your square.

If these little dog ears that are hanging off, if they bother you, they might kind of interfere with your sewing, go ahead and trim 'em off simply using your square as a guide.

Machine stitch across here and machine stitch down here.

When you've done that and open up, you can tell if you're on target if from the raw edge into the point of that star, you've got 1/4-inch seam allowance.

On the outside, that's gonna allow you to either put this block, attach it to another block, or to put a border on.

On the inside, if when you machine stitch here, when you've got 1/4 of an inch, let's cut that triangle off, I think it'll be more clear to you, 1/4 of an inch from the end here to the point of that very colorful star, that will be eaten up when you put this side, attach it to that.

So that is really, when that is sewn together, a 1/4 of your block.

I'd go ahead and do that three more times.

And then, this part will go to this side, and you'd have a half done, and the same thing over here.

Then, it would take three pins.

Here's a finished star flower block, and you can see you're gonna need three pins, in the middle and on either side, you're going to need to balance that and hold it in place when you machine stitch all the way across.

Here's a star flower pattern that has been adapted into a pillow.

There are other variations in this nine-block quilt, this one is called Oh Susannah, and it has the same square and the same triangle.

It's just that by turning it out a little different way and cutting out a few different blocks, but using the same pattern, you get an entirely different story.

And this one's called Clay's Choice.

So this quilt is kind of a study of really your basic four-patches.

Remember, your double four-patch.

And here's your star flower that we just talked about.

And in this instance, this is just your double four-patch done four times, and that's the center of your quilt.

And here, we have the pinwheel again.

And it's balanced on the other side with another pinwheel pattern.

This one has been finished off with a ruffle.

And we'll talk about ruffles and how to treat the outside of your quilt at another time.

The next show, we're going to go into our basic nine-patches, and that includes our Shoo Fly pattern, Jacob's Ladder, 54-40 or Fight, and some other variations, and turning to other ideas with quilts.

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