
Pivoting on the Machine & Bow Tie
2/24/1980 | 29m 35sVideo has Closed Captions
Georgia teaches pivoting on the machine with a Bow Tie quilt pattern.
Georgia Bonesteel teaches pivoting on the machine with Bow Tie, Formal Garden and Lover’s Knot patterns and reviews the four-patch pattern.
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Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel is a local public television program presented by PBS NC

Pivoting on the Machine & Bow Tie
2/24/1980 | 29m 35sVideo has Closed Captions
Georgia Bonesteel teaches pivoting on the machine with Bow Tie, Formal Garden and Lover’s Knot patterns and reviews the four-patch pattern.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[bright electronic music] [easygoing country music] - Welcome back.
Today's lesson will be on pivoting.
We're going to be concentrating on two patterns.
Our bow tie pattern, and it's this angle which is, of course, a little more than a 90 degree angle that we'll be working on.
This of course, is a block getting ready to go into a quilt.
Here it is finished in a bow tie pattern with a double ruffle that has been turned into a big pillow.
The same idea will be done with our formal garden pattern.
These are two blocks that Barbara Jane has done, probably getting ready to go into a tote bag, but this is the angle that we'll be pivoting and we'll learn about that and how the pattern is made when we get to the sewing machine.
We'll end our show with an array of pillows, many different varieties, different techniques and ways to add accent to your home.
I want to point out a lovely sampler quilt, very bright and cheerful, that Betty Snyder has done.
And of course if we look closely, we can find the two blocks we'll be working on today.
Here is our mini bow tie pattern.
I've heard this called true lovers knot and it's also been referred to as a magic circle.
And then of course at the very bottom we have our formal garden pattern.
She's been very clever.
Her last name is Snyder and she's, in her parallelogram here, she's just hand scrolled an S. So she's got no, has a way to identify her quilt.
Let's go into our working room.
Let's refresh our memory just a minute with some of the work that we've already learned.
Also take a few minutes to examine the templates.
And I want to mention that in order to protect and more or less keep your templates after you've glued them on the poster board and have a nice firm, weighted cardboard, I think that you'll find your firm edge will last longer.
I like to take some clear contact paper, the sort that you'd get at a hardware store, and place over the entire sheet before I would cut out each pattern and it does preserve and keep your patterns a lot longer.
I also, a good hint for you might be to keep your patterns in a notebook of some sort.
This keeps them in order.
I keep the four patches in one section and the nine patches in another.
Also, there is on the market a new kind of plastic out that I believe it's called a rough and ready type plastic that doesn't move around on one side but is clear through and you can see enough that it would be nice in using these as templates because you could see your prints through.
And if you wanted to keep your booklet in order, you could simply place the plastic on and, of course using a ruler, transfer your designs and your exact measurement onto the plastic.
I'd use an ink that would not run or that is not water soluble.
One that you'd use to mark in a freezer tape is nice to use.
Let's take a few minutes to remember some of our patterns we've worked on.
How about just a basic four patch?
For some of you of course that have been advanced and gone a little bit further, this might seem very preliminary.
But I think it's a good beginning.
In this case, we've worked with four different shades of muslin.
And in order to make this more important block, we've gone ahead and placed an intricate stencil pattern on there and it turns out to be a very important block once it's quilted.
Also in our basic four patch, it's a good place if you're making a memory quilt to take and perhaps put your child's hand on two opposite blocks and then maybe doing some embroidery work the date that you finished the quilt or the day the baby was born, something on that order.
That's with your, of course, your basic four patch, your six and a half inch square.
From there, let's remember about a double four patch, which would use your same six and a half inch square and then also would borrow the square from your star flower pattern.
Remember how we kept our seams closed?
When you open them, it simply weakens your quilt and makes it more vulnerable.
You can see what would happen if you would be pulling that open.
So we keep our seams closed.
We make sure and stagger our seams when possible.
Have one seam going in the opposite direction.
This one's going this way.
That enables you to get a nice melding there in the middle.
And of course, quite often that's the first thing we'll look at in a block is to see how your intersections have come together.
In this case, two prints, four dark of the small square and four light calicos, and you have a 12 and a half inch square.
Let's remember our basic four patch in the rail fence.
16 pattern pieces.
Remember, the more pattern pieces you get, the more important of course it is that all these are cut out correctly.
Basic four patch, so we would be putting it together in this fashion, alternating your stripes.
And of course you might come out with a new version.
It's nice to press all your seams back on this block.
This one needs to be pressed all the way back.
And I believe this one has been pressed back.
It makes it nice when you're quilting.
You don't have those three layers to quilt through.
That would be your rail fence.
Let's remember the King's X two pattern pieces.
And here we have a study, more or less, a navy blue and white.
And I have one that has not been sewn together all the way.
Remember that it's a basic four patch and that you are gonna get some triangles when you sew the triangle to this figure.
Let those hang off in an even arrangement, a little bit of triangle on each side.
We call those dog ears, remember.
And once they have been, once they hang off, you can trim those off with some scissors.
If those bother you, go ahead and just trim them off if they get in your way and that way you can line up that seam.
You want to make sure, you'll have three pins when you sew this half to this half right here, here, and here.
Remember from our raw edge into this triangular point, we have a quarter inch seam allowance.
We need that, don't we, to put one seam to the next.
That was our King's X pattern.
Now the pinwheel pattern.
Many different arrangements out of just one triangle and in this case we have two different prints.
Four small print and four larger print.
And the same idea using the pinwheel, but a broken dishes pattern.
In this case, we've used more or less a waffle cotton and the new eyelet's very nice.
It has an eyelet look, but yet there are no holes in that and that's nice for quilting because then your batting won't come through.
Let's also remember our star flower pattern uses the square and also a triangle.
Now there are a few more pattern pieces in this one, but you get a very interesting look and truly a star pattern without using diamonds.
Diamonds are for a more advanced work in quilting, but the whole idea here is that it is a basic four patch and that 12 times these triangles will be sewn together to form a square, three in each corner.
And when those are sewn together, then this one will be sewn to this and then your square to this set.
Remember how important it is, once again, to stagger your seams and when you're, when it's eaten up, you're going to have that quarter inch seam allowance.
Make sure and take your time putting this one together.
So you've alternated, you have your eyelet and your solid, eyelet and solid.
And when of course this is formed together, you have your star flower pattern.
Let's take a look at what I call a white on white quilt and it almost has a wedding look to it and it's a feminine quilt, but it's an idea of using all solid colors.
In this case, it was a potpourri of leftover muslin fabrics.
And I used eyelet in the borders and then put a ruffle around the outside.
And I think it has a wedding look and is soft and feminine.
It would be something to do with any solid color fabric.
Another quilt that I'm quite proud of, one of my students, Bee Warren, this is actually her second quilt, but it's something, an idea for you of taking one pattern, in this case it was the star flower pattern, and repeating it, the same pattern, in each block.
She's used an array of maroon and navy blue and I think has come up up with a lovely, lovely quilt.
Keep in mind that a cookie cutter, simple things that you might find in your house, make nice stencil patterns to follow.
And in this case, if you can follow very, very tight here and see how the heart design has simply been a heart cookie cutter centered in the middle and then one side of it becomes the feather look around each side.
I think her choice of colors are just lovely.
And then to enlarge her quilt, she has put a border all the way around the outside, two colors of border.
Underneath we have Bee's first quilt.
Now this is hard to imagine.
I call this an Americana touch, but it is just a beautiful quilt, all solid colors, red, white, and blue.
And all of our sampler patterns and many she has improvised and borrowed one pattern from another.
Look at this marvelous nine patch in the center.
81 tiny squares in this square.
A true test of patience.
Let's turn to our formal garden and our bow tie and examine exactly how those are made.
I have a little logo for you to pass on to your family when your sewing room has gotten outta hand.
Creative clutter is better than idle neatness.
Let's refresh our memory with the fact that when we're making patterns, we want to draw a square the exact size of our finished block.
In this case, we're working with 12 inch squares.
So I have already drawn a 12 inch square.
In the case of the formal garden, we will be dividing it into quarters.
And actually we're going to end up with four triangles, aren't we?
And once I have done that, I decide on the center square that I want to use.
Now in this case, I like a four inch center square, so I have marked that off with a ruler.
So if I know that's four inches in the square, I will come down here and measure from the outside edge in four inches.
And then I'm simply going to connect this line to my center square and I end up with four parallelograms and four triangles, right?
Now if I study that pattern, I can figure out I'm going to need three pattern pieces.
I'll need my triangle, my parallelogram, and my center square.
Each one of these, three of 'em, would be cut out, they'd be placed on cardboard, and a quarter inch seam allowance added on all four sides.
Well, in this case, the triangle would be three sides.
And remember, keep in mind that the patterns, the templates in the booklet, the quarter inch seam allowance is already included.
But you might want to make your own formal garden pattern.
Also, let's go down to our bow tie pattern.
We think of actually a basic four patch in the bow tie.
Same idea, 12 inch square.
We have divided it into quarters and then we've decided on a two and a half inch square in the center here.
In this case, we will be cutting this out and we'll just need one center, but we'll add a quarter inch seam allowance all the way around.
And this pattern will be the other pattern.
It'll say cut two dark, maybe cut one dark center, and then cut two light.
That will become our pattern for the bow tie.
If we want to get even smaller and break this pattern up into a basic four patch, it would mean in that six inch square we would simply be finding a center square that would be on the angle, on the diagonal, and that would then become our true lovers knot or our magic circle.
And we would, of course, have two pattern pieces here also.
Keep in mind when making your own patterns, many of the new rulers have inches on one side and centimeters on the neck.
So make sure that you're actually adding a quarter inch seam allowance on the side if you're making your own patterns.
Let's go to the sewing machine and see how these patterns are put together.
Once you're at the sewing machine, I think it's a good idea to keep your template with a picture on it of the finished block right close by.
It avoids any mistakes happening from the time you go from here to the machine itself.
I might also mention that I have come across a nice little implement that you might wanna get.
You know, we're used to the seam allowance when we're making garments, that 5/8 inch seam allowance.
And of course when we go to piecing our patchwork blocks, we're using a quarter inch seam allowance.
I like to use a masking tape that has been measured from the eye, from the point of the needle, all the way out.
And also on the market is a little magnetic edge that will snug right up close.
And that would be another way of giving you a good guide from the point of the needle out.
Make sure and measure if you're using an all-purpose foot, that is a zigzag foot, make sure and measure that also.
It might be wider than your quarter inch seam allowance.
All right, to put the bow tie together, we want to think of sewing opposites.
In other words, I'm gonna take my muslin and I'm first going to machine sew the center block to the inside part of my square.
Quarter inch seam allowance all the way down.
And when I've gone that far, gotten that one done, come over and take the opposite one.
I'm going to attach the opposite side.
Now the same thing that happens here, we'll be doing on the mini bow tie in just a few minutes.
All right, slide this under.
Quarter inch seam allowance all the way down.
Keep those raw edges lined up.
Now this is where the pivoting takes place.
I like to get rid of my loose threads knowing that this block is going to fit in one side and this is gonna fit in the opposite side.
Come back and make sure you're lined up.
Put the two right sides together.
And when you do that, get these lined up just like so.
Don't let that happen just as in the drunkard's path or let that slip down.
Line that up, and when you line that up and it's all perfectly lined up, you can come down here and see you've got a quarter inch seam allowance, haven't you, that falls over where it's already been sewn.
All right, you might wanna put a pin in here.
It's right down to this point that you're aiming for.
That's where you're going to turn and pivot on the machine.
Start up here.
Quarter inch seam allowance all the way down.
I like to, this seam allowance underneath, let it either go out or go in one or the other, okay?
When you come down, you might wanna peek and just kind of see if you're on target.
You wanna come all the way down so your needle is in the seam underneath.
So the bottom part will go one way and this is gonna turn all the way over.
When that turns, make sure that you don't have anything overlapping inside.
And of course the needle in that material is what allows you to turn.
And then your presser foot goes down again and line this up, raw edges meeting all the way down.
And once again, I'm aiming for that seam underneath.
When I get to that point, needle in the machine, I lift up, the bottom part swings this way, and this part swings all the way around.
And when you do that, line up this so it squares off even at the corners.
And I like the way that then goes together.
Quarter inch seam allowance all the way down.
All right.
Then we have to open up and see if we're pretty much on target.
See, we've got our good angle there.
We've come across here good.
And we have another section to fit in the same way.
Let's do that once more.
I think that'll help you to see exactly how it happens.
Come all the way.
Quarter inch seam allowance all the way down.
Let's remember this seam is going out.
Let's keep it turned out.
This comes all the way down.
And when we think we're just about there, we might wanna peek and turn.
Okay, turn this way.
Presser foot back down to hold it in place.
All the way.
You can just check with that up.
Yes, I'm ready to go, and turn this around.
And then when you've come down, you've got your one bow tie block all put together.
Let's finish this one and then turn to what would be called the mini bow tie and look at the different arrangements for that.
There is our bow tie pattern.
Of course pressing will make that rest flat, but I think that gives you the idea.
Then if we wanted to do a mini bow tie pattern, the same idea, pull this up.
I have two of them already put together, but I'd like to sew one in place.
This kind of has a Christmas look, doesn't it?
With our red and green print.
In this case, I would go ahead and get my bow tie, the center square to the red.
And if I were doing this in what I refer to as my little mass assembly line, I would do this four times, wouldn't I?
Take this square and then I'd pick up this one and this one and this one.
Of course I've already gotten those two sewn together, but when you have an opportunity to let something just keep going, it saves time and of course it saves thread also.
I find it goes a little bit faster.
All right, I've gotten two done.
Get rid of your threads knowing that this piece is going to come and fit on here.
I've sewn opposites knowing that I'm gonna pivot that green in place in just a few minutes.
All the way down.
Same thing here.
Pick up the red.
I can't find my red.
I lost it.
Here's the red.
All the way down.
Knowing that then I'll be taking, this really looks like a bow tie right now, knowing that this green is going to be pivoted in each place there and the same bow tie will have the green pivoted over here.
I'll do one of these and then you can see what you're going to end up with is a basic four patch.
All right, let me move this out of the way so you can see this pivoting.
This is just on a little smaller scale, the same idea.
All the way down and peek underneath when you get to that seam underneath.
See the quarter inch seam allowance?
From that needle out, you have a quarter inch.
You're then going to turn all the way, all the way down.
With the needle in the machine you're going to be turning.
Make sure you don't get any overlapping underneath there.
And I like to make sure this comes all the way out.
See how that's meeting there?
I know that I'm getting a firm angle then.
That would give you an idea.
And, of course, we need another green placed in here.
But then we have, if this were all put together, let's get rid of some of the threads here, I think it'll give you a better idea, if this were all put together, and sewn as a basic four patch, it could be quilted and hung more or less as a wreath for Christmas time.
Let's look at the formal garden pattern, which is so close to...
Here are some other arrangements of bow ties, by the way.
And in this case it's a study of the blue, another study only with two calicos.
Don't forget your corduroy.
It's hard to quilt corduroy because of the nap, but I think you get some interesting looks with the texture and the calico.
The formal garden pattern, of course, has three pattern pieces.
It has the central square.
In this case, I think it's fun to highlight a pattern.
I have some, a lightweight corduroy that has a cat in the center.
So that'll be our central motif there.
And then we have calico and we also have the solid chintz and they are alternating all the way around.
I have them pinned together and I think that gives you an idea.
Keep in mind when you're cutting out your parallelogram and if you have your fabric, say the two right sides together, and you cut out, you're gonna cut out four altogether, and you're doing it in this fashion with a material that has a right or wrong, you're gonna end up with two of them going the wrong way.
So always cut out four separately with the parallelogram.
But the same idea would work here also.
I'm going to sew the triangle to the parallelogram to put together a trapezoid figure, okay?
And I'll be doing that four times.
When you do that, let the same amount of dog ear that hangs off down here, hang off up here also.
I'll show you how nicely that that works in just a few minutes.
I'm using more or less an off-white thread here.
I think it's nice to use.
Of course a coordinating thread, you wouldn't be sewing a dark calico block with white thread.
I think an off white or a gray is nice thread to use.
Four times we will come down and do the formal garden.
Notice how I'm just sewing continuously.
It doesn't hurt to sew on air for a couple of stitches.
Same idea here.
All the way down.
Now when you've got all four of these done, separate them knowing that then you're ready to put the short side of this figure towards your kitty cat.
Two here and two here.
And then this will become, but say this will become your bow tie.
That goes to this figure.
And when you do that, notice how this lines up and I wanna sew this on one side to give you an idea of what happens here.
You want to make sure that you end up with a quarter inch seam allowance.
Once that has been sewn, open this up and make sure from that raw edge into there you have a quarter inch.
You're gonna need that in a few minutes when you sew the rest of it together.
Center that and line it up all the way down.
Of course, get your raw edges meeting.
All the way.
Check and make sure.
Cut your threads.
Check and make sure, do I have a quarter of inch?
I don't have quite as much here.
I'll have to remember that.
Then this figure is going to set in here.
And when you do that, line this up so the two right sides are together.
And I like to have a straight angle all the way down here.
Quarter inch seam allowance.
And when you come here, make sure that where that seam has been sewn together is going to cross right over that seam.
This is what's going to give you a nice pivot here.
All the way down.
Needle in the machine.
Peek and make sure.
Turn all the way.
Come all the way and don't let that overlap there.
Then I'm gonna come all the way down to this one.
It's right in that crease that I want to turn.
All the way.
Line up my raw edges again.
I think it's nice to make sure this is happening over here also.
Get your points even.
You see how much freedom you get there with that material locked in place once that... All the way down.
And so you have your formal garden done.
The same idea would be for the other pattern.
You see how you've come down and you get a true right angle there.
And the same thing would happen setting this place in here.
And then of course here's a formal garden with your calicos all ready to be quilted and layered.
Let's take a look at a new idea of treating the edge of a pillow.
We, of course, spent time learning how to miter corners and we will show you mitering again in another lesson.
But I think it's nice to know how to put this sort of a treatment on a pillow.
It gives kind of an accent square in the corners.
And just keep in mind that I like to draw things out on paper.
Even in my sewing room I'll draw, for instance, a 12 and a half inch square and then I'll know that I need to cut out four of the brown that are going to be two and a half inches wide and 12 and a half inches long.
And then I'll know that I need to cut four corners that are two and a half inches square.
By doing that and after, of course, I have my blocks sewn together, I would sew on each end one brown piece.
Then I would come over and on these sides I would have a brown, two brown pieces with my square on the end, wouldn't I?
Then I would simply, after this had been sewn on, I would simply line this up and pin that all the way down.
And then when I got to this end, I would know exactly where to pin this square, wouldn't I?
So keep in mind that on something like this, sew your edges first, these two edge sides first, then come and sew one end onto here and one square onto here, and then pin it all the way down here.
And this will give you an exact true line.
You want this to be happening, of course.
You want a true right angle there.
Let's take a look at all the other treatments for this pillow.
If you remember these King's X patterns that we had fun having different arrangements of the same pattern, and I've interpreted them all three in a different pillow technique.
One of them would mean going ahead and of course adding a border onto your block and quilting it.
In this case I've added alternating the brown and the white border and then simply putting a straight back on the backside and then either by machine or by hand, you can use an eyelet, what we call, insertion that has been added all the way around the envelope part of your pillow.
Then I've added some eyelet on that, and you can take some brown velvet ribbon and intertwine that in your eyelet and you get a very fancy feminine look from one version of your King's X.
Basically what I like to do on the backside of all of my pillows is to use the sham idea, and I think we remember how that is done.
That measurements given in your book, I believe it's 13 and a half inches by 18 and a half, and it's just a matter of placing the two right sides together.
And of course you have trimmed this and you've also sewn a border, and then you're gonna machine sew all the way on the backside so that in each case you can simply open up your pillow and wash it readily.
In this case, I have put some piping around the outside.
Don't forget when you use piping and add bias edging that you make sure and use your zipper foot.
That helps you get in real close.
We have run out of time today, not enough to cover all of our pillows.
So we will just simply pick up on pillows next time and then we're gonna turn to applique.
Quite often people wanna know, do I hide my knots when I quilt my pillows?
I always say, if you're giving this pillow to Aunt Mary who's been quilting for 20 years, you hide your knots.
Otherwise, remember, you really don't need to hide your knots.
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