[bright music] [warm upbeat music] - Welcome to our second lap quilting show.

We've established in the first show that we are, quilt as you go, one block a time, going to make a quilt.

We have decided to break down all of our, what we used to think of as a big, cumbersome, three layers of quilt into individual blocks, so we will build our whole unit starting with a block this size.

You're probably wondering since last time, "Well, how many blocks is it gonna take to make a whole quilt?"

This is more or less broken down in the handbook, but I can give you a general idea.

If you wanted to make a baby quilt for instance, it would take six blocks this size put together.

If you wanted to make, for instance, maybe an Afghan size that would go in a family room, it would take nine of these blocks, all quilted, and then of course sewn together, which we'll be doing later on.

And then of course we go on from there to a twin sized, you would need 15 of the blocks, and for a double, you would need 20 of the blocks.

It all depends, of course, how much of the bed cover you want to cover the whole bed.

This is to keep you warm in bed.

If you want to cover both the mattress and the box springs, you might have to finish your quilt and then add a border around it, but that will be up to you.

Everyone's bed is a different size.

Let's get down to business this show.

Exactly where do we start?

We start with our patches and we start with our blocks, and that all begins with our patterns, or in quilting terms we call our templates.

I'm gonna spend a few minutes at the blackboard so I can show you how these patterns are made so you can either use them from a handbook or you can make them yourself.

I like to take the patterns once I've made them and put them on cardboard.

It gives you a nice, firm edge to work on.

They last longer.

There's a tendency to cut the paper when you're transferring the paper onto fabric, and these, if a friend wants to borrow, will just keep longer.

We're going to work today on five quilting patterns, and we're all gonna be working on 12 inch blocks.

All the patterns that I have here, the four patch, a double four patch, pinwheel, rail fence, and kings X have one thing in common: they're a basic four patch.

Let's sidetrack just a minute and talk about the funny names.

What you would think of as a rail fence, someone else might call a Roman stripe.

Quite often, all these names that have been handed on down through the years have different names depending on what part of the country you live.

It's interesting to see the names that are attached to the blocks.

Quite often, it had to do with nature, animal tracks, turkey tracks, or it could be when the westward people, when everyone went west, they would call them Rocky Road to California.

Kansas Star, it just depended.

They all had different names.

So what you might think of the kings X might be another name, so just bear with me.

Let's talk about how we make the patterns themselves.

I like to work with a 12 inch, a perfect 12 square, and I would cut out either a newspaper or a piece of paper from a sack, but it would be a perfect 12 inch square.

Now, if you were going to make a large pillow for a floor, you'd start with perhaps a 20 inch square, or a small pillow for a velvet couch, you'd start with a nine inch square, but you are gonna be working in a square.

In our case, we're going to break it down into four equal parts.

For a four patch pattern, if we know it's 12 inches from corner to corner, it only makes sense that we're working with four six inch squares.

I would then cut one of these squares out and add a quarter of an inch on all four sides of that six inch square.

So what I come up with is really a 6 1/2 inch square.

This becomes your pattern.

Now, in this particular one that I'm working in, the seam allowance has already been included.

You've got to realize that the quarter of an inch is eaten up when you get ready to sew this patch together, isn't it?

And that's gonna leave you, however, a quarter of an inch on all four sides.

And when your block is all sewn together, actually what you end up with in cloth is a 12 1/2 inch square.

You need that quarter of an inch to attach perhaps one block to the next block or to add borders all the way around it.

Notice on all your patterns that it's going to be broken down, cut two print, cut two solid.

In other words, you might have a print over here and you might have a solid here and a solid here, but altogether you're gonna have four pattern pieces.

This is where you get to make the decision and have the fun of deciding what materials go into your block.

For a simple four patch, it could even be four different shades of blue, couldn't it?

That's your simple four patch.

Let's go to a double four patch.

Here again, we go back to our basic 12 inch square, and when it's divided into four equal parts, we would then take two of the six inch squares and divide it into another four patch.

We call this a double four patch, two six inch squares here and a three inch here.

We're going to then cut those out.

Now remember, we're gonna cut those out, a six inch here, add a quarter of an inch all the way around it, and a three inch here, add a quarter of an inch, and those become our two pattern pieces to put that whole block together.

This one will say cut four dark, perhaps one, two, three, four, cut four light, one, two, three, four.

And this will say cut two of any other color, just so you have a contrast, although I know of some ladies who would like to put the whole block together, for instance, the same color, and let just your seam be the determining factor on how your block's been put together.

This is up to you.

This is where you make your own decision.

Let's go to our pinwheel pattern.

Now, I've heard this called other names, but I like to refer to it as the pinwheel.

We can take this one pattern and do several different designs, and I'll show you this when we get to the blackboard.

But we can take here our 12 inch square divide it into quarters again, and then those quarters are going to be divided into equal triangles, aren't they?

But this is represented in each one of your squares.

So actually what I'm working with in this case is just the one triangle that has the quarter of an inch on all three sides, and that becomes the pattern for the whole pinwheel block.

After we have the pinwheel pattern done, let's go to the rail fence pattern.

Now remember, in pinwheel it was triangles.

In rail fence, we're gonna be working with rectangles.

Take our 12 inch square, divide it into four equal parts.

Actually, when you would do a rail fence and put a whole quilt together, it would have a different look than the way we're putting it together.

If this was a block to block assembly, you'd have almost this kind of a look.

Perhaps you've seen a rail fence quilt that's been put together that way.

But for the way we do it in one individual block that becomes a sampler, then we can just do it this way.

In most cases, I'd have this be your dark patch here.

That could be a solid one.

Then you could have a stripe on the outside, and then you could have a polka dot or another design out here.

The idea being when you made this pattern though, it's broken down into four equal parts.

You'll take your square here, and your six inch square, and divide it into four equal rectangles.

So when I cut out that one rectangle, actually that is represented in every other piece in my block, isn't it?

But I've remembered to add a quarter of an inch around it.

Here is my pattern.

And have I mentioned the grain?

On each one of our patterns, there will be an arrow showing you where to put your pattern, how to line it up on your fabric.

That helps you and keeps you from having bias edges on the outside.

If your block has bias edges, it's gonna give and wave in the breeze and it just won't be good, so be conscious of your grain line on every one of your blocks.

The next pattern I'd like to talk about is the kings X.

There's several variations we can make with the kings X, and in a way, it's a version of the pinwheel, but it's just a few more seams to sew.

Here again, we're gonna start whether our basic four patch, we're going to divide it into four, actually eight equal triangles, and then we're gonna find the midpoint here and here and connect these.

Look at the new look that we get here.

Find the midpoint on that line, the midpoint here.

We're getting an entirely new look here.

And of course, the decision we make in the fabric will help to determine how this block is put together, but your pattern pieces, in the case of the pinwheel, in case of the kings X, all right, like so, notice where your grain line is on the kings X.

Let's talk about putting our patterns onto the fabric.

That's a very important part in quilting and in patchwork, because you want to remember this edge that you have determines when you cut out your pattern.

This is the edge from which is your guide to sew in a quarter of an inch, and if this isn't correct, your block isn't gonna come out to be a 12 1/2 inch block.

Remember, when we talked about fabric, how important it is to pre-shrink all of your fabric?

It really softens your fabric if it has any polyester or blend in it.

Also, remember, we don't use any polyester knits.

Most of these are dacron and cotton and polyester blends of some sort.

I'd also like to remind you that a percale sheet is very hard to quilt on.

The stitches are so close together that you just, you can't get a good quilting line.

But we are going to pre-shrink our fabric, and for instance, in our double four patch that I have cut out here, I can see that my pattern calls for four dark, four orange, and two print.

So then I decide in this case what color scheme I want.

I've decided that I'll cut my two large pieces of my pretty flowered material.

Then to coordinate with that, I'll have four yellow and four blue.

It's important, now, I know if I need four pieces here, I'd be awful tempted to layer the fabric, but I wouldn't go any further than just doubling fabric when you're cutting out patchwork.

Quite often if you put four of these together, your top piece is not gonna be the same size as your bottom one.

Line up and fold your fabric in two and then put your pattern on, making sure, for instance, remember your grain line.

It should line up.

Can we have a little Sewing 1 lesson here?

Remember that the straight of the grain runs parallel to your selvage.

I think most of you remember that.

And then this is your crosswise.

Your crosswise will have a little more give, but your straight of the grain is more taunt, isn't it?

Okay, you're gonna line this up.

Never, never use the selvage.

Always cut that off because that that has a tendency to kind of draw up in time.

So then you're going to put your pattern on.

I like to take the hard edge of a worn piece of soap and use that.

With your left hand, hold your pattern in place and draw around your pattern.

Then go ahead and use that same line again.

Come over and borrow that line.

I'm remembering here that I need four of these pieces, and I've got four all drawn, transferred onto my fabric.

I'm gonna pin those in place.

Keeps 'em from sliding when you're getting ready to cut.

And then take your good scissors and simply cut these out.

Now, if your soap is worn some, don't be cutting on the outside edge of that soap because you'll be enlarging your pattern.

You don't wanna do that.

And remember that edge that you're cutting, that is your guide for sewing in a quarter of an inch.

Okay, I'm holding these and I'm sewing.

I'm getting ready to cut these out in order to get ready to sew them.

I've got these four cut out.

Then I'll go to my yellow and cut those out.

And the last, I will transfer my large 6 1/2 inch square to the back side.

Always try and transfer on the back side of your fabric, lining it up, and I'll need two of these, and I'll cut these two out and I'll cut four here.

For something like this where the soap doesn't show up, I think pencil's really the best thing to use.

Don't use a ballpoint pen or some sort of a magic marker that's gonna bleed into your fabric.

That would be bad.

Also, if you have little odd pieces that really have no selvage and don't have a guide for where to put your fabric, just play with your fabric and pull it.

I think you can find the straight of the grain in your fabric.

Let's get ready and get down to business and go to the sewing machine.

Isn't it great to be able to put our patches together on the sewing machine today?

It goes faster, and really your blocks are a lot sturdier when they're all put together.

Let me remind you of a couple of things.

When you get to your machine, make sure, especially if you use a portable at home and when you put it out on the table, there's kind of a drop off, make sure that then you elevate yourself so you have command of the sewing machine and you can see your patches go through.

It might mean putting a pillow underneath or a couple of catalogs, but I think it's really good to be up on top.

Also, make sure that you have a good light and a good lighted area to work in.

When you get ready to put your patches together, I like to keep the pattern that you've just cut out the pieces with close by.

It gives you an idea of where to begin, in this case with a double four patch.

Now, keep in mind, if we were just putting this much together, it would be just a single four patch, wouldn't it?

But we're putting all of this together in order to get our 12 1/2 inch block.

Always start with your smallest sections first, and I want to establish and get that sewn together so it's the same size as my 6 1/2 inch square.

When you pick up your pieces, keep in mind it's right here I wanna sew and right here, right here, and right here.

Lot can happen between here and over here, so as you pick it up, keep it in mind, put your two pieces together, and line up your raw edges and especially your corners.

I like to then put a couple of straight pins on the block.

Kind of holds it together in place.

I'm not in the habit of sewing over pins.

Perhaps you can do that on your machine, but I don't.

Another thing I'll remind you of, if you use an all-purpose foot on your sewing machine, from the center of that to this edge is a quarter of an inch, and that's a nice guide for sewing your seam allowances.

If you use a straight sewing machine attachment like I use, you might wanna put a piece of masking tape down.

Remember, you're gonna be going from a 5/8 seam allowance, which you use to put a garment together, to a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Okay, we're all set.

Use a color thread that's compatible with your block.

It only makes sense.

You wouldn't use black thread for a white block, that sort of thing.

When you start sewing, I like to just keep going at an even pace, pick up your next two blocks, put those together.

Now, don't stop and cut.

That takes time and it wastes thread.

Get what I call your little mini factory going, little assembly line.

Pin your block again.

And it doesn't hurt your machine to sew on air for a couple of times.

Lift up your presser foot and then slide that next patch right in there and keep going all the way down.

Now I'm gonna sew on air again, pick this block up, line it up the raw edges, take one of these pins out, pin it in place, lift up, and I'm ready to go again.

Remember, 1/4 inch seam allowance in each case, all right?

You'll find that material clings to each other.

It won't be going anywhere, all right?

1/4 inch steam allowance all the way down.

When you've gotten that far, then get rid of your threads.

You've sewn four sets of two patches together.

Clip 'em apart, get rid of your excess threads over here, remove your pins, and then you might wanna go back to your pattern and remember how you're putting it together, all right?

This one goes up like so.

You're staggering this down here.

Really, the main dominant color is your orange, and I think it looks good to let that orange come all the way through here.

Now we're gonna sew these two patches together, and then these two.

When we do this, there are a couple of pointers to keep in mind.

One of 'em is that we never open our seams in quilting.

It only makes your seam more vulnerable and really weakens your seam in the long run, so keep your seams closed.

And also, if there's a chance, thumb press and turn that seam towards the darker one.

In this case, we'll want the seam to fall into the orange because it's a little bit darker.

So if that seam is going in that direction, then this one will go in the opposite direction, won't it?

We wanna keep in mind in doing this, all right, that's going towards the orange and that's going over here, which will allow us to then line these up.

And you see, I hope you can come in close and get a good shot of how those will just kind of meld together.

One seam goes one way and one the other.

What happens when all four are going in the same direction?

It's too easy to get off kilter and not get a good intersection.

What we're aiming for is really this sort of good intersection.

See right here how they both are meeting?

The same thing here and the same thing here.

We'll try and get that as close as we can, and in order to get this, it comes back to what we call staggering our seams.

All right, I'm gonna put a pin in place here, and then you can even open up and see are you happy with how that connection is?

Come all the way up here.

Remember, the seams are going into the orange.

I pin that in place and now I'm ready to sew across.

If I've pinned that in the middle, then come out here and line up my corners and even down here all the way, and then I'm gonna sew these together, and of course then I'll have my 6 1/2 inch square.

When I get about this far, I like to put my needle down in the machine.

Then I can lift it up and peek and make sure nothing's happened, make sure I'm on target and that that's just all lined up.

It looks good, okay.

Come all the way down.

Same thing over here.

Wouldn't go like that, would I?

No, I'm going to come and turn this more like so, all right?

Lift up my presser foot, slide that under all the way, and then I have these two sewn together.

I'm gonna clip these apart.

And here again, you can just thumb press.

When you get all done in a few minutes, we'll be actually pressing.

Remember, I wanted the orange going this way, orange going like so.

Now I'm gonna attach this print to this square coming over here like so, and line it all the way up so they're just as even as can be.

Now, make sure that you get all the corners lined up and pin in place.

Take your 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Remember to have these threads pulled to the back or they're gonna get in your way.

All the way down.

Check here.

Same thing up here.

I'm gonna line this up like so.

Pin in place, come all the way down.

Okay, I've got half of my block put together.

I'm gonna unclip that, clip the threads, come over here and open up, remember how I was.

Might mean going back and glancing at my block again.

Now I'm putting one half to the other.

In this case, let's let this seam fall into the print, okay?

If that seam's going that way, then this seam is gonna go this way.

Line up my patch as best I can.

Open that up so those are just staggered, right, right in the center.

That's gonna allow a good intersection.

Come all the way out to here, all the way out to here.

All right, come all the way down.

When you get ready to sew, glance under and make sure that you're not turning that seam.

You've got that sewn originally going this way.

Make sure it goes that way as you're sewing.

Come all the way down.

Remember your 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Peek, see if you're on target, if you're happy with the way it's going.

Come all the way down here.

See how I've sewn that going in that direction?

It'd be wrong if I turn that.

All right, now I'm gonna clip and get rid of the threads and as I open this up, check and make sure you're happy with the way it's gone, okay?

Then it's at this point, we will get ready to press.

While we're here at the machine, let's put a pinwheel together.

We can, remember, open up, look at our pattern, and remember that we're going to, in this case, be putting triangles together.

These triangles are then going to form our squares or our basic four patch.

It means staggering these as we go around a solid, a print, then a solid, a print.

After all, this is the way we cut it out and that's the way it's going to go together.

In each case, I wanna establish a square, so I'm gonna take my two triangles, line them up.

Now, you can glance at your pattern and realize that this is the straight of the grain, so actually this is the bias edge here.

Don't pull that too much.

It will have more give than your other seam, so let it just slide through your machine.

And I'm gonna be doing this four times, and do the same thing as far as your little mini assembly line.

Line these up, the two right sides together, of course, 'cause you're sewing on the back side of your block.

You always remember that.

Sew a couple of places on air.

Lift up your presser foot, slide that under, all the way down.

Same thing with the rest of your pinwheel.

Just keep your little factory going.

Might need a pin right here.

After you've gotten these together, actually the weight of these is a little, they're a little bit different.

You notice this kettle cloth is a little heavier than the voile, and that's all right because after all, you're gonna be putting batting next to this and then a backing, and the weight will kind of come out even.

It's at this point that then we can open up our block and decide how do you want this to go together?

You've got several different arrangements here on the pinwheel.

You can do the classic pinwheel or you could do broken dishes.

This is kind of fun to do, something like this.

This is what, at this point, determines how you put this block together.

If you turned this block like so, you'd have broken dishes.

Actually, you could cut out the pinwheel four different times and have four different arrangements, but in this case, we've broken it down into four patch.

It's at this point.

I would put these two together, machine sew down here, put these two together, machine sew, and once they are done, then I'm going to stagger my seams again.

In this case, let's let it go against the heavier, going that way and then this way.

With a pin in the middle, I'm gonna sew all the way across, and then my broken dishes block would be put together.

Let's take a look at the rail fence block.

I have it partially sewn together, and I think you can get a good idea how to go ahead and finish it from there.

Because there's 16 pieces here, I like to work in sets of two, and so that'll mean eight times you're gonna put these rectangles through the sewing machine.

When you're done, go ahead and clip them apart and then you're gonna be putting them in your quarters by putting the two right sides together, and line up that seam where you've got it right here and go ahead and pin it.

That's a good way to just kind of test yourself.

And then come out, knowing that you're gonna take your 1/4 inch seam allowance all the way down.

After that's been done, go ahead, decide do you want your yellow in the center, and then attach this block, this side of the patch to this one, and this to this.

Then I'd probably stagger my seam going into the print material, going that way, stagger it going this way.

Then it would take three pins, one in the center and on each side, and pin all the way across, and then your rail fence block is done.

It's important to remember in rail fence to press your seams all the way to the outside.

You'll like that when you get ready to quilt because you'll wanna quilt on the inside where your seam is not going.

And speaking of pressing, let's talk a few minutes about the importance of doing it.

When you're working on a small piece like this at the machine, you can thumb press to turn a seam, but when you get your block all together, go ahead and press on the back side, and of course press in the direction of the way your seam has been sewn in each case, and then I like to turn it over and press on this side also.

Quite often, you'll get a turnover at one point.

The last step with our block is to take a 12 inch square cardboard, now, not a 12 1/2, your block is 12 1/2, remember, and put your 12 inch cardboard, center it on your block, draw around, leaving a perfect 1/4 inch seam allowance on all four sides.

This sets the stage for us to put our borders on next time, in which case we'll be adding our borders and then turning to the stencils that go onto our borders.

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