[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - Welcome to lap quilting.

Artistry at the folk level has been expressed in quilts as vividly as in any other form of American decorative art.

Have you always wanted to make a quilt?

Perhaps you've been saving scraps of material for years and years.

Maybe all the material that went into your children's garments, or that special decorating project, and you knew in your mind you wanna put it to a special quilt.

I hope in this series I can show you what to do with those leftover materials.

When I first quilted my first quilt I purchased a large frame much the kind that they used years ago, the kind that would either fall from the ceiling or the kind that you would roll a quilt on two edges and you'd have this rolled piece of material that you would then quilt.

Well, I found that my family tripped over it, everyone got in the way, it took up too much space in the room, and besides it was lonely sitting at that frame by myself.

The idea years ago, and they still do it in church groups and in some get togethers.

Or that six ladies would sit at a frame and in a day or two days they would turn out this quilt to keep you warm.

Well, today we've taken the whole creative part of quilting connecting these three layers, and updated the whole technique so that we are working in individual squares, individual blocks.

The idea is called lap quilting or quilt as you go.

It's nice because you are working without any hoops or frames and you're working in individual squares.

It allows you to start quilting in the center and work out.

As you're quilting, you are treating this as the permanent back of your quilt so that you hide your knots as you're going along.

It really is simply breaking down the whole idea into smaller sections and then building your whole unit in rows.

One of the keys to lap quilting is to keep in mind that you do not quilt up to the the raw edge of your material.

You keep at least three quarters of an inch of your fabric unquilted.

That gives you the freedom.

You can see how the stitches have gone up not to the edge but at least three quarters of an inch inside, allowing all of this free, your backing, your batting, and your top part.

Then when you get ready to connect the blocks to form your rows, that will then go into make your whole unit.

It's a matter of putting, and we'll go into this later, so that we can do this step by step, but it's a matter of taking your batting and your backing to the backside and then that frees the front of your quilting material or your front material that freezes it so you can machine stitch that all the way down.

This gives your quilt strength.

Then on the backside, your batting is gonna batt up next to each other and if you have a thin batting it can overlap that quarter of an inch.

Remember, you've eaten up really a half an inch on the front side.

Then on this side you're gonna let one side go straight and then this is gonna turn under a quarter of an inch.

At which time you will slip stitch that in place.

That gives you the hand look much in keeping with your quilting on the backside, and that allows you to quilt in rows.

You will build your whole quilt and rows.

Let's take a look at a finished product.

This is what we would call a sampler quilt.

There are so many different patterns, well at least 7,000 quilt patterns available that it boggles the home sewer or the quilter's mind and she can't settle on one, so it's fun to make a sampler and in that respect we get to learn how to put together, say for instance, a shoe fly pattern, which we will refer to as a basic nine patch.

And we'll go out into all this later.

A basic four patch, here's our drunkard's path pattern.

We're making a sampler, each block is different.

And in this case, it's more or less a theme quilt because I've chosen blue colors within each block, even though each one tells a different story.

It's hard to see, but the borders end right here, and we can look on the backside and get an idea how this is truly lap quilted.

You can see the individual squares and how your hand stitching much as I just showed there is performed right here so that this whole quilt was built in rows assembling it the same way as the individual quilt was.

The purpose of this series will be to show you how to machine stitch these blocks we refer to something, this is your broken dishes pattern, we refer to this as a block.

We'll show how to machine stitch these on the machine.

We've also updated the method not only in smaller sections but we do this on the sewing machine today.

It's not to say you can't still sew these by hand but we have found that it goes faster and it really is sturdier to go ahead and machine stitch your individual patches together.

Let's talk about the many accessories that we can make with the sample blocks that we'll be learning on the sewing machine.

We can make, make a pillow for instance taking the starflower design.

In this case, we've chosen a green print, a black and white check, and a solid yellow and I'll be showing how to do what we call the French method of putting a sham on the back so it becomes an envelope.

This becomes a patchwork pillow, or maybe just a basic four patch pillow.

From pillows, we can take our same 12 inch blocks and go to perhaps a handbag.

In this case, we have the house on the hill with its little gable roof all cross stitched, the shoe fly pattern, our basic nine patch, and we'll be learning about all these different blocks, and our king's X pattern, taking three different blocks but combining them into a sample handbag with a crocheted handle.

Or we could be doing a tote bag, in this case just two blocks, one on either side.

Perhaps an accessory of a wall hanging.

Maybe you have a special room in your dining room and you've got a black and white color scheme.

Choose three of your favorite blocks and put 'em into a wall hanging with a wooden pole across the top, makes a great decorative item or even a gift for a friend.

What about the other accessories that we can make from the blocks we'll be learning how to put together on the sewing machine?

For instance, a mini nine patch just one block that has been quilted.

This particular pattern is called save all because you take all the leftover little tiny bits of material and put into a basic nine patch, quilt it, and then mount it on a wooden frame, and you have what I would call a mini wall hanging.

Makes another nice gift, or a decorative item in your house.

We can take the Dresden plate and turn it into a place mat.

This is marvelous because it's a great way, sometimes this was called a friendship block because it took a lot of friends to give you all the different materials.

This would be a place mat.

Or we could take the same idea and put it into a handbag, having three different Dresden plates, on the flap, on the inside, and on the back.

We could also take our square block and turn it into a rectangular place mat.

This particular pattern is called the monkey wrench.

In this case, I took a knife and a spoon and a fork and simply placed them on the border and then use that as my design for quilting around.

We could also take all those soft, marvelous leftover blue jean denim material and turn it into a vest.

Small items such as this adapt well to the crazy patch pattern.

And we'll be talking about how to adapt leftover material to small vests and this sort of thing.

Let me anticipate some of your questions that you might have in mind as far as where do I begin quilting.

You're probably wondering, what will I need to go out and buy?

You'll find that most of the things you have in your sewing basket at home.

Let's kind of go down the list.

First of all, you're going to need scissors.

I like to keep two pair on hand, one for cutting paper with, and the other one that you hide from your family because it's just for cutting fabric.

You're going to need pins, just your ordinary straight pins.

You're going to need needles.

Now, when you start actually quilting, you're gonna want a short needle.

It allows you to make shorter more even stitches.

And you'll find those in your fabric stores, and at your sewing encounters, and they're called quilting betweens, and it's number seven, number eight, or number nine.

You're gonna need thread, regulation just polyester cotton thread that you would put on the sewing machine.

And then you're going to need what is known as a quilting thread.

It'll be marked quilting thread.

It's extra strong and it's nothing more than a cotton thread with a wax coating on it.

It's has a lot of bounce to it, and you'll like sewing with it.

It's great for sewing on buttons also.

You can run that through some bees wax if you'd like to, but it really is all right just the way it is.

By the way, it comes in colors and also in white, and in an off white.

And I think for a beginning quilter, the traditional way of just quilting with white thread is the best way to start.

The other things that you're going to be needing will be just a regulation pencil.

No ballpoint pens, I know you'll be tempted to pick up a pen but that might be the ink that would fade when you would wash your quilt later on, so don't use a ballpoint pen.

You're going to be needing materials, and hopefully what you can work with are simply leftovers and scraps that you've had on hand.

To me, the fun part of quilting is to create something warm and creative and beautiful out of just leftovers.

It takes, for instance, for one block it only takes a quarter of a yard or even less of that of material.

If you're going to use for instance, scrap material leftovers you will have what is known as a true sampler quilt.

Each block has a different color scheme.

Notice the log cabin block right here, each block.

Right next to it, a king's X with pink in it but it's okay because you've got your muslin border all around making each one separate and telling its own story.

So you have not only different blocks but also different color schemes.

If you would wanna have what I call a theme quilt, then you might wanna go out and purchase certain materials that would give you an overall look for a quilt.

In this case, this was one of my students quilt, by the way, she chose a print material and it's a rather large print.

Then she chose a pink and white check, and a solid blue material, and that was what is her theme throughout the whole quilt even though each block is different and it's a sampler.

Of course, on the outside she put a wide border of her print and then more muslin.

So we will be working with leftover materials.

Please pre shrank all of your leftover materials.

It might be that one little piece of red that it snuck into your grab bag of fabrics that would fade when you wash your quilt.

Also, if you have a lot of materials sort them into piles, your reds, your blues, your yellows it makes it easier for you to work with, I feel.

As much as we'd like to use polyester knits in traditional patchwork, it really doesn't work out so stick with your cotton blends and no knit fabrics, we'll save those for another project sometime.

Also, the muslin is very important.

All this material should be be pre shrunk especially you're muslin because it will shrink up, and muslin that's nice and soft is nice and fun to work with, it has a nice quality to it.

We would also keep in mind that you're going to be needing patterns.

I'll be working with patterns that are simply on paper but then can be mounted onto cardboard.

This gives you a nice hard edge and gives you a nice line when transferring the pattern off onto the fabric.

At the same time, we'll be working with stencils.

This is another necessity.

This type thing we can place on our fabric, draw around it, and that creates our line for quilting.

This gives us our quilt pattern and design.

So this is something else we will be using.

One item that's kind of, we have discovered, you know the little leftover pieces of soap you've been hanging onto and you didn't know why, when it's been worn down has a nice hard edge to it.

This is something we can use to trace around on our fabric and leaves a nice firm edge for cutting out our fabric later on.

By the way, I might mention this we don't use pinking shears in quilting.

That leaves a jagged edge and it really doesn't work out so just your straight scissors are what you'll be using.

Here's a little doodad, or a thingamabob whatever you wanna call it.

Take a yard of grow grain fabric and I put some Velcro at each end and then it's a good place to hang your scissors and on this end I would simply cut out, well in this case it's the shape of a spool of thread or a hexagon and it's a good place to put your fabric, your little thread in here and your thimble, and you can also stick your pins and needles on the outside.

It's a forget me not for your scissors is what it really is.

The other two things that I can mention are things that you cannot buy at a store, and of course that is time and patience.

It will take time to do your quilting.

And I like to also say, once you get started and you're really into quilting I always encourage my students not to neglect their family and their children and their food and eating because you'll get so carried away and realize that it does take time to turn out each one but that is the human element and the quality that we like about quilting.

Patience, that will be an individual thing.

Whether or not you're going to have to rip out a block because you're not happy with it, whether or not the seams aren't right or correct that's something that you've got to decide for yourself but it will take patience and let's just say it develops patience in quilting.

How long will it take to make a quilt?

That's another item that everyone wants to know.

It really depends on how much you eat and sleep in one day is what I always say.

If you've got desire to finish a quilt, I have found that in making one block, the way we're doing lap quilting, you can do one block from start to finish in one day.

So if it takes 20 blocks for a whole quilt in 20 days you could finish your quilt.

Will you need a frame?

That's another question that a lot of people ask.

There are frames on the market, small ones oval ones, round ones, and even square ones.

The method that I have chosen I have found is you do not need to use a frame, but for instance, maybe you've got a quilt that is what we refer to as one great big quilt top.

Maybe it's been passed on down to your family and you want to quilt it.

Well, instead of putting it on a big frame, quilt your quilt on a oval hoop like this and you can do it if your three layers are basted together and you'll place this on much the way you would in embroidery hoop, and we'll talk about this later, and start quilting in the center and work outward.

This is a quilting framed.

There are smaller ones that would enable you to work with something, for instance, this size, but I have found that it's much less restricting if you'll just be quilting by basting your three layers together, and then it allows you to get right into your quilt and start without having the restricted part of a frame.

Let's talk about the basic steps that it takes to put a quilt together.

We'll elaborate a lot more on these but I think we all realize that you have to start somewhere.

Let's start with our patterns and our fabric.

Really this will be determined really by if maybe you want to make a certain quilt.

For instance, this is the beginning of a rail fence.

This pattern would go on this block.

This would enable us to make an entire quilt that would be a rail fence quilt.

Or for instance we might start with the material first.

These go hand in hand, this varies.

The next thing we're going to do is take our patterns and transfer them off onto fabric.

Once that has been done, we're gonna cut out our individual pieces and have our patch pieces.

We will then go to the sewing machine, and I'll be showing you how to assemble all these individual blocks on the sewing machine using our quarter inch seam allowance not opening our seams, we're always gonna keep our seams closed.

We'll learn how to stagger our seams which gives us a good weight distribution on each block.

After this has been done, then we'll be adding our borders on our block and we'll learn how to miter a border.

That kind of sets off much the way a picture would.

It picture frames each individual block.

Do you see how we have a mitered border from the inside line of the block out to the corner on each one of them there's about four easy steps and we'll be learning how to miter the borders.

Then we're going to transfer any designs that we've chosen onto our fabric.

Now, there is a new pen on the market that is really great.

It's like a litmus pen that we can can transfer the design off onto the fabric, which will enable us will give us a line for quilting.

And then once we have quilted, if you moisten the fabric that design will just simply fade away and we'll have our hand quilting still there.

We used to have to rely on a pencil, and quite often we didn't know if it was gonna wash out and of course the ideal thing is to just let the the hand quilting be seen.

Once you have the design on the fabric, then you're going to cut out your batting.

Did I talk about the polyester batting?

A very important part of quilting.

This is the one thing that you will have to go out and buy.

Years ago, cotton batting used to be used or corn shucks or newspaper, whatever they had on hand.

In the sandwich part of a quilt, this is the middle part, this is the mid of your quilt, this is what is the middle section.

If you look at the old quilts that you have at home that perhaps have been handed on down in the family, you will notice a lot of quilting in each one of the sections.

In other words, an area this large would not have been left unquilted.

All of this area would have tiny quilt lines on it.

The cotton batting would lump and separate.

Today in using polyester batting we can leave an area this large, here's our rail fence pattern again, we can leave an area this large unquilted because it's not gonna lump and separate.

So we are allowed a lot more freedom with the polyester batting.

We're going to cut out our polyester batting the same size as our block.

We can quite often use this as a pattern simply putting it on the batting.

Then you're gonna cut out your backing for your quilt.

Now this is the permanent backing of your quilt.

If it's a white material or a muslin or even a print, it's going to be the same size.

And you're gonna layer these three layers, and I like to pin all four corners in place so I know they're all lined up together.

Then I'm going to baste all the way around the outside.

With a dark thread, I'm basting all the way around the outside.

I think it's nice to have a contrasting thread when you get ready to remove this basting thread.

It's just easier to find.

Then I'm gonna baste through this part and this part really, in an X design all the way across on the back or through the front of your quilt, your quilted block.

Then you're gonna start quilting.

This is where the actual fund begins.

You start in the center and you quilt all the way out.

And of course the borders would be the last thing you'd quilt in the block.

You wanna make sure and not quilt up to the edge.

Remember we talked about that earlier and we'll talk about it again.

Leave that free.

That enables you to do lap quilting.

When you've got all your blocks quilted, then you arrange them on your bed or on your floor deciding how you want to distribute your colors.

Of course, if it's all a rail fence quilt you'll have a rail fence in each one.

I think it's fun to jump from one pattern to another.

You get done with one block and then you're ready to pick up a basic fort patch or a pinwheel whatever you decide to do next.

Then you're going to assemble these in rows.

One row will go to the next.

And then your last step will be to put either a ruffle or a border or just a bias edge around the outside.

In this case, just a bias edging on the outside of the quilt.

If you join us in the next few weeks, just look at some of the wonderful blocks that you can be making at home.

There'll be a four patch, and a double four patch, rail fence, a king's X, a shoe fly, a Jacob's ladder, and then an Ohio star, how about a monkey wrench pattern, log cabin, and then a house on the hill, and many, many more.

I'd like to quote one of my favorite quotes from Beth Gutcheon, the perfect patchwork primer in which she had written.

"Patchwork is really the blues of the American woman.

Like the blues maker, they never thought of themselves as artists.

They worked in a crude and simple medium striving physically and spiritually to get through today on the off chance that tomorrow would be worth it.

Patchwork became both the symptom and the cure for what life demanded of the American woman."

I look forward to exposing you to this pure and simple craft.

Keep in mind that no two quilters treat the fabric and the hand quilting and the material and the stitches in the same manner.

There are so many ways that we can turn to fabric and make something creative out of it.

One thing that I might mention and it's kind of a tip for you real beginners that when you're quilting on fabric that has a print to it your stitches are not gonna show up as much.

So I kid my students if they don't want their stitches to show up in the beginning, get a real busy print fabric and you won't really see your stitches.

But the pure beauty of the quilting I think is showing all the different handwork, and muslin is one thing that shows that up so nicely.

The other tip is, remember your final thing that you're ever gonna do on a quilt to really make it personal, is to embroidery with some either quilting thread or embroidery floss your name and the date.

That really sets it off and makes it yours and is something that then when it's handed on down the family becomes a piece of nostalgia and everyone can know exactly when it's been quilted and what's been done.

One of the best logos or models we can say for this little series that we'll be going into is something I saw on a bumper sticker recently on a car, "Inch by inch, anything's a cinch."

So show by show, I hope to open up a whole new quilt world for you, starting with small little pieces of material and making it into a big, wonderful, warm quilt.

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