From Design Wall to Machine - Staying Organized

You spend so much time arranging your pieced blocks on your design wall, and then you have to REMOVE the blocks to sew them.  How do you keep them organized during this process?   I'm sure everyone does it a little differently but I wanted to share how it's worked for ME for many many years and many many quilts.  If you would like to try my method, it not only keeps your blocks organized, but also decides how your seams will be pressed from the very beginning.  Your seams will then butt together beautifully and your top will lay flat for quilting!   

  It's simple.
Start off by counting how many rows your quilt will have.   In the following example there are 4 columns and 5 ROWS.   Cut 5 small pieces of paper and write down the numbers 1,2,3,4,5.  Now, for a simple charm/block quilt such as this one, I would go ahead and draw arrows, underneath each number, notating the direction to press the blocks.
In ROW #1 the block seams will be pressed to the RIGHT.   In ROW #2 the block seams will be pressed to the LEFT.  and so on.

Imagine that these are your blocks pinned to your design wall.  

With a small T-pin or metal dress pin, attach each small numbered piece of paper to the first block in each row.   NOTE*  Make sure the pin is METAL because these will be ironed.  Also, make sure to make the paper small enough that you can center it in the middle of the left side of each of the first blocks in each row.  You don't want to pin the number too high or low, because these will be left attached as you sew the rows together.  So make sure you leave around 1/2" above and below the paper so it does not get sewn into the seam allowance.   

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Another popular style of quilt is the sashed and cornerstoned quilt.  For this we do things a bit differently. 

You will still first start by counting the rows.  For the example below we have 5 columns and 7 ROWS.  If the large purple area is a pieced block (such as in a crown royal quilt) you will want to press the seams OUT, or TOWARDS the sashing.   So instead of noting the direction that the seams will be pressed, you will just do the same direction for each alternating row.  

An easy way to remember which direction to press the seams in this example, is to simply remember to ALWAYS press your seams TOWARD the SASHING.  (the pink area.)

The quilt I am working on now, is the 2nd type of quilt.  A quilt with blocks, sashing, and cornerstones.  

This is the completed top.  

As you can see, the first ROW of this quilt is the block/sashing/block row.   What I do, is I remove the blocks IN ORDER, from LEFT to RIGHT.  Starting with the very first block on TOP, and then carefully stacking them so that the LAST block (the block on the RIGHT) is the last block in the stack, on the very bottom.  Then, I move to a seat and table, and I start pinning the blocks together.   Starting with block #1, I pin that to the first piece of sashing, and then I pin the sashing piece to the block #2 in the row, and so on.

Here are several rows pinned together.

 Here they are from the back.  These smaller sashing pieces can be a bit tricky with this method, so you have to be careful.

Next I removed all of the sashing/cornerstone/sashing rows.   Here you can see them all stacked up before I pinned them together.  

After I have pinned them all together, I take it to the machine.  It doesn't matter where you start, just start sewing in a long chain, until every seam is sewn.  For a quilt this big, I can usually sew 2-3 seams in one row, before moving to the next.  

Place the seam right underneath the needle, then remove the pin, and sew.  

Next you can start sewing the block/sashing/block rows.  Same way.  Bring the seam right up to the needle, remove the pin, sew, and go on to the next.

Once all the rows are completely sewn, you can PRESS the seams (REMEMBER ALWAYS TOWARD SASHING) and then PIN your rows together and sew.  There is never another need to go back to your design wall.  Everything is labeled so you know which row is 1,2 3, etc.,   I will typically start sewing row 1 and 2 together, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and so on.

This has worked for me for as long as I can remember. . I hope you can use this method too.

I'm almost finished with this quilt and will post photos shortly!

Pattern GURU Needed!!!!

A lady has propositioned my husband. She comes into his work daily and has recently been complaining of not being able to find someone to make her a quilt with these fabrics. Her mother recently passed away and she has been looking for someone to make something to hang on her wall in memorial of their last vacation together in Bermuda.

These fabrics are out-of-this-world gorgeous. How could anyone cut into them?! She said that she gave them to a quilter who has held onto them for the last 4 years. She gave them to my husband who had told her earlier of his wife the quilter *me* = ).

I took them today from his work and she wants me to give her an idea of what I can do and give her an estimate. Well the time has come for someone to be brave and cut into these amazing tapestries. They are all printed on cotton. The ones with the off-white and tan backgrounds measure approximately 2 yards long by 47" wide. The one with the whitest background is the same X2 (the same print but there are two panels.) The smallest one has already been cut into. I am guessing she was trying to make it into a "shirt" but has only cut and pinned it. It still would need to be sewn. But the woman did not say she wanted any clothing made out of these prints. That's the first thing I thought of too!! These all would make beautiful dresses or skirts.

PLEASE HELP ME ALL YOU WONDERFUL QUILTY GENIUSES!!!

I've only had them for 1/2 a day or so, but I did come up with some rather simple ideas. Fussy-cut into them and just make some large blocks?? Maybe make a large rail fence sort of pattern? I dunno. If anyone has any brilliant ideas I would be more than grateful.

Bloomin' 9 Patch

Well, here I go again! this time for MIL and FIL. I chose fabrics for this quilt that all looked like they were from the 80s and 90s. Possibly older. Small bunches of florals on a solid dyed background.

This pattern comes from my all-time favorite quilt book: Tradition with a Twist by Blanche Young and Dalene Stone. Who doesn't love a good Trip/Boston Common/ or 9 patch!!! I love the ease of strip piecing and the versability of all the little sqaures.

I have made 2 other bloomin 9s but never got them quilted. One I gave away and the other I'm sending to a group of ladies who quilt for fire victims and cancer patients.
SO, needless to say, I am NO GOOD at quilting these big quilts. But where there's a will there's a way and I will have the blocks sewn together and it quilted by this week. Just in time for me to start Bonnie Hunter's new mystery "Carolina Christmas."

A few things I'd like to mention in my experience working with this pattern. Blanche uses large scale prints in most all of her quilts. They're gorgeous, but when working with small prints I have a few suggestions. The first couple I made I started with a light color in the center and went out to a darker further towards the sides. This is actually NOT the best way to go about this. I have found that if you use contrasting colors/shades it works best. You will see that in this quilt I chose a light teal, than a green (I actually wish I would have switched these) Than you will see the dark blue, than on to a light beigish color. Than a light/dark floral than to a medium purple. Than a dark blue and a lighter green. I wish I would have switched the light green and dark blue for more contrast.
Since I was going with my stash and I only had large yardage of certain colors I had to go with what I had..

So to sum up: With this pattern you do not need to use gradating colors or even go from light to dark. The blended 9 patches will bring the solid sqaures together, and the more contrast with color AND shade is BEST!

Here's my pics of the blocks on my design wall. 2nd picture is WITH the setting triangles.
Not sure if I should add a border or not, I would want to use the green, I'll have to see if I have enough.