Twist Along Week 3

Now that you have your 36 patch with borders on and have best pressed or starched it, it's time to start cutting. As I mentioned before, It's a good idea to be able to cut all 49 pieces at the same time. It makes keeping track of your piece placement easier.

The Twister ruler is a square ruler with lines drawn a little wonky. These are the lines you will be lining up on the seams.

Starting at the top left corner, place the ruler along all 3 seam lines. You will only have 3 here because the border is sewn on without any seams. Make sure there are no bumps under the ruler. It's easy to get bumps since the ruler is on 'stilts'. Then cut around all 4 sides of the ruler. Be sure to no go more than a 1/4" past the sides or it will cut into the next piece.

Remove the square from the cutting table and put onto a design wall or table.This is what the 36 patch will look like now.

Here's the fun part. Twist the block clockwise until the block is a straight square.

Repeat for each square, remembering to line up the lines with the seams. On any piece that has a border included there will only be 3 seams to line up with and on all the rest there will be 4. This is what it will look like after 2 squares are cut. 

Keep cutting and adding squares to finish the first row. Notice how you can see the twisted pinwheels forming.

Then start on the 2nd row. This is what it will look like after the first two squares of the second row are cut. You can see the first twisted pinwheel now.

After you have all 49 squares cut out then sew them back together just like you did for the original 36 patch, but you will have 7 rows of 7 this time. Remember not to pull the fabric when sewing it back together because it is cut on the bias and has extra stretch.

Now I just need to give this a quick press. Next week we will be adding an outside border or 2 if you want. I have some of the black Sassy with the little paisley print for the border, but an thinking of doing a turquoise for a first border.

Don't forget to link up your twister quilts on the flickr page.

 

Twist Along - hints

Hi Twisters! I hope you all have your borders on your 36 patch now, but if not there's still time to catch up. I wanted to share a few hints for when we start cutting the twisted squares out.

1. I strongly suggest starching or using best press before cutting the twisted squares out. This will give it some body and have less stretch when cutting on the bias.
2. Don't start cutting the twisted squares out until you have a block of time to get it done. It took about 45 minutes to cut all 49 of my twisted squares out.

Jane from Quilt Jane has some great hints for whenever you cut on the bias:

Stretching or distortion can occur as the fabric gives. Some pieces and blocks will have bias edges and will be prone to stretch. Give the fabric a tug lengthwise, across the grain and on the diagonal (bias) and see the different ways the fabric responds.

1. When you can follow the grain line on the pattern piece. This is not always possible on scraps so give the fabric a tug and work out where you can place pattern piece to minimise bias.
2. Minimise distortion by pressing with dry iron and not attacking block.
3. Use starch to stabilise the block
4. Sew a stay stitch (longer straight stitch which can be unpicked later) around the edge of the block. I made a quilt with large setting triangles so I stay stitched around triangle to keep it in shape.
5. Handle with care. Don’t keep pressing and handing pieces and blocks unnecessarily. The more you handle the fabric, the more likely stretching will occur.

So your twister homework for today is to starch the 36 patch with borders. Then on Sunday you will be all ready to start cutting and sewing the quilt top back together. Here's a sneak peek at the doll quilt top I made. Its made with only a 16 patch (4 rows x 4 columns) and the border. Its the perfect size for a doll quilt.

  
Don't forget to start posting your pics on the flickr page.

Valentine Voting

Do you remember when I kicked off the Valentines Day Showcase at the beginning of the month? Well it's now time to vote for your favorite projects in the Valentine Showcase After Party.

I have 2 entries in the contest

Love Braids Tablerunner

and a Valentine Goodie Bag

I would love your vote. Click here to go to the voting page. My entries are numbers 9 and 32.

Voting closes tomorrow so please hop on over to the Valentine Showcase page and vote :)

My First adventure with a Long Arm

Yup you read that right...I got over my fear of ruining a quilt when quilting it and with a little help from my friend Angela (and a little push) I was successful!

I decided to stipple this quilt and even though I looked tense and at times oblivious to the outside world (or the 6 others who were in the room at the time) I was as relaxed as I get.

I was petrified that I wouldn't know where to go with the needle and would have a quilt full of points when I changed directions, but that wasn't the case at all. Once I got my rhythm the curves followed. What do you think? Here's 2 close ups of the quilting.

I have to tell you that this was by and far the easiest quilt I ever finished. An hour or 2 to quilt it and then all I had to do was bind it. Here's the finished quilt. It's a Jelly Roll Race Quilt made from a Veranda jelly roll I won from FatQuarterly during a Talkin' Tuesday chat room. If you haven't check out these great sites you really should.

What are you working on this week? Believe it or not I am going back to the Long arm machine (my new favorite thing in the world) and finishing another quilt, just trying to decide which one to do.

Till next time