Hi everyone! Welcome to my first On The Design Table blog post. Here I will show what I am working on currently and all sorts of quilt and crochet bits and pieces that crop up along the way.
My first project is this pattern from The Fat Quarter Shop.
It's a free pattern and you can download it here if you fancy having a go at making it yourself:
https://www.fatquartershop.com/stitches-from-the-heart-quilt-free-pdf-pattern
It looks scary doesn't it but trust me it isn't. Now, I have to admit I'm not a great patchwork piecer. Applique is more my thing but I have decided to make a huge effort to get more confident when it comes to sewing what can seem like tiny bits of fabric together. So having said all that let's see how I got on.
I chose the pinks for the quilt quite randomly, I just made sure there was enough contrast between them so you can see the different colours in the triangles when they are all sewn together. I did starch the fabrics first also. I use Mary Ellen's Best Press (you can buy it at all good quilt fabric shops) and I find it works perfectly by giving the fabrics just enough stiffness. Following the pattern I also used Triangles On A Roll half-square triangle paper. This paper has been a revelation for me and I absolutely love using it.
Once all the fabrics are cut out (and you can see below they are bigger than the paper as per the pattern) it's time to start using the half square triangle paper like so:
All you do is cut off from the roll how many portions of it you need. If you need 8 half square triangles (HRT's) for your project then you cut off 4 squares (as each square makes 2 HST's). Simple no? You layer 2 fabrics of different colours, right sides together and pin the paper to the fabric. Don't pin on the dashed or solid lines. Machine sew using a 1.5 stitch length on every dashed line, following the arrows. Cut carefully on every solid line, preferably using a large ruler and a rotary cutter until you have them all done:
That's a lot of HST's. Taking the paper off is easy. You just bend it back along the dashed line and tear it off. Using a very short stitch length makes this bit so easy and kind of therapeutic.
And voila you have lots of half square triangles. All the seams are pressed open which really helps with the bulk on this quilt top. Here are the coloured and white HST's:
And here are the pink ones:
All the squares do have to be trimmed to make them 3.5 inches square. It is only a matter of taking a tiny bit of fabric off in some cases (so it can be quite irritating) but it has to be done to get as accurate as possible.
All the squares have to be laid out as per the pattern. This does take some time but so worth it to get that overall scrappy effect.
You can see the heart is starting to take shape especially with the corner white square. All the squares are sewn together to form rows with seams ironed open. Then the difficult bit (for me anyway) sew the rows together. Just remember one row at a time and use lots and lots of pins and if the triangles don't totally match up it really doesn't matter! As you can see on my finished quilt top they don't all match up - I'm not the worlds greatest quilter but I learned loads and had fun doing it too and that, my friends is what it's all about at the end of the day.
I hope you enjoyed seeing this quilt being made and you will check back for other projects. Next time I am looking at pre-printed panels and how to make a cost effective quilt very easily.
Stephanie Xx