Would you believe me if I told you you can start and finish a quilt in one week or less?
Many people have the impression that quilts take months to complete.
Thankfully for those of us with hectic lives, there are a lot of ways to make a quilt
using a quicker, less time consuming process and still end up with a project we're proud of.
Hi, I'm Debbie Mumm. In this video I will show you some of my quick and easy quilt making techniques.
If you're a beginner you'll find lots of tips and guidelines to give you the confidence to get started.
And if you're an experienced quilter, you'll be able to pick up pointers that will make quilting even easier and more fun.
You can apply these tips and techniques to any quilt project that you're making.
To demonstrate these techniques, I'm going to make a quilt I designed called Crazy for Cats.
If you like to make this quilt, the directions for Crazy for Cats are in the book that I wrote called More Quick Country Quilting.
Once you learn all the tips and techniques, I think you'll be surprised to see just how quickly and easily you can make a quilt.
The basic elements for a good sewing area are a sewing machine, plus I like to have good lighting in a comfortable chair.
You'll need an iron and ironing board and a table to do your cutting on.
I like to position these three workstations close to each other so I can move from step to step quickly and easily.
Here's a quick checklist of the tools you'll need to make a quilt. You can easily pick these up at any quilt or fabric shop.
The most important tool is the rotary cutter. This handy tool lets you cut through several layers of fabric quickly and accurately.
It's the real key to quick and easy quilt making. Be sure and have some extra blades on hand for your rotary cutter as well.
When you're working with your cutter, you're also going to need a see-through ruler and a cutting mat.
This is where you cut all your pieces and strips and keeps you from damaging your tabletop.
You'll also want to have on hand pins and good sharp pair of scissors and needles.
These are called betweens and this is what you use for your hand quilting and your hand sewing.
Another needle you're going to need is called a darning needle and you use this for basting the layers of your quilt together.
For that very occasional reverse sewing that you might be doing, you want to have a seam ripper on hand.
Another good option is to use a walking foot. This feeds the layers of your fabric through evenly
and avoids that puckering that you might get when you're working with several layers of fabric.
And of course, you're also going to need thread. This is for your piecing as well as your hand quilting.
Once you have all the tools and accessories you need, there are still two more important things, a pattern and the fabric to make it with.
Let's head out to the fabric store and pick out some fabrics together.
I love coming to the fabric store. It's one of my favorite places. Plus, I get to add more fabric to my collection.
It's very exciting to walk into the fabric store and see all these fabrics, but it can be a little overwhelming.
And you may wonder, where do I start? Well, I've come up with five easy guidelines for coordinating a group of fabrics.
The very first is to choose a color scheme of two to three colors. I've chosen red, tan and black to coordinate for my cat quilt.
The second thing to look for is a nice variety of visual textures. And what I mean by visual textures is just different types of prints.
And here I have some examples of different visual textures. There are paisleys and leafy prints, plaids and stripes, circular shapes,
abstract prints, florals, geometrics and pictorials. The more visual textures you use in your quilt, the more exciting your quilt will be.
Another thing to keep in mind is the scale or the size of the prints you use. You want to use a mixture of small, medium and large scale prints.
The fourth point is to check for contrast. Contrast is what makes the different parts and shapes of the block stand out.
Contrast can be the difference in colors, the difference in lightness and dark, the difference in the different scales and the visual textures.
This block is more exciting than this one because it has a higher level of contrast.
The last guideline is one of my favorites because it's a foolproof technique for coordinating a group of fabrics.
You start out with a multi-color print and use this as a color map for choosing your other fabrics.
Every color you see here shows up in this group of coordinated fabrics.
Using these simple guidelines, I've selected this stack of fabrics to make my cat quilt.
As you can see, I've got a nice variety of visual textures, different scales, multi-color prints.
Plus, all my fabrics show good contrast to each other so I know they're going to work well in my quilt.
There's no one right way to put together a group of fabrics. You're going to put together your own combination.
And that's what makes quilt making so creative and so much fun.
Once your fabric is pre-shrunk and pressed, then you're ready to start cutting.
But the first thing you need to do is straighten out your fabric.
So you want to line up the selvages at the top first.
You want to make sure they're nice and straight.
And then use your hand to smooth out the bumps in your fabric.
Once I get it nice and straight, then I'm ready to start my cutting.
There's a few things I want you to keep in mind.
That'll make your cutting easier and more accurate.
The first thing is to always stand when you're cutting.
And I like a table that's about waist height because it's a lot easier on your back.
Okay, we're going to take our see-through ruler and we're going to line it up with our fabric.
And you're going to find horizontal lines across your ruler.
And you're going to line up one of those lines with a folded edge along the bottom of your fabric.
So I've got that lined up.
I'm going to take my rotary cutter and I'm going to make a straightening cut along the edge.
But before that, I want you to keep a few things in mind.
First of all, you always want to have your fingers in a flex position when you're holding your ruler.
If you use a flat palm, the ruler slides out of position really easily.
So flex your fingers.
But one other idea I have for you to keep that ruler from slipping
is to go down to the hardware store and pick up some anti-slip tape.
It's really meant to put on the bottom of your bathtub to keep you from slipping in the tub.
But it works really great on your ruler. It keeps it from sliding on the fabric.
Okay, so we're ready to line up your ruler again.
We've got our fingers in flex position.
The other thing you want to do is always cut away from yourself.
If you'll notice when you cut towards your body, your elbow runs into your body.
It makes it very awkward to make a smooth cut.
So if you cut away from your body, you have a nice, smooth motion.
Okay, I'm actually going to go ahead and trim my fabric.
Got my fingers flexed.
I'm going to hold my rotary cutter on my fabric, and I'm going to use a nice, even pressure.
Once I get about halfway up, I'm going to move my fingers to the top end of the ruler
so I can hold that and keep it from slipping as well.
Trim all the way to the end.
Then I'm going to take away this extra trim piece of fabric,
and now I'm going to have a nice, perfectly straight edge to start cutting the strips for my quilt.
Now that your fabric is all squared up, you're actually ready to start cutting the strips for your quilt.
But the first thing I need to do is rotate my fabric.
You've probably noticed by now that I'm a lefty,
and I need to cut my strips from the right side of the fabric so I can use my left hand.
But those of you who are right-handed are going to want to cut your strips from the left-hand side of the fabric.
I find it a little easier to have a little shorter cutting distance.
So now that my fabric's all squared and straight, I'm just going to fold it in half one more time,
and I'm going to be very careful to get it all straightened, just like I did when I first folded it,
and make sure this edge, all these fabric edges, are lined up perfectly.
Now, for whatever project you're making, you're going to want to refer to your project directions
and see how many strips you need to cut and how wide those strips need to be.
I'm working on the cat quilt, and the first strip that I'm going to cut is two and a half inches wide.
So what I'm going to do is look at my ruler, and I'm going to count in and find two and a half inches from the edge of the ruler.
So I'm going to find that mark all the way along the edge of my ruler.
I'm going to line it up with that straight edge on my fabric.
I've got two and a half inches all the way down,
and I'm keeping all those tips I had in mind for doing your accurate and simple rotary cutting when I do this.
I have my flex fingers, and I'm going to make a forward, even motion with my rotary cutter,
and I'm going to cut that first two and a half inch strip.
See how smooth and straight that is.
Now I'm going to move this out of the way just a little bit,
because now I'm going to cut some smaller pieces from this strip.
I call this subcutting.
And again, I need to be very careful that the pieces I cut are straight and square.
So the first thing I'm going to do is trim this edge off again.
When I'm working with smaller pieces, I find it handy to use a little bit smaller size ruler.
Again, I'm going to look for that horizontal line across my ruler
and use that line to line up with the straight edge across the top of the fabric.
Hold it into position and trim off that edge.
Now I've got a perfectly square edge of my strip.
Once again, I need to rotate the fabric, got it turned around,
making sure that all the pieces and all the layers are still lined up with each other.
Remember, there's four layers of fabric right here.
And now I'm going to cut a smaller piece, and I'm going to cut a two and a half inch square.
So once again, find two and a half inches from the edge of your ruler,
line it up just so, and you're going to take the horizontal line, line it up across the top,
and your two and a half inch line across the side.
Hold it in position and go ahead and make that cut.
From that, I will have cut a perfectly square two and a half inch piece.
Now I'm going to continue cutting from that strip, referring to my project directions,
to see how many pieces I need to cut and what size they need to be.
So for example, I'm just going to cut a three and a half inch piece now.
Hold it in position.
And instead of just piling all the different size pieces on top of one another,
what I like to do is organize all the different fabrics
and all the different size pieces into different piles.
That way, when it's time for me to actually start sewing,
all my pieces are going to be organized for me, ready to get started.
Now if you're feeling a little bit nervous about making your first cut,
it's a really good idea to take some practice scraps of fabric and practice your cutting,
and then you won't worry about making that first cut into your quilt fabric.
One of the basic building blocks of many quilt designs is a square made of two triangles.
And here's an example of what this looks like.
I call this a triangle set.
I have a technique for making several pairs of these all at one time that I call speedy triangles.
The first thing you do is take two fabrics that you're going to combine to make your triangle sets,
and you want to position them right sides together.
I'm actually going to draw a grid on the wrong side of the lightest fabric.
If you tried to draw your grid on this dark side, your pen lines wouldn't show up very well,
so that's why I've chosen this side.
Okay, the first thing you want to do is take, I use an extra fine point felt pen to draw my grid,
and you need your see-through ruler.
And I'm just going to eyeball my first line.
I've got a nice margin of fabric around where my grid's going to be on the fabric,
so I can place my first line about one inch from the edge of the fabric.
So just go ahead and line it up and draw your first line.
For my particular project, I need to draw a grid with three squares,
and each square is going to be one and seven-eighths inches.
So the next line I draw needs to be exactly one and seven-eighths inch from the first line.
So what I'm going to do is look on my ruler and find the one and seven-eighths inch mark all the way along,
and I'm going to line those marks up right over the top of the first line I drew.
And then the edge of my ruler would be exactly one and seven-eighths.
So if I draw a line next to the edge of my ruler, it's going to actually be a little bit large.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to just slide my ruler over so that mark is right next to the pen line,
so that when I draw my line next to the ruler, it's going to be exactly one and seven-eighths.
Now I need to draw lines that are going to be perpendicular to these lines so that I can make the shapes of my squares.
So what I need to do again is find that horizontal line along your ruler
and line it up with the line that you've marked on your fabric.
Again, I've got a nice margin of fabric, so I can draw that first line about an inch away.
Hold the ruler in position and draw that line.
Now again, I need to rotate my fabric around,
and I need to draw my next line one and seven-eighths inches away from the first line I drew.
So again, I'm going to find the horizontal line across my ruler this way and my one and seven-eighths inch mark
and line that up with the corner that I've marked with my pen already.
And then go ahead and draw that first line. Oops, it lined up just right.
Go ahead and draw that line.
I need to draw two more lines because I'm going to make three squares.
If I'm making several sets of grids for my project,
I like to do all my grids and then move on to my other steps later.
Any time that you can group light tasks together,
it's going to make you get through your project faster and more efficiently.
You also probably might be wondering why I'm using a pen.
Well, a pen is easier to see on your fabric.
Plus, these are all going to end up being cutting lines,
so you don't need to be worried that it's going to interfere with your quilt project.
Okay, the next thing you need to do is intersect the points of your squares by drawing a diagonal line.
If I laid my ruler right over those points and I drew a line,
again, it would be next to where my line actually needs to be.
So what I'm going to do is drop the tip of my pen right on that point
and butt my ruler right up next to it.
Keep going back and forth until you get that exactly where you want it to be.
Then you can go ahead and draw your line.
Okay, then I'm going to move on to my next square and intersect those points,
being very careful to be very accurate.
If you take the time to be accurate now,
your block is just going to fall into place when you start piecing it.
Okay, now I've finished drying my grid, I've intersected my points,
and I'm actually ready to take it over to the sewing machine.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to sew 1 quarter inch seams along each side of all the diagonal lines.
On my way over to the sewing machine, I'm just going to make a quick stop off of the ironing board
and press out any wrinkles.
This also helps make my fabric stay together better when I start doing my sewing.
I've just finished sewing my quarter inch seams and pressing out the puckers.
Now I'm ready to start the cutting.
What I need to do is take my see-through ruler and line it up with one of my longer pin lines.
I want to take time to make sure that I get it lined up just accurately right on the line
and then go ahead and make that first cut.
I'm actually going to cut along every single pin line that's on my grid.
Once I place my fabric on my cutting mat, I'm not going to move it.
I'm going to move my ruler and myself around this to make all my cuts.
Now that I've finished my cutting, almost like magic, out of those two pieces of fabric that I put together,
I've got a whole group of triangle sets.
You may notice some of your pieces have a little stitching across the tip of them.
What you need to do is just with a gentle tug, pull those stitches out.
You don't want to pull too hard because you don't want your triangle sets to end up being misshapen.
Now you've got a whole group of triangle sets.
The next thing we're going to do is take these over to the ironing board and press them open.
Use your iron to press open your triangle sets.
You want to press on the top side of your triangle sets to make sure they're flat and pressed all the way open.
This is also a good time to measure to make sure your triangle sets are the size you want them to be.
You might end up with triangle sets that are a little bit large.
If that's the case, you can trim them down to be the right size.
But if you end up with triangle sets that are a little misshapen or too small,
you probably need to check back and make sure you did your marking and your cutting and your sewing accurately.
Your first inclination might be to sew one block together at a time,
and that'll get the job done, but not quite as quick and easy as assembly line piecing.
Assembly line piecing is based on the same principles in assembly line.
You do one step and then repeat it for every block.
Now before I get started sewing, I want to have by my sewing machine all the pieces for my block,
and I'm going to have them piled up neatly and all organized and ready to go.
And you need to look at your piecing diagram or your piecing directions
and see which two pieces you need to sew together first.
Now my first two pieces are two triangles,
so I've got all my triangle sets organized in the position that I want to sew them together.
Now you'll notice I have a little scrap of fabric in here,
and I'm just going to sew right across this scrap of fabric,
and I'm going to sew right onto my first two pieces.
I'm going to position those two pieces together, right sides together,
and then I'm going to sew right off of that scrap onto my first two pieces.
And that way those first couple of stitches are going to be nice and secure at the end.
I'm going to move on to my next step, or actually the same two pieces for my next block,
and I'm going to butt those right up behind that first set,
and then I'm going to keep going for each block.
I'm going to sew together these same pair of fabrics,
and I'm going to keep on going until they're all done for the entire block.
Following the last set that you sew, you want to put a second scrap of fabric
and butt that up right behind that.
And now this scrap of fabric will be in position to be your lead scrap
when you start your next step.
Then go ahead and clip it.
Looks like a laundry line, doesn't it?
And now you need to press your pieces open.
You want to press on the top side of your pieces
so that when you do your pressing your pieces are flat and pressed all the way open.
You'll notice I have a towel on my ironing board.
That's because it makes such a nice, cushy surface for me to do my pressing on.
Plus it really hugs the pieces and keeps them from slipping around when I'm doing my pressing.
Then you're ready to go ahead and clip between the pieces.
Now, it wasn't that easy.
Now that I've completed my first step and pressed it,
I'm going to move on to step number two.
And what I want to do is just take the two pieces that I need to sew together for the next step
and position them correctly and then place them right sides together.
And again, I'm going to sew off that scrap piece right onto my first piece
so those stitches are nice and secure.
And make sure, take my time and get an accurate quarter inch seam.
And then I'm going to reach over and get those same two pieces for the next block,
position them right sides together,
and then just continue finishing this step for all of your blocks.
A good way to arrange your quilt blocks is to put them up on a flannel board.
I start out by just putting my blocks up in any arrangement.
Then I'm going to take a look at my blocks of my fabrics and colors and see what I think.
The first thing I notice is that all these reds are together in a row.
And I'm going to want to separate some of those.
So I'm going to switch these blocks around and see how this looks.
Then I'm also going to notice that these two are kind of similar types of prints.
They're both multicolor and they're both similar in scale.
So I'm going to want to separate these two as well.
So I'll try this one down here.
Just want to keep playing around with different arrangements until you find something that you like.
Now you also have another chance to play with color.
I'm going to add hearts and bow tie appliques to my blocks.
And a way that I can try out where I want to position those different fabrics for those appliques is to use scraps.
And what I'm going to do is use those scraps of fabric and place them on different blocks
and see where I like them.
And once I come up with an arrangement that's pleasing to me,
then I'm ready to go ahead and join the blocks together.
Once I decide on my fabrics, I can actually create my applique shapes with this simple hand applique method.
The first thing you need to do is make a template of the shape you're going to make.
I'm making a heart shape.
You need to use stiff plastic to make your template with and then just cut out your shape.
You also want to choose your fabrics that you're going to make your first heart out of
and position them right sides together.
On the wrong side of the fabric, you want to place your heart, leaving a margin of fabric all the way around.
You're going to go ahead and trace your heart shape onto the fabric.
Make sure that you put enough pressure that you can see your pen line on the fabric.
Okay, I'm going to trace all the way around.
This pen line is then actually your sewing line.
So you're going to take this over to the sewing machine and you're going to stitch right on the pen line,
just like I've done here.
Once the stitching is done, you need to clip the curves and also trim away the excess fabric.
You can do this all in one easy step by using pinking shears to do your trimming.
You want to trim all the way around your shape.
Once you've cut all the way around, your heart is going to look like this.
You need to turn it to the back side and take your scissors and cut a slit in the back, just like I've done here.
And then you're going to turn the right side of your heart shape around so the right sides are out.
Now it takes a little fussing to get this shape turned around.
And I find it real easy if you pick up a knitting needle to help kind of smooth out the edges.
But you want to be careful not to poke too hard so you don't poke a hole through your seam line.
You want to work at it for a while until you get a nice heart shape.
Then you want to press it and make it into a flat, nice heart shape.
The last thing you need to do is actually add this to your block.
I'm going to add it to my cap block.
So position it where you want it on the block, pin it in position, and then do the hand stitching all around it.
Because you have several layers of bulk of fabric, you want to turn it around to the back and clip away those extra layers.
But be careful not to clip into the heart and the front.
Doesn't that look nice?
Once you've made your quilt blocks, you want to join them together to become a quilt top.
See this border of fabric that goes around each of the blocks?
This is called the lattice, and the lattice is basically the glue that's going to hold your quilt top together.
We've already figured out an order how I want to lay my blocks, and think about what order you want to position yours in.
And you also need to have a tracking system to keep track of the order of your blocks while you're adding your lattice.
A simple suggestion I have is to just use a piece of masking tape and actually number them, so you can keep track while you're doing your sewing.
One little tip about using masking tape, however, is you make sure you don't press on the masking tape,
because that would leave a nasty residue of tape on your block.
So be very careful about that.
You also want to make sure your blocks are all about the same size.
So an easy way to compare is just to lay the blocks all on top of each other to see that they're all coming out to be about the same size.
You can also use your ruler to measure to make sure that they're the finished size that you need them to be.
If you find that your blocks aren't all coming out to be exactly the same, there are a few things you can do.
And don't worry, this is real common that it happens.
If they run a little large, the simplest thing to do is just to take your rotary cutter and ruler and just trim it down just a little bit,
being careful not to really alter the shape of your block, however.
If they're a little bit misshapen, you can also sometimes do a little trimming if you've got an area that's poking out.
If you have an area that's poking in a little bit farther, you might need to do just a little bit of re-piecing.
You might need to take a seam out and reposition that piece so your block looks fairly even.
But there are ways to go that you can take care of that, so don't be alarmed if it happens.
The next thing you need to do is actually start to sew lattice strips between your first row of blocks.
And I've pre-cut lattice strips that are the length of my quilt block.
And what I'm going to do is lay them right sides together, just lay it right on top of your quilt block.
I'm going to sew another strip of lattice to the other side, oops, right sides together, of course.
And then you're going to press it out like this and on the other side.
And you'll always want to press your seams towards your lattice and you'll have a nice, flat quilt top.
And then to finish out your row, I'm going to join the other two blocks in my row to this one.
So I'm going to line this block up with this block.
Again, if this is a little, you know, just a hair longer one direction or the other,
I'm going to center this block to this piece of lattice.
You don't want to have it flush on one end and then uneven on the other.
Center the two together and do the same thing on the other side.
And then you'll end up with your first row of blocks.
This is what your row will look like after your lattice is added to it.
This is the first row. Now you need to join the rows together.
So I've got a couple of rows that I've already made here.
And I need to sew a longer row of lattice along the bottom and the top of the row.
And then I'm going to join these two rows together.
Now, once again, here comes a little fudging.
These two rows might not be exactly the same length.
So what you need to do again is just center the two rows together.
Don't make one edge flush and then the other edge uneven.
Center them together.
The other thing you want to do is align the horizontal lines of your lattice.
So what you want to do is place the two rows right sides together.
And you're going to find that row of lattice that's between the blocks
and line those seam lines up with each other.
Take the time to make sure you get it lined up just right.
So I'm going to pin all the way across to make sure this stays in position when I start to do my sewing.
I'm going to sew my quarter inch seam.
Again, I'm going to use this nice straight edge of my lattice as my sewing guide.
And then press it open after you're done.
And you'll end up with two rows of blocks sewn together.
And you just continue sewing as many rows as you have together.
And eventually you're going to end up with the quilt top that looks something like this.
All your rows are joined.
And the last thing you need to do is just add lattice to the top and bottom of your quilt and then your sides.
Now the next thing to do to finish your quilt top is just add borders.
When you've combined a variety of different fabrics and colors in your quilt like I have in this one,
one way of unifying all these colors together is in a scrap border.
And I have a very speedy strip technique for making a scrap border.
First thing you're going to do is create a strip set that looks something like this.
And you do that by combining a variety of strips.
Now I've got a variety of these strips all spread out on my ironing board.
And I'm going to arrange them on the ironing board because it's so much easier once I come up with my arrangement.
Then I'm real close to my sewing machine and I won't lose track of that order when I sew them together.
Now you've noticed I've cut a variety of different widths of fabric too.
And some of my favorite fabrics I can highlight by making wider strips with those.
Now one tip I have for making these strips come out nice and straight and even
is changing the sewing direction with every other strip that you add.
So it's kind of hard to keep track.
You know, did I sew this direction when I added this strip or the other direction?
Keeping track of that's a little confusing.
So an easy way to keep track of it is to sew these strips together in pairs.
So what I'm going to do is combine them in pairs in the order I want them sewn,
just like I'm doing here on the ironing board.
And then I can just go over to the sewing machine and combine all these strips in pairs.
Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to sew all the sets of pairs in the same direction.
When I'm through sewing, then I'm going to have a whole set of pairs like I have laid out on the table here.
And the next thing I need to do is combine these pairs.
Now I sewed this direction when I made the pairs.
When I combine the pairs, I'm going to sew the opposite direction.
And that way I'll have achieved that every other direction for every other strip.
Once I have all these pairs sewn together,
then I'm going to end up with this big giant strip set like I've got here.
Now from this strip set, I'm going to subcut smaller strips to actually make my border.
So I'm going to move these out of the way.
I'm going to lay this out.
I'm going to get ready to cut my strips.
But before I cut my first strip, just like I did when I was doing my cutting earlier,
I need to straighten the edge so that I know my strips are nice and straight.
So again, I'm going to find one of those horizontal lines on my ruler.
And about midway on my strip set,
I'm going to line this horizontal line up with one of my seam lines.
Got it all lined up.
Hold it in position.
My flex fingers.
And then go ahead and make that cut.
And now you'll have a perfectly straight edge to cut your first strips from.
Now again, I need to rotate this around,
because remember I'm a lefty.
I need to cut from this side of my strips.
And my border is going to finish two inches,
so I need to cut my strips two and a half inches.
So I'll find two and a half inches on my ruler,
line it up,
careful that I'm accurate,
then go ahead and hold it and make that cut.
Now you're going to need to cut several of those,
so they're going to make it all the way around your quilt.
You're also going to need to combine a couple sets of these,
so that your border is going to be long enough to go all the way around your quilt.
So let's pull my quilt in here.
And what I need to do is just sew them all the way around the quilt,
and see how much color and excitement that's going to add to my quilt top.
One way to speed up finishing your quilt is to avoid
marking all your quilting lines with a pencil.
And I have two shortcuts to get around that.
One is to use this quarter-inch quilters masking tape.
And what you can do is just line up this tape
right along the outside edges of your design.
And you're going to mark pretty far around your design,
and then you're going to use these outside lines of your masking tape
as your quilting guide.
Just be sure not to leave these overnight, however,
because it might leave some tape residue on your quilt.
The other idea is even quicker and easier,
and you just do your quilting right in the ditch
or the seam line of your design.
It's quick and easy, and there's no marking.
It's quick and easy, and there's no marking.
Now that I've attached my borders,
it's time to turn my quilt top into a quilt.
And I do this by layering and basting.
For layering, I need a quilt top, batting, and backing fabric.
And this is my last chance to give a good pressing to my quilt top
as well as my backing fabric.
Now I want to layer these three pieces together like in a sandwich,
and I want to keep them smooth.
So one way I make sure I keep my backing smooth
is by attaching little pieces of masking tape
here and there around my backing fabric.
That will help hold it in position.
And then I want to position my quilt top
so there's about a 3 to 4 inch margin of batting and backing
all the way around it.
This will ensure if there's any shifting while I'm doing my basting
that I'll still have plenty of fabric to go beyond the edges of my quilt top.
Now I'm ready to actually start the basting.
And one way to keep the basting process moving is to thread ahead.
And I like to have several darning needles all threaded up
so as I move quickly through my basting,
I can just keep picking up needles as I go.
One way I find it easy to organize my basting is to divide it into quadrants.
So I'm going to do a row of stitching this direction,
this direction, this direction, and this direction.
You always want to do your basting stitch
working from the center to the outside edge of your quilt
to make sure it keeps smooth and flat.
Then I'm going to work in one quadrant at a time.
It's just easier than you're not shifting all the way around your quilt all the time.
And I like to do my basting in a grid pattern,
and I space the grid about three to four inches apart.
Lastly, I like to do a row of basting
all the way around the outside edge of my quilt top.
I have to admit basting isn't the most exciting part of the quilting process.
And one way I have of making it go a little faster
is by having a stack of videos on hand.
Then I can watch videos while I finish my basting,
and it can go a lot faster for me.
Now that your quilt is thoroughly basted,
it's time for you to go ahead and add the binding strips.
But before we add those strips,
you want to trim the excess backing and batting
that hung beyond the quilt top back to a quarter of an inch.
And this is so that when you attach your binding,
there's a little bit of fill inside the binding.
Now what I'm going to show you is a shortcut technique
so that you don't need to miter your corners.
One other thing you want to keep in mind
that it's okay to go ahead and add your binding strips
with a small size quilt like this one.
If you're working with a bed size or a larger quilt than this,
you're going to want to do your hand quilting
before you add your binding.
But it gives a nice finished look to your project
while you're actually working on it if you add your binding now.
Now what I need to do, first of all,
is I'm going to cut 2-3 quarter inch strips
for the size binding I'm going to do.
And then you need to fold those strips in half
with the wrong sides together and then press it.
And then I'm going to line it up,
I'm going to find the edge of my quilt top,
and I'm going to line up the raw edge of my binding strip
along with the raw edge of my quilt top.
If there's a selvedge on the edge of your strip,
make sure it hangs over the top of it
because you don't want that into your binding.
Then you're going to line it up perfectly,
those raw edges together,
and then once you get it in place,
you're going to pin it in position
very thoroughly all the way down your strip,
and you're going to take it over to your machine
and you're going to sew it
through all the layers of the quilt top.
After I attach my binding to my quilt,
then I need to bring it around to my ironing board
and press it.
I want to press out towards my seam allowance,
and I want to press on the top of my quilt,
so I make sure I get that seam pressed nice and flat and smooth.
Now you might have a little bit of your binding overhanging the edge,
and what you want to do is just use your rotary cutter
and trim off any excess that you might find like that.
Then what we need to do is turn the binding around
to the back of the quilt.
So what I'm going to do is turn this around.
Now you can see this is the back side of the quilt.
Right here is a raw edge of the binding,
and here's a folded edge.
So it's important that you turn this binding in first.
So I'm going to try and fold it in,
fold it in here.
I'm going to pin it into position
on both sides,
and then I'm going to work my way to the corner.
Now I'm having a little bit of a problem folding that corner in,
so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my scissors
and trim away a little bit of that extra bulk.
Then it'll make it easier for me to fold that in
and get a nice, smooth corner.
Once I get it folded in,
then I'm going to pin it in position,
and then I'm ready to do my hand stitching.
So I like to use actually a quilting needle
to do my hand stitching
because it's such a nice, fine needle.
And what I'm going to do is hide the knot behind the binding,
and then I'm going to take my first stitch
right into the layers of the quilt,
right next to my binding.
And I'm going to come up and grab just a little bit of the binding
and then go right back in,
and I'm going to go all the way around my binding
and hand stitch and close it all up.
And then also, I'm going to find my way
and stitch down all around the corners
of the binding as well.
And then your binding is all complete,
and you can end up with a nice,
finished, smooth half-inch binding.
Pen Stitch applique is a no-sew applique technique
that I developed.
It's one of my favorite techniques
because it's quick and easy and so much fun to do.
I'm going to demonstrate this technique to you
on one of my projects that I call Countryside Sampler.
You just need a few materials to do this technique.
You need applique film, scissors,
an extra fine-point felt pen, pencil, and a pattern.
Now, the first thing you need to do
is trace your shapes on the applique film.
And for this particular technique,
I like to use a heavyweight, no-sew applique film.
And all I need to do is line my applique film
up over on top of my design
and use a pencil to trace the shapes.
Now, you need to trace each shape in your design separately.
So I'm working on my apple design here,
so I'm tracing an apple,
and then I'm going to trace a leaf shape as well.
So the next thing I need to trace
is my leaf shape and my stem,
being careful to follow all the lines.
Once you've got all the pieces of your design traced,
then you can go ahead and cut around these designs.
Now, you're not actually going to cut on your tracing lines.
You're just going to loosely cut around your shape,
leaving a little margin of film all the way around your shape.
Now I need to match up my applique shapes with some fabric.
That's the really fun thing about this technique,
because normally all these scraps of fabrics
that I would have thrown away,
I get to actually use in my project.
I'm going to take my selected scrap fabrics
and my pattern pieces,
and I'm going to fuse these to the wrong sides of the fabric.
So I want to turn them over,
and I'm going to position this on the fabrics
that I want them fused onto,
and then I'm going to fuse them with my iron.
But I want to make sure I've checked my manufacturer's instructions
so I know at what setting to set the iron
and then how long to fuse it.
And then I'm going to come straight down on the design
and actually fuse it into place.
I'm going to count for a couple seconds
to make sure I've fused it for the right amount of time,
and then lift up.
Now you can see it's fused to your fabric,
and you're ready to follow that tracing line with your scissors
and cut out your shape.
And after you've cut them out,
you're going to end up with shapes that look like this.
On the back side, there's going to be that paper film,
and what you're going to do is peel that away.
And what's going to be left is this fusing film
on the back side of your fabric piece.
Now you're ready to take these pieces
over to whatever you want to fuse them to.
In this case, I'm making this sampler,
and I'm going to lay my pieces in position.
Now, as you can see, my fingers are just a little bit clumsy,
so what I'm going to do is use a straight pen
to help position my pieces in place.
Once I get everything in position,
then I can take my iron
and then come straight down
and fuse that into place.
And now your shape is fused in place.
And now I can go ahead
and add all the rest of my designs to my background piece.
This is what your project will look like
once all your pieces are fused in place.
A tip I have for you to keep all these pieces organized
when you're working on them is to use a muffin tin,
and you can separate all the little pieces
of all your different designs.
Now, the last thing you need to do
is actually mark your pen stitch,
and you want to use an extra fine point
permanent felt pen to do this.
And I'm actually going to draw a stitching line
right on my fabric,
and I'm going to draw it just like a running stitch.
This takes a fraction of the time that hand stitching does
and is a great finishing touch to your project.
Now that you know how quick and easy
pen stitch applique is,
you can apply this technique
to all kinds of different projects,
and I've got some ideas for you.
You can make wall banners,
or you can make Christmas stockings.
These are so easy, you can make one every year.
Also, great ideas to make ornaments.
You can make a whole group of these for a gift.
Another idea is you can wrap packages in brown paper
and then just applique your design to the package.
Another fun idea is to applique designs to paper bags
and make them specialized gift bags.
You can also pick up these little wooden boxes,
paint them, and fuse a cute little design to them.
And a really neat idea that I especially like
is to make your own personalized cards.
You can fuse your designs to paper
just like you would your fabric.
You can also make fabric gift bags,
and as well, you can also use this technique
on sweatshirts.
I bet you can't wait to get started
on your first applique project.
I've been making and designing quilts
for over 10 years,
and I know how much joy quilt making has brought to me.
And no matter how busy my life gets,
I'll always make time for quilts,
and I hope I've given you lots of ideas
on ways to be creative
and have fun with your quilt making projects.
And remember that dishes will always wait
have fun and go make a quilt.
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