Mixed Lollies Quilt Sew Along
Week 4
Welcome to Week 4, the final Week of the Mixed Lollies Quilt Sew Along.
It's time to get these quilt tops pieced!
If you have just joined the SAL, thanks for joining us.
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Don’t forget to post a pic of your Mixed Lollies quilt progress to IG and be sure to the use the #mixedlolliesSAL and #mixedlolliesquilt hashtags to make it easier for me and others to find your photos.
Now let's get these quilt tops together.
The Mixed Lollies quilt is sewn together in rows, so first up is to finalise the layout.
I don't have a big enough design wall or table so it's the floor for me. My Mum often uses her spare bed (wish I had one of those) which is also a great option.
Lay out your blocks starting with the top row, using the pattern cover as a guide. Pay attention to the direction of the background blocks. There is a pattern and once you get the hang of it, the blocks get placed quite quickly.
Once the layout has been decided it's time to piece the blocks together.
I like to stack them from left to right and while I'm waiting to sew them, I keep them pinned using these nifty little cards attached with a safety pin.
My lovely friend Ros made them for me and I use them over and over.
Remember to press the seams as instructed in the pattern, this a such a great help when trying to match points. Nesting seams is my favourite.
When sewing the rows together I find it best to have a pinning party first.
Start by sewing all the rows of Nine Patches to a row of background blocks. You will have one row of Nine Patches left over.
I find that doing a session of pinning first, makes it come together more quickly. Pin, then sew and press. Repeat.
Keep sewing these finished rows together in pairs, it's much easier to sew two halves of a quilt top together rather than a row on the end.
Quilt Top completed, well done!
QUILTING
I have quilted my Mixed Lollies quilts in a couple of different ways. The first quilt I made was stitched with a combination of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
This was done by following the seams through the Nine Patches and filling in the gaps in between. The lines can be pre-marked with a Hera Marker (more about that later) however because the gaps weren't too big I just eyed it in.
For my vintage inspired version I decided I wanted to keep it simple with horizontal lines.
These are one inched spaced lines of stitching goodness and it is also one of my all time favourite quilting methods.
My Liberty Mixed Lollies quilt was quilted with diagonal cross hatching. I used Aurifil 40wt in one of my favourite colours Dove, 2600. This is a great colour especially when your have a grey background colour as it doesn't show up too much on the lighter fabrics.
With my 4th Meadow Star version I think I am going to do wavy lines using a walking foot. These are done pretty loosely and to be honest it's fun not having to be so accurate. Straight lines can be intense so this is so much more relaxing!
Jeni Baker has a great YouTube video about this technique if you're interested.
How To Quilt Wavy Lines With a Walking Foot
Check out the next photo of my Round Trip quilt using this technique and tell me you don't love it!
The final and fifth version is for my Nephew's Birthday later in the year. I haven't decided what I am going to do on this one just yet, but I do have a gingham for the reverse so I might go with diagonal cross hatching. This will stop me worrying about the quilting not lining up with the gingham.
DOMESTIC MACHINE QUILTING
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
As this is the last newsletter, I thought I might talk a little about quilting. I love to use straight lines in all my quilts and I have discovered a few things that might help you too!
Firstly, what you'll need:
Walking Foot for your machine - you may have to purchase this separately as most machines don't come with one, unless you’re a lucky duck and have bought a quilting edition - sometimes they include these as part of the package.
A walking food basically does the same thing as the feed dogs on your machine, except from above. It helps to feed the three layers of your quilt through evenly so that the fabric doesn’t bunch up.
40wt Thread - now this is just what I like to quilt with, so if you prefer something else, go for it! I like it because it's a little stronger and it also makes the quilting a bit more of a feature. I like to use Aurifil Thread, 100% cotton.
Basting Spray and/or Safety Pins for basting - I like to use both. I don't have a large sewing table to work on so all the help I can get, I take!
The safety pins are stainless steel, size 2. There are some fancy curved pins on the market which are great too. The basting spray is called 505 Temporary Adhesive. I like this brand as it has hardly any smell and stays stuck!
Hera Marker - A Hera marker is an awesome piece of plastic that allows you to mark your quilt without using a pencil/washout marker. The Hera marker places a fold in the fabric when your quilt top is basted that stays for a good amount of time. I love it because there is no need to wash out line markings afterwards. Just use your quilting ruler to get
lovely straight lines.
BASTING
The first thing you’ll need to do is baste your quilt. Once you have pieced your backing, lay it down with the right side to the floor. Some people baste on their kitchen table, some on the wall and others on their dining room table or lounge room floor. It’s totally up to you!
I lay my quilt backing on my lounge room floor and tape down the edges to keep the backing taut. Then I layer the batting on top and baste it to the backing using the basting spray. Next, I layer the quilt top, right side up and baste it to the batting and backing.
Finally, I plonk myself down in the middle of the quilt and start pinning from the centre out, every 3 inches of so!
Imagine this photo below with evenly spaced safety pins instead of a 5 year old child although he is very good at keeping them flat and together.
QUILTING
After you’ve basted your quilt, you need to do is increase the stitch length on your machine. I usually sew using a 2.2 length and then up it to 2.8 when quilting. My machine is a Bernina, so check yours as every machine is different.
One of my favourite ways to quilt is with either vertical or horizontal lines using a walking foot. If you don't mind I thought I will still share this information from my previous Balderdash sew along.
The Balderdash quilt above has been quilted with ¾" spaced lines.
The best way to explain how I do this is with a diagram.
My approach for this quilt was to begin in the middle of the quilt. I quilted the first red line (marked with 1 on the diagram) and then continued sewing the rest of the red lines to the right hand side of the quilt.
Then I went back and quilted all of the yellow lines in between the red lines. Once all the yellow lines were done I went back and did the blue lines.
Then I went back again and did the green lines.
The idea is that the red lines anchor the quilt. Then you go back and fill in the gaps. If you tried to do the ¾" quilting from the first row, your quilt would end up distorted and no-one wants that!
Just remember, after you’ve completed all the red lines, you need to flip the quilt around, so you’re quilting from the other side and working from the middle to the right, before you go back and do the yellow, blue and green lines.
To get the quilt into position to feed through the sewing machine you need to roll it up. It makes it must easier to handle and to fit through the throat of your sewing machine. See the pictures below.
Please note the space at the end of the table, this allows the quilt to hang off the end as it passes through rather than getting bunched up.
If you want to tackle the ¼" lines like I did in my first quilt This is done in the same way as the previous quilt.
Start with your anchor lines of quilting and then go back and slowly fill in the gaps.
Please note that my lines are not perfect, they never are. I wobble and move around with the best of them, but the wonderful thing about this style of quilting is it doesn't matter. Once it’s all done you notice the effect - not how straight the lines are.
If you’re not comfortable quilting using just the force, that's where the fabulous Hera Marker comes in handy. This white piece of plastic creates a fold or indentation on the fabric that lasts for ages.
Using your quilting ruler to keep the lines straight, run the Hera Marker along the fabric pushing down firmly. You’ll see that it leaves an indentation on your quilt which you can use as your guide for when you’re quilting. I used it in the quilt below.
Just note, I did all the anchor lines first so I could then remove the pins. It makes it much easier to place a ruler on the quilt once the pins are gone. I also mark up with the Hera Marker on the floor. It's a bit hard on the back but unless you have a large table (I don't) the floor is the best option.
So that's it for the Mixed Lollies sew along.
I love hosting sew alongs and sharing my knowledge with you all.
How good is this little community we have created!
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