Dilys The Quilt: BLOG 145

I have taken my granddaughter’s scrap quilt onto the next stage this week. I believe … and hope … that I have constructed all the blocks that I need to cover the top of her bed. I need to make a decision on the arrangement of the blocks and I find that the best way to do this is to try different arrangements on a design wall and then to take a picture. When seen through the lens of a camera, I can get a much better impression of the finished quilt because the picture lends distance to the overall effect of the design.

Here are the 4 arrangements that I particularly liked. (Observation: there should be no colours at the same level throughout the design for ease of construction so this pic illustrates that there has been an error in construction in the centre of the 3^rd row!)

Arrangement 1

Arrangement 2

Arrangement 3

Arrangement 4

Visual choices are always very personal and all of these arrangements would work well. Personally, I like Arrangement 4 best of all because I like to see lines of pattern running down the length of a bed rather than across it. Choice made!

I now need to sew the blocks together to make lines. Again I must point out that I haven’t done any ironing on these blocks; I will do that when I start to join the vertical lines together, to make it easier for me to feed the blocks under the machine foot.

My main concern at this stage is not to put two of the same fabrics side by side as I join the vertical rows. Once they are joined together, I take them to my ironing board and steam press all the seams in the same direction (I’m a butter-upper of seams not an opener!). I work out which row will be underneath, lying on the plate of the sewing machine, and press those seams down from top to bottom. This will ensure that they lie with the direction that I am sewing. (I steam press by plonking my iron onto the seams rather than dragging. This way, the strips don’t stretch.)

Steam pressing

I steam press the row that will go on top in the opposite direction. The raw edges of the seam will go towards the needle as I sew and I can adjust them. I pin about 4 times down the length of the strip just to hold the edges together; all the rest of the work is done as I sew. I butt up each seam as I go, feeling when it is lying flat with the forefinger of my left hand. With my right hand I hold a large pin and, after I have butted up each seam, I stick the point into the fabrics so that they won’t move as I sew. I remove the pin when the machine needle is over the top. I check a section from the right side as I go and the process works remarkably well!