Friday, November 20, 2009

It's A Wrap . . . . .

I finished my "He Knows When You Are Sleeping", aka Red Snowball Challenge, quilt top today! I could not be happier with the end result, plus the piecing was a breeze. Thanks Nicole and Allyson, I would never have made the quilt if it weren't for your challenge.

It's a rainy day here today so I could not get enough light to get a good picture of the finished product, so instead I'm sharing a couple of techniques I used to assemble the quilt.

First, I arranged all my blocks on my design wall, to get the best placement and to avoid duplicate fabrics being side by side. But when I started sewing the rows, unless I worked with two blocks at a time, I was all the time mixing up my perfect placement.

Since my quilt had 8 blocks per row, making 4 sets of 2 blocks, I numbered the heads of these pins to keep track of their order. (I just used a permanent marker) So working on a row at a time, I would mark the blocks of the two block sets 1 through 4. Once the singles were sewn together, it was easy to keep track of which sides should be sewn together next.

Here's number 1.

Here's another little tip for piecing your border strips, "stay out of the crotch".

If you think of these two strips of fabric as legs of pants,

it's easy to remember not to draw your line the wrong direction if you think, "stay out of the crotch".
See how this line stays out of the "danger zone".

When I go to sew the pieces, I line my needle up right on the drawn line, then hit the needle over button on my machine one time. The stitches run right down the side of the drawn line.
Easy Peasy.

I hope these little tips help you the next time you're assembling your quilt top.

Hopefully the sun will shine soon and I'll be able to share pictures of my top. It probably won't be quilted in time for the holidays this year but it will be ready for next year. After reading all the Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop posts today with all their Christmas quilts, I've decided for sure, "I need more Christmas quilts" !

8 comments:

  1. Boy..you are fast!!!! You pieced this quilt top in record time...and already hit the blog hop?!? Thank you for all your pointers. I especially like the "stay out of the crotch" suggestion. I always have to think twice before sewing those strips. I don't think I have that "needle over" button on my machine. I can't wait to see the pictures of your top. I do not have ONE Christmas quilt although I like to buy Christmas fabric. One day...

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  2. Wow, you are fast. Can't wait to see it. I hope to get my side pieces and at least some blocks done over the weekend.

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  3. I am very impressed that you got that challenge done so quickly. I am still in the finding light fabric mode. Lizzie

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  4. Speedy! I can't wait to see it. You have such a good eye for colour balance. It will be fantastic!

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  5. I bow down to you, Thelma. You are a quilting queen for sure! Congratulations on finishing your snowball top. Can't wait to see it!

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  6. Finished already???? I just received my last swap package in the mail yesterday! What are you backing it with?

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  7. Can't wait to see your quilt. And thanks for that crotch tip. I think that will help me not ever stitch strips the wrong way again.

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  8. I can't wait to see your blocks all together. I love your "stay out of the crotch" tip - very clever!!!

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