Hand piecing Curves

 

Want to take some of the stress out of curved piecing?  Try hand piecing them!   (And, yes, I really do understand that for some quilters, hand piecing is in itself stressful but I'd encourage you to give it a try!)

To get started, mark your stitching line on the wrong side of the concave piece - in my example it is the background fabric.   (Updated to add) You can get a pdf file of the curve templates I used including one to mark stitching lines here.

Fold the convex piece in half, right sides together, and mark center of curve.  Fold the concave piece in half, wrong sides together to mark its center.

Align the marked centers and place a pin.  I like to use short pins designed for applique.  Then align the edge of the concave unit to the edge of the convex unit, right sides together.  Use a pin (or pins) to make sure that right edge stays aligned.  Only align the edge on the right.

Begin your stitching 1/4'' from the edge (see running stitch tutorial).  Once you've made several stitches remove the pins on the right edge.

Curves have stretch and your goal as you stitch is to hold the seams aligned - I hold the fabric between my thumb and pointer finger.  Keep stitching to the center pin and back-stitch as you reach it.

Align the left edge of the concave unit, securing with a least one pin.  Remove center pin and stitch towards the edge, stopping 1/4'' away and securing your thread.

Open your curved block, laying right sides down to finger press towards the concave unit.

Enjoy your beautiful block and make another and another....   I hope you'll give hand piecing curves a try!

Read more about my favorite tools for hand piecing here.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

HRT logistics

(Click here for One Monthly Goal October link-up!)

My goal for October is quilt my HRT quilt, made with 720 HRTs of fabric all by Moda Sweetwater.

Typically, I baste a quilt on my kitchen table and use large binder clips to hold things flat.  This works fine for quilts that measure smaller than the length of my table (~ 60").   While I've had occasional success with quilts larger than 60" - including the one pictured below - it can be a real struggle.

My first attempt at basting my HRT quilt on my kitchen table did not go well.  And all the pins had to be removed when I discovered areas where the backing fabric had large wrinkles or gaps on the edges.

So I moved the quilt to the floor.  Since my son is away at school, I could spread the layers out on the floor of his room and not rush myself through the basting process.  The backing fabric was taped down using painters tape and the batting and quilt floated on top.

With the basting done, I've started FMQing.  My plan is to tackle the quilt by working on a small area at a time with the goal of avoiding needing to tie off thread by using something less than a bobbins worth of thread for each section.

Given each HRT measures 2" across, I am quilting a strip down the quilt which is three (3) HRTs wide aka 6''.  This means I will be moving the quilt through the machine 12 times (which seems like a lot!) but it minimizes the side to side movement which usually causes thread breaks.

I've been making great progress this week, just doing a section at a time with a simple meander.  You can see a bit of the quilting on the back.  I was lucky enough to find 4 yards of  a Sweetwater print I forgot I had in my stash and with a little bit more fabric (that fun house print) pieced together the back.

I'll be linking up at Brag about Your Beauties,  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bag It Featured Designer - By Annie

I'm very excited to introduce you to today's designer and sponsor, Annie Unrein of Patterns by Annie and ByAnnie.com.   You may already used ByAnnie's Soft and Stable product to add great stability to your bags.

Annie has been designing and teaching since 2000.  Her quilts and designs have been published in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Quilt, Quilter's Newsletter, and Memory Makers magazines.  Annie is the creator of ByAnnie's Soft and Stable®, an innovative product she designed to add body, stability and a professional finish to purses, bags, home dec items and more.

With a focus on practical and useful projects, Annie's patterns appeal to sewists of all ages and levels and serve as a great base for classes.

Annie's goal is to write patterns that are easy to understand with complete instructions to guide you every step of the way.  A popular Craftsy instructor, Bernina Ambassador, and offical Superior Threads Educator, Annie has a broad range of information to share from using the proper supplies and equipment to easy techniques that give professional results.

Find Annie's patterns, tutorials, and products at her website www.ByAnnie.com and connect with her on Facebook  and on Instagram.

Earlier this year, Annie was a guest on Abbey Glassenberg While She Naps podcast and she discussed how she designed and brought Soft and Stable to market.  It's a great interview.

Annie has donated $25 gift certificates for two (2) lucky participants.

I made my Get Out of Town Duffel bag over several days and really appreciated the paper tabs to mark each of my pieces.  Instructions are easy to follow and there are helpful videos on Annie's site to get you through some of the trickier steps.

I've taken my duffel bag on two trips so far and have been thrilled on the amount of clothing and stuff I can fit inside.

These ducks, however, not so thrilled with my photo shoot.  They made their annoyance heard.

The fabric I used for the outside of my bag was Moda Sweetwater Elementary.

Thanks Annie for supporting the Elm Street Quilts Bag It 2017 event!

See overall schedule and links to all tutorials on the Bag It event page 

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Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bag It - Basic Zip Bag Variations

When I want to make a small gift for a friend, my go-to is a zipped bag.  These bags are fun to make and give you the opportunity to use some pretty fabric.  You can make them in all different sizes - with or without boxed corners.

My basic tutorial for making a zip bag can be found here .   For the bags shared in today's post, I just changed the dimensions and started with fabric cut 9 x 7''.  Corners were boxed at 1 ½ '' using this tutorial.

For my second bag, I wanted it to be extra special and useful so I added a pocket made from mesh for inside the bag.

I cut the mesh slightly bigger than I wanted the pocket to be and then trimmed it down later.  Here is how I added the inside pocket.

1. To top edge of mesh, sew a 1 ½  '' strip of fabric, folded in half, WST.
2. Fold strip back over the top of the mesh - as you would a binding - and stitch
3. Positioned the pocket 1 ½ '' from the top of the lining and pin.  To finish off the bottom of the pocket, place a strip of lining fabric (2'' by width of the pocket) right side down aligning with the bottom of the pocket.  Sew.
4. Flip the strip of lining fabric down and then stitch the side seams 1/8'' from edge.

I wanted my bag to open as wide as possible so I followed Noddlehead's tutorial for zipper installation part for the Open Wide Zipper Pouch and used a 14'' zipper.

Both of these bags were made exactly the same way except for the zipper installation.  The benefits to the zipper hanging outside the bag?  The bag really opens wide.

See the difference?  Remember these start from the same 9 x 7 panels and are both boxed the same.  The dark blue even fits inside the light blue!

I won't scare you with the count down for the holidays but it is coming fast.  Perhaps some zipped bags are in your future too?  Fill them with gift cards, candy or maybe some sewing supplies!

See overall schedule and links to all tutorials on the Bag It event page 

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Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bag It - Mesh Travel Bag Tutorial

Isn't this a fun little bag?  I made mine to coordinate with my other travel bags

And this bag has so many uses beyond travel - use it to corral those quilting hexies!

Supplies

(Note - I purchased my mesh from byAnnie,  the magnetic snaps from Bagmaker Supply, and the zippers from ZipIt.)

(note - this post was updated to include a corrected table of pieces required and measurements.  Sorry about the confusion the old table caused!)

Fabric Preparation

Following manufacturer's directions, iron two sheets of fusible fleece to wrong side of main fabric front.  Lay this unit on top of the wrong side of main unit back to create a quilt sandwich.

Mark the half way point and sew a straight line across unit.

Quilt lightly.  My bag was straight line quilted with the walking foot 1 ½ '' apart.   Sew a line of stitches around all four sides to secure edges.  Trim off any rough edges if necessary.  

Once trimmed, measure from top edge to line sewn at halfway point and make note of measurement. This will be the measurement we will use for the mesh pocket.

Magnetic Snap Installation

Following manufacturer's directions, iron fusible fleece onto wrong side of tab fabric.   Iron a 2'' fusible fleece square in the center of unit.  Following tutorial for magnetic snap installation, place one snap in the center of tab unit.  Repeat for steps for second fabric tab.

Note: Magnetic snap can be installed after tab unit are mesh units are attached to zipper.

Mesh Preparation

Finger press binding fabric for mesh in half, wrong sides together.  Lay mesh edge on top, aligned with raw edges of binding.  Sew.

Wrap binding around raw edges and top stitch.

Repeat for second mesh piece.









Zipper Installation

Sandwich zipper between lining and tab unit along top edge of zipper tape.  Zipper pull tab should be off the left and zipper should over hang each side of tab unit by at least an inch.

Sew across.  Lay flat and top stitch.

Lay zipper right side up and place mesh on top of zipper tape along the binding.  Sew across to secure.

Assembly

Measuring from top of tab to mesh and cut unit so that it matches the mesh pocket measurement calculated in earlier step.

Lay pocket unit on top of main unit, aligning top edges.  Mesh and zipper ends will hang off of each side.   Secure top edge with binding clips.

Move zipper tab to center of zipper.

Sew across top of pocket at a seam less than ¼''.  Sew down right side of pocket starting at top edge. Repeat on left edge.    Trim off excess zipper.

Turn unit and repeat for second pocket.

Fold under edges of accent tab to center on wrong side and press.   Lay accent tab across the center line stitched earlier.  It will cover bottom edges of both pockets.  Top stitch across on each edge.

Finish

Adhere binding around mesh bag as you would a quilt.  Once sewn, fold towards back and secure by hand or machine.   The finished bag is 9 x 6 1/2 '' when folded.

Fill with whatever you need to carry!

See overall schedule and links to all tutorials on the Bag It event page  

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Bag It Participant Guidelines

I'll be linking up my tutorial with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bag It - Project Bag Tutorial

(Click here for One Monthly Goal October finish link-up)

I just love this Project Bag.  It keeps all my hand-sewing projects neatly contained and the vinyl keeps everything visible.  I've made several of these in all different styles - many using scraps left-over from other projects.

This tutorial is for the basic bag (the one shown in the very first photo.)  Enjoy!

Supplies

	# pieces	Dimensions (height x width)
Primary fabric	2	9 x 10 ½ ‘’ (one for front and one for back)
Binding for zipper	2	2 x 11’’
Zipper	1	At least 14’’
Vinyl	1	10 x 11 ‘’
Fusible fleece	1	9 x 10 ½ ‘’
Binding	1	2” x WOF

Fabric Preparation

Following manufacturers directions, iron fusible fleece to wrong side of main front fabric.  Lay this unit on top of the wrong side of the main back fabric.  Make a quilt sandwich and quilt lightly.  For my sample, I used my walking foot and quilted lines every 1 ½''.

Vinyl Preparation 

Finger press binding for vinyl in half, wrong sides together.  Lay across top of vinyl.  Sew across with vinyl layer on bottom.  (Keep the tissue paper under vinyl just outside of stitching area to make it easier to sew with.)

Wrap binding completely around vinyl edge and top stitch.

Zipper Installation

Finger press zipper binding in half, wrong sides together.  Lay across top of zipper, right side of zipper facing up, aligning raw edges of binding with edge of zipper .  The binding should be centered on the zipper and the zipper tab should be off to the left.  Sew.   Once sewn, fold binding up and top stitch.

Place binding edge of vinyl unit on top of zipper, right side up.  Sew.

Assembly

Lay zipper and vinyl unit on top of main unit, right side facing up.  Align top edge and secure with binding clips.

Move zipper tab to center.

Sew a seam across the top at something smaller than ¼''.  Sew from along right edge, starting at top, across zipper and taking just a few stitches in plastic.  Repeat on left edge.

Finish

Trim off extra zipper on both sides of zipper vinyl unit so that it is flush with main unit.

Carefully trim vinyl on each side so that it overlaps the edge of main unit by about ¼''.  (Vinyl can shift during sewing so we will retain a bit of excess at this step.)  Likewise, trim bottom edge of vinyl.

Apply binding to unit starting at the top as you would a quilt..  Align with edge of main unit and NOT the vinyl.   Once the binding is attached, trim excess vinyl with scissors.

Flip binding over to back of unit and secure by hand or machine.



Variations

You can vary the size of your project bag to whatever dimensions you would like.  Make sure you choose a zipper that is longer than the width of your piece by about 3 '' so that the zipper tab can hang off the edge during construction.

You can enclose the zipper inside a wider casing as in the two samples below.  In these examples, fabric tabs were added to either side of the zipper before installing.  Sandwich the zipper between the quilted casing and a lining piece of fabric.

Consider adding a handle or a loop to your project bag.

See overall schedule and links to all tutorials on the Bag It event page  

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Bag It Participant Guidelines

I'll be linking up my tutorial with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bag It - Project Basket Tutorial

The Project Basket is fun and quick to assemble and gives you the chance to showcase some favorite fabric and get yourself organized at the same time!

You can make your Project Basket any size you want - just adjust the tutorial to fit your needs.

Supplies

	# pieces	Dimensions (height x width)
Primary fabric	1	16 x 12’’
Lining fabric	1	16 x 12’’
Fusible fleece or Soft and Stable	1	16 x 12 ‘’

Fabric Preparation

Following manufacturer's directions, iron 2 layers of fusible fleece to the wrong side of primary fabric which will be the outside of your basket.

Mark a line 3 ¼ '' from each side on both the primary fabric and the lining fabric.  (This is the height you want your basket to be.)

On both the lining piece and the main piece, sew on the marked lines.

Trim away a square at each corner by cutting roughly ¼ '' from each cut line.

Assembly

On the main piece, fold up each corner, aligning the sewn line.  Sew all four side seams, right side together.  Turn basket so that it is right side out.

Repeat for the lining piece.  

Turn lining piece so that it is wrong side out.

Nest main piece inside lining piece, right sides together.   Clip together along the top edge using binding clips.

Sew around top, leaving about a gap of 3'' for turning.   

Turn bag inside out through the gap.  Take your time with this step to make sure you don't tear any stitches.  Once turned, the open edge can be closed by hand or closed in the final top stitching step.

Use binding clips to secure and top stitch all the way around.   


Variations

If using directional fabric, cut two pieces, each at 16 x 6 ½ '', and seam them together.  Press seam open.

Easily change the dimensions of your basket.  Find a basket or box that best matches the size you want to recreate in fabric and measure the length, width and height.

• The width of your new fabric piece will be:  height + width + height + ½''.   
• The length of your new fabric piece will be: height + length + height  + ½''.
• Your lines will be marked at height + ¼''

What will you store inside your FQ basket?

See overall schedule and links to all tutorials on the Bag It event page  

Claim your Bag It Entry

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Bag It Participant Guidelines

I'll be linking up my tutorial with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday and to Tips & Tutorials.

Have a wonderful day! Patty