Class 130

There are two different quilts in Class 130...actually, they aren't really different, but the way that you do them is different.

In the first one, Harriet's Woodland Winter Quilt, you cut the squares to match the Rail Fence blocks. In the second one, Carrie's Cowboy Corral Quilt, you cut the squares and then figure out how big you need to make the Rail Fence blocks.

I don't have a lot of focus fabric that I can fussy cut, so I'm vacillating on whether to actually do the quilt.

I did find some fabric that I could use, but I only have a fat quarter with nine useable fussy cut squares.

I figured that I would have to cut my strips 1 7/8" to make a Rail Fence block to fit around this block, but with only nine of them, I can't make a section of the quilt.  I could only use five of them.

That would make a really small quilt, but I think that would be okay with me.  I don't really need to do the same quilt again.  I think the point of the exercise is to figure out how to size the Rail Fence blocks.

I could make it into a small table topper.

I think that's what I'll do.

It Works!

Oh my gosh, it really works!

I just finished working through the first six lessons and completed the sampler quilt blocks.

This is how they turned out.

Kinda cute...but here's the AMAZING thing!

This section of the quilt is supposed to measure EXACTLY 14" square...AND IT DOES!

Just in case you're not sure...here's a close-up.

I've never had something come out that close!  I guess this stuff really works!

Free Motion Quilting Practice - Day 4

Day 4 of FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) practice.

I'm finding that there are definitely two different kinds of FMQ.  I cannot remember what HH (Harriet Hargrave) called them, or if she had a name, but there's a difference between FMQ when you follow lines and when you just doodle it out of your head.

Up until this point, I've been just doodling out of my head, and I have to say that I'm getting pretty fair at that.

Following the lines is another story!

I can see that my stitches are becoming more consistent in the areas where I'm just doodling (the exercises that HH recommends), but when I do the other parts (where I'm following lines) it's still not there.  HH kept reassuring us that one day during practice, we would have an "Aha!" moment.  I'm still waiting, lol.

As I said before, I'm going to keep the pieces until I'm all finished (and a few of them, I'll probably keep forever) so that I can see the progress I'm making.  Plus, I'm making myself make see the good.  There is some good among the not so good, so I need to focus on that.

I was also able to pick up a #24 foot for my Bernina yesterday.  (Thanks, Angie!)  I LOVE it!  I feel like I can see what I'm doing a little better.

I also worked on seam allowance.

HH strives for a scant ¼" seam.  This means a few threads smaller than ¼".  Since the feet that most of us use on our machines are made to help you achieve the ¼" seam, they don't work so well for a scant ¼".

HH suggests (on a Bernina) using a #13 foot (which is the straight seam foot) with the seam guide attached to but your seam up against (kind of like the #57 foot).

It looks a little strange, and it's awkward because I've been using the #37 foot (a quarter inch foot without a guard) and so it's awkward to feed the fabric up against that edge.  Also, that long bar that you see sticking out to the left?  That needs to be cut off because it's in the way.

I worked with it and got it set so my seams came out perfect!

You can see here that the middle strip is EXACTLY 1½".  COOL!  The edges were just a hair wider than they needed to be, so I shaved them off, then my strip set was EXACTLY 5" wide.

COOL!!!!!

And, it's starched "flat and stiff as a board!"  (You'd be proud, HH!)

So, those were some of my adventures today in Hargrave Land.

What did you do today?

Treating Fabric

So, I've been cutting fabric this afternoon.

Harriet recommends a specific way to cut fabric which is perhaps a bit different from the way that most people cut fabric.

You'll need to know first a little of my history.

I have TONS of fabric.  I know, I know, most of us do.

MOST of my fabric is in fat quarters.  I would say that 90% of my fabric is fat quarters.

Harriet recommends tearing your fabric, starching it, and realigning it before you cut it. She's not a prewasher (YEAH!!!!!!).

Her method of cutting is a little different than I'm used to (you can read all about it in her book Heirloom Machine Quilting on pages 15-17), so I did some experimenting this afternoon and figured out what was going to work for me.

I'm still not sure what's going to work for all those fat quarters that I have, though.  I don't know if I should pre-wash them so that they will relax into straight grain and then starch them to make them stiff again.  (Harriet recommends working with stiff fabric when you piece.)  I haven't decided for sure, and I sent an email to Harriet and Carrie to find out if they had a suggestion.

So, back to my QA project...I got some 2" WOF (width of fabric) strips cut in WOW (white on white) and light blue and dark blue.  I probably wouldn't have chosen these two blues to put together in a quilt, but they were the only longer pieces of blue fabric that I had on hand.

So, now I'll go to work on getting a perfect seam.

I have to admit that I've been a little resistant in the past to use a thread guide on the machine, but I think I'm just going to have to let it go.  Actually, I'm not so sure that I can because I would have to take it off every time that I practiced FMQ (free motion quilting), so that wouldn't work.

So, I'm going to have to find a way to get a ¼" seam without using something on the bed of the machine.

For my Bernina, Harriet recommends the #13 foot with a thread guide on it.  I'm not sure if I have a #13 foot, I'm off to check!

Here I Go! Day 1

OK!  I need another project like I need a hole in the head!  But this is important.

How many of you have heard Harriet Hargrave?  How many of you have taken one of her classes?  How many of you have heard of her Quilter's Academy series?

Well, I just took her Heirloom Quilting class.  Oh My Gosh!  If you EVER get a chance to take this class (or any of her other classes for that matter), please do yourself a favor and do it!

She's a great teacher and a phenomenal educator.  She debunks so many of the commonly held beliefs in quilting.

So, I decided that I need to REALLY learn to quilt.  I'm going to work through that Quilter's Academy and I'll let you know how it goes...the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I would love to have some of you join me, but I know that I'm starting at a really crazy time if I want company, lol.

Anyway...I did the first exercise on page 24 and I already ran into a problem.

You see, I thought that it would be a good idea to use stash.  There's just one problem...almost all my stash is in fat quarters, and I don't know if there's any way to truly get the fabric on grain.

If you know anything about Harriet, she tears her fabric and then realigns it on the true grain of the fabric.  (You can find more about this in Quilter's Academy Vol. 1 pages 12-14.)

I'm not sure how that works with fat quarters.  I tried tearing the edge of my fat quarter, but it got REALLY distorted, so I just lined it up the best I could and cut the strips.

They looked straight...before I pressed them and "made them flat as a board" (as Harriet is fond of saying).  The resulting strip set looked like this after pressing and starching.

So, when I measured the strip set, the top was exactly five inches across...

...however, if you look closely, the middle strip is not 1½" like it's supposed to be...it's narrower.  Not only do I have "unstraight" fabric, my seam allowance is too wide.

So...back to the drawing board.

Tomorrow, my plan is to find a couple of large pieces of fabric.  I do have them, it's just that I have TONS of fat quarters.  I'll redo this exercise and let you know how it goes.