Super speedy chain-piecing tutorial

I have just been writing up my latest pattern, Cross My Heart, which is made up of rows of 5” squares - a super easy quilt, and so quick to put together, thanks to some speedy chain-piecing. 

Now, I’m not just talking about chain-piecing the squares here, one row at a time, I’m talking about chain-piecing the whole piece! You really could have this and many other quilts done in a day using this method!

I have tried explaining this method verbally, and got a little tongue-tied, so I thought I would write a tutorial, pics an' all.

Lay out your quilt blocks as the your pattern shows, in this case I’m using the Cross My Heart quilt as an example.

Working from the right-hand side towards the left of each row, place each square on top of it’s neighbour, so in the case of the Row 1, place orange on top of dark blue, then grey on top of this, then yellow on top, then yellow again, yellow, dark blue, turquoise, white, and finally white again.

Do this with all of your rows, then label each one with their number, Row 1, Row 2, and so on. I use scraps of paper for this. Place each pile next to your sewing machine, being sure to keep them separate. If I have a lot of rows, I bring my ironing board to the table and use that. 

So we’re going to sew all these rows together at the same time. Starting with Row 1, take your first two squares, in this case the two white squares, lay the second square on top of the first and sew down the right hand side. This placement is very important, particularly when you have two different coloured squares, as in Row 2 below. Do not break thread.

Now move on to Row 2, and do the same, in this case turquoise onto white, then again, without breaking thread, Row 3 – dark blue onto yellow – and so one until you have attached the first two squares of every row.

Now break your last thread. 

Pull your chained pieces back through the machine so you can start again at the top. Open out your first two sewn squares of Row 1, take the next square from the Row 1 pile (turquoise) and place on top of your second square  (white), sew down the right-hand side as before. Don’t break thread.

Now do the same with Row 2 (turquoise onto turquoise) and so on. To keep track of which row I’m on, I turn over my numbered scrap of paper on the row I’m working on, then when I go back, I know where to go next.

When you’ve attached the third squares to all of their rows, break your last thread, pull your sewing back to the top and carry on with the rest of your rows. 

Once your rows are all sewn together, you should have a unit looking something like this with your rows attached to each other by strands of thread.

Carefully place onto your ironing board, and press your seams in opposite directions, so for the even rows, press seams towards the right, and for the odd rows, press seams towards the left. Now pin the first two rows together - as you have pressed your seams in opposite directions, they should lock into each other, matching up your seams nicely! Pin and sew all your rows together, press from the front and attach any borders. You now have a complete quilt top, how quick was that!?!

I made this quilt for my nephew's 18th birthday, he's a design student (no pressure then!) off to uni in the autumn, hopefully this will keep him warm in his student digs!

I pulled the solids from my stash, and then decided to add this orange print from Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics collection, I love how it just blends in with the solids.
When it came to the quilting, I chose to use wonderful Auriful threads in six different colours, and a couple in a heavier weight, which just added to the quilt's texture.

The Cross My Heart pattern is now on sale click here for more details and for so much more quilting fun!

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, for more inpsiration and new projects, come and visit.

Lovely HSTs and another published quilt!

I recently came across this method for constructing Half-square triangles (HSTs) by the wonderful Lynne Goldsworthy of Lily's Quilts, and wondered if I could adapt it for bigger sizes. After playing around with Illustrator and my quilter's ruler, I worked out the measurements needed, then had a play with some fabric, and couldn't believe how easy this method is. And what's more you don't have to trim down all those squares at the end - how many hours I have wasted?!! Because this is more or less foundation piecing, your sewing is so accurate that your squares come out the size they should be, unlike the two-squares-together method, which can come out a little wonky. 

Admittedly this method only works if you want a lot of identical HSTs, which many patterns do call for, but would not work for scraps or charm squares, we’ll have to stick to trimming down for those I’m afraid.



Anyway, I was so happy with this find, that I have written a little tutorial here to share the love, together with full-size templates for 2”, 2½”, 3”, 3½”, 4” and  4½” finished HSTs, and a handy table to work out how many HSTs you'll get from different cuts.

When writing PDF patterns and templates, I always print them out just to make sure they fit on the page at 100%, then realised that not everyone works on a Mac, or has Acrobat Reader, so I have also written a how-to guide on printing at full scale.

On another subject altogether, I was, and still am actually, feeling quite chuffed with myself this weekend. I have a quilt featured in July’s edition of British Patchwork & Quilting, and its none other than my mammoth Bargello quilt I designed and made for John Louden & Co! This was a bit of a mathematical nightmare to be honest, but I’m so pleased the mag used my graphics as well as the table to show which row goes where. All that head rubbing and muttering was worth it!

This quilt is made from John Louden’s range of Tie-Dyed effect fat quarters, which create this beautiful colour spectrum, just what we in such a dark and dank June! Did I miss summer??

I also have a very nice mention in P&Q's News and Views section - big smile!!

Update: Just in case you were wondering what on earth I was going to do with all those HSTs.... 

I’m linking up with Tips & Tutorials Tuesday over on Late Night Quilter, Let's Bee Social on Sew Fresh Quilts, and finally Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday - come and visit for lots more inspirational ideas and general quilt loving. 

Thank you for visiting, your comments are always welcome.

Sunday Stash #9 and a Doughty’s Special

When I sorted out my fabric stash a few weeks ago - ironed and folded all my lovely fabrics, then stood them on my shelf, in colour order - I was very pleased with the outcome, and also a little scared by the amount of fabric I own! I do believe in the mantra “you’re not a proper fabric addict unless you have a ridiculous horde”, but this was just silly! So I did try and vow to only use my stash for upcoming projects… 

...until that was good old Doughty’s announced a new range to hit their shop… Je Ne Sais Quoi (or Menage a trois as I called it in my quilt group, oops!) 

These fabrics are designed and printed in France on good quality cotton and are 60” wide. AND… they’re only £4.99 p/m. Now I was a little sceptical… surely at this price, they couldn’t be that good quality… I just had to find out, which of course meant buying more fabric. Ahem…

 

As well as a couple of novelty designs, this collection also has a good range of ditsy and geometric basics, and these are what I went for, in these three colourways.

 I also ordered a few of their Ditsy Basics range to check the scale, I love the chevrons!

They are all great! I love the colour combinations, they feel nice and have a good weight. As usual I couldn’t wait to cut into them (stash? What stash??) They were delivered on Thursday and I’ve managed to design and make a quilt top in the blue/green range, as well as make a cute little turtle for a friend’s little girl, isn’t she sweet! I do love this colourway of orange and pink together, and the soft grey through all the colourways seems to bring them together.

On about a new quilt, I decided to dig out my Hex and More ruler that I bought at QuiltCon and have a go at half-hexagons. However, full hexagons and triangles took hold yet again, and after much muttering and tutting I came up with this design, which I think I’ll call From Side to Side. I’ll be working on the pattern next week, but I’m quite pleased with it in my new fabrics.

Finally, I’d just like to add my finished mini quilt from my last blog, I do like how the grey sets off the multi coloured diagonals. 

I hope you have like my ramblings, thank you for visiting. If you would like to leave a comment, please do, and if you would like more inspiration and ideas, why not pop over to Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash link-up, and Let's Bee Social over on Sew Fresh Quilts.