QUILTING TUTORIALS Archives - Page 12 of 12

Today we are going to make a mug-mat. We don’t need wet cup marks on our sewing tables!
The finished size is approx 12.5″ x 9.5″ . If you want to make a larger one you will need to vary these measurements. The finished mat looks like a little quilt with binding but it doesn’t have binding at all!! This method is fine for small projects like this, doll quilts, pot holders etc but I wouldn’t recommend it for finishing a quilt. (That’s another lesson!!)

We will need:

Strips of fabric Three 9.5″ x 1.5″, two 9.5″ x 1.75″ (or any combination you like)

feature fabric rectangle 9.5″ x 7.5″

Backing /binding fabric 13.5″ x 10.5″

Pellon

Today we will be using any of the following feet:

It’s important that you try your different attachments, get a feel for how they work and then decide which is the best for your job. You can do all of the project using just your All purpose foot so don’t worry if you don’t have the others.

1/4″ foot

Walking foot

Sitch in the Ditch foot All Purpose foot

Select your ‘foot’ – I used my 1/4″ foot.

Arrange the strips in an order pleasing to your eye and then join the first two, then the last 2. Then join them to the centre strip. Press.

Join to Feature fabric . Press

Take the pellon rectangle and with the bubbly side facing the WRONG side of your mat, press. (You may like to cover with cloth or baking paper so your iron doesn’t stick!)

Take your stitch in the Ditch Foot or your All Purpose Foot and stitch in the ditch along the strips.

Square the mat off – ie check and trim. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bit smaller, the important thing is that it is squared up!!

Place the backing fabric, wrong side up onto the table and centre the mat right side up on top of it. You should have 3/4″ all around.

Pin the mat to secure it to the backing:

Fold the edges of the backing to the edge of the mat and press.

Now I want you to remove some of the bulk from the corner. If you look at the diagram, the dotted line is the crease from folding edges over over. Cut across the corner where the creases meet.

Your mat will now look like this:

Now we are going to fold the edges again and this time it will fold over onto the mat (and look like binding). Pin.
When you get to a corner:

Take that corner and fold across to touch the mat – like covering a book.

Then take this and fold over on your crease

Then fold over again to form a lovely, mitred corner!!

TIP: If you don’t feel confident, you could do a little hand stitch through the mitre to hold it while you sew.

I will now show you me stitching with each of the feet – you choose whichever one you like!!

Using the Stitch in the Ditch foot, adjust your needle position so that when the blade is to the left of the binding, the needle will enter very close to the edge of the binding. ( Please note that if you are using this foot, you cannot ‘see’ the corner so a little hand stitch would help)

Using the All Purpose foot, I lined the edge of the foot with the edge of the binding:

If you have a Walking Foot, you might like to try it. Make sure when you attach the walking foot that the long arm on the walking foot is sitting on the needle clamp screw and you are set!

Stitch down the side and at the corner make sure you get the last stitch on this side so that it is the first stitch on the next side. ( The corners can be a bit fiddly but the rest has been so fast that you can take a little more time here to get them just so ….)

Leaving your needle down, lift the pressure foot and turn your mat. Continue.

I have used white cotton so that you can see – I’ll go and quick unpick that now, change to purple and finish sewing.

Taa Daa!! There it is!

If you want to you could hand stitch the corners but I didn’t worry!

Well done! Go get your coffee and give it a go!

I just had to share this! Poppy thought we should try it out but Nanny was a bit slow so had to take the photo before the backing was on!!!

PS It was yummy!!

Until next time
Nanny xx

I made a circus themed quilt for a showcase earlier this year and decided that I would take some photos so I could show you how I pin my quilts!!!

What do I mean “pin my quilts”?
When making a quilt I need to sandwich together the completed quilt top, the wadding of choice and the quilt backing. I use pins to hold these layers steady as I quilt (sew) them together.

What I need:

1. Poppy! My wonderful husband fetches my fold up tables (these are stored behind the storage shelves in my craft room) and then lifts them onto very tasteful paint tins! If you ‘know’ me you know that I have chronic back pain, and without Poppy doing this for me, I would not be able to do my pinning! Poppy now knows how to pin as well!

2. Tape – this is packaging tape but have used masking tape as well.

3. Pins – not straight pins but quilting pins(like a safety pin) – you can purchase at any craft store

You will notice that I store them open – they are ready to insert in the quilt and when I remove them, I leave them open,ready for the next quilt – saves time and fingers!

4 Pin closer – this is a purpose built tool – mine is actually made from Australian Red Cedar (gift made by a friend from some of my dad’s stash). You can buy these as well but before I had this I used a spoon!

5. The quilt top, the wadding and the backing fabric.

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Let’s start Pinning!

1. Spread your backing fabric, right side down onto your table (or floor) and using the tape, tape it down. Take care to spread the fabric well, leaving no puckers – taut but not stretched.

2. Spread the wadding over the backing fabric.

3. Add the quilt top – right side up!

4. Starting at the centre, smoothing quilt top as you go, pin to the edge down and across. Then I usually work one corner at a time , smoothing, pinning about 15cms apart and leaving the pins open….