How to make a Doll Quilt from Memory Fabrics Part 5

There are many different things you can use to bind a quilt. You can buy binding. For a little quilt like this if you want that's just fine. Just skip to my directions on how to sew it on. You can also buy ribbon binding. This is packaged and sold right next to the packages of bias tape which can also be used. If you select the satin ribbon binding you can apply it folded and sewn as I will show you below or you can slide it over the unfinished edge and use a bit of your decorative stitching (learned in Part 4) to sew both sides down at once and you're all done. That stuff is pretty but runs about $4-$5 a package. You can easily get two doll blankets out of it, but I don't know how much more.

You can even buy wide ribbon in the ribbon section look for 2" or wider if you're a beginner. Iron the ribbon in half long ways and sew it on as written below.

You can also make you're own. Be it scrappy or not it sews together the same. Take a 2 1/2" strip of fabric as long as it is (hopefully at least 2 feet, more is better). Select a color that can handle a little bit of dirt if this blanket will be going to a child. If you pick white then be prepared for the results. I have chosen a green patterned flannel. Unlike black it will not show lint or fuzz, and with the patterning in there it is doubtful that you will see the dirt either. Well you might but no one else will.

Place them like this.
See how this is? I have drawn a diagonal line. Check to make sure your sewing machine has been reset from Part 4 to now sew the locking stitch or straight stitch again. Sew on that line.
Now here I have trimmed the excess off. That will prevent excessive bulk in your binding that sewing machines have a hard time sewing over. Continue on in this way until you have enough binding that when laid loosely around your mini quilt you have enough to go all the way around. If in doubt sew another piece.
Now iron your seam flat and open as sewn. Now this time you do need the iron because you are going to iron the binding in half long ways.
Now that the strip has been ironed in half line it up with the corner of the quilt. Allow at least one inch to hang off. The raw edges of your binding (formerly known as your strip) should be lined up with the raw edge of the quilt. You can pin the binding to the quilt for this first side. Do not pin more than the side that you are sewing on. Sew the first bit with a nice straight stitch.
When you reach the end, stop. Make sure your needle is down into the fabric. Carefully raise the presser foot and turn the quilt. Don't hesitate to click this photo big now, it's a good photo it can handle it. See how I have taken that extra there? It's a triangle of fabric the needle hasn't moved but I've slipped that access to behind the needle to make that little point. It will make a nice perky corner on your quilt. If it's not exactly right that's okay too, when you fold the binding to the back it will smooth away any little bit of trouble you might have had. Now that you have made the pivot you can pin again and sew the next edge.

Continue on placing that triangle pucker in each corner the best you can. Remember needle down presser foot up. And don't forget to put the presser foot back down after the pivot.
Once you have made it all the way back down you will come to the intersection that looks a bit like this. You will need to take the part of the binding you sewed first. Take it and pull it out so that the finished edge points outward towards the outside of the quilt.

Don't worry you've got this! Sew nearly to the end making sure to stop about a 1/4" from the edge of the quilt. You can feel it down there. Don't worry if you sew off the edge just put the needle back a bit. Sink the needle into the fabric. Pivot the entire quilt 45 degrees. Just as you see above how the sewing machine foot angles across the intersecting bindings.

Just like before when we made the binding cut 1/4" away from the seam you sewed right along but away. Creating a nice little seam allowance. Remove the quilt from the sewing machine. Now gently pull the binding towards the back. It nearly begs to move over there. The corners should flip right side in like they were made to do it, and trust me that's just how you made them.

Now you have two choices. You can stick with me and our non rules. Or you can now take your little Doll Quilt and hand stitch the binding on the back. Oh ick. Sounds dull and boring and we were having so much fun together! This is traditional but unless your hand sewing is at least good if not really good your binding will not hold as well as if you had machine sewn it.

Okay then. Place the quilt in the sewing machine upside down so that the back is up. Using a couple of pins pin the binding to the back of the quilt.

Remember that decorative stitch that looks so great all over your quilt? Yes tell the sewing machine to sew that one again. Line up and GO! Remove the pins as you need to. When you near the corner you can either ease around it, or you can stop make the needle go down and pivot 90 degrees. No matter either way you'd like. I like to round into mine, but it does take a little more effort. It you crash off the edge of the binding don't worry about it, just correct it and sew some more. All the way around. Beautiful.
You did it. You made a doll quilt just like you wanted to, and you even learned how to work with Memory fabrics while you were at it. Congratulations.

How to make a Doll Quilt from Memory Fabrics Part 4

For this Tutorial I'm going to be showing you a variation of something called stitch in the ditch. Take a look at your sewing machine. What kind of stitches does it do? That straight stitch and/or locking stitch you've been using but what else does it offer? Always be willing to take in a gander at your stitch choices. Some machines have more and some have less. Can you see the zigzag stitch? That's one that zigzags back and forth. What other stitches do you have that do that? Do any of them appeal to you? If not continue with your straight stitch right in the ditch of the seams on your quilt top. Start with a center seam and work out from there, if you forget and start on the edge that's okay, don't worry.

If you saw anything else that is called a decorative stitch. Sometimes it will zig a bit and then hop and then zag and repeat, it doesn't really matter which one you pick. Select the stitch and line up the sewing machine. Line the needle up with the center of your quilted square line. Now Go! Zoom! WEEEeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! Stitch all the way across and then do it again. It's fun isn't it! And it's so much faster than keeping the needle right in the ditch. You can make all kinds of fun things this way. Or use pretty silver threads neon ones, whatever you like. Zipp, zeeee! You're doing it you're quilting! Beautiful! And even if it's not exactly perfect... Here's the best part! No one will ever know! They will assume you did it exactly as you meant to.

Here's my quilted little blanket. Can you tell where the sewing machine tried to sew uneven? Or does it just look like I planned it all? The little wisps you see if you click on the photo are the threads from quilting that need trimmed. Don't forget to cut yours.
When you are done and satisfied with your quilting cut the extra batting and backing away.

How to make a Doll Quilt from Memory Fabrics Part 3

Selecting a batting. For small projects batting is inexpensive and you can easily select any that you would like. Polyester comes in many different "lofts" this refers to how puffy your finished project will be. Low loft is a little push, and high loft is much more full. You can also buy cotton batting, or alternatives such as Bamboo Batting. The cotton batting is called needled cotton this is like you took a felting machine and moved it all over the surface of the batting. It is nice to work with providing warmth with low loft. The more you need the heavier it is. The Red Star Quilt was made with this and to say it's heavy is a bit of an understatement. Three yards of Warm and White, plus the weight of batting and backing. Oh yes. My daughter told me in the summer months her Warm and White quilt is to "hot" whereas she expresses no such complaints over her light weight med. to low loft polyester quilt.

I have heard that Bamboo is like Warm and White (also called Warm and Natural, it just depends on the color) only it is not so heavy. I'd like to try it some day.

Other options for batting are to use flannel. One piece of flannel will do the job and be lightweight, just be sure to watch the cost flannel as it can be quite costly.

In my case I have a pretty flannel that I bought at "scrap prices" meaning someone else bought it and brought it back. Normally these cuts are under a yard you just have to sort through the bargain bins a bit. It is pretty hearts on one side and white on the other. Because we are making a doll blanket I'm going to not use batting at all and instead simply baste my flannel to my quilt and then quilt it.

There are three ways you select from your your quilt back. You can choose Traditional Amish, this is a natural muslin backing, plain of patterns. You can choose to select a printed pattern on your fabric. This will hide any slight perfections you might have in your quilting and will have a second appealing side to view. Lastly is a two sided quilt, that means you create a second quilt to go on the back. Be mindful with these, depending on how you quilt it the quilting lines might not line up.

Now that you have selected your backing you can begin to baste. If you're using a batting you will want to spread it out. I like to Spray baste but there are other methods.

If you are going to spray baste select a spray adhesive and spray the top of the batting (the side that is up, batting doesn't have a top vs. a bottom both sides are the same). Now roll your little quilt top into a tube. Line the tube up to one inch from the top of the batting and gently unroll it, pressing as you go. Smoothing it out along the batting.
It is now ready to quilt.
If you don't have any spray adhesive and don't want to buy any you can always pin baste. See here with the pins as I have worked my pins out from the center? Gently remove the pins as you come to them when quilting, old school says you can sew over them, but you risk breaking a needle or worse yet pieces in your eye. So use caution.
You can also hand baste with a needle and thread, sew nice big stitches outwards from the center. Or use really big stitches on your sewing machine being careful not to let the backing slide away from the quilt top.

No matter what you picked your quilt is now basted and ready to quilt.

How to Make a Doll Quilt from Memory Fabrics Part 2

This is the Second Part of our tutorial, how to make the quilt top. How are you doing? Hopefully following along right as rain, but don't hesitate to throw up a comment if you need a little extra explanation. Thread Selection! Thread always seems to stop creators in their tracks. What kind do you need? Any kind that doesn't make loads of lint or break when you sew will do. Some quilters love cotton others swear by polyester. Here you will find a very interesting collection of data on thread on the microscopic level. But if that's a bit much for you. Just look in your thread collection. Most everyone has one, while you create this little project if the bobbin area fills with lint from the thread you might want to think about getting a different kind. Or if it breaks and makes you crazy try something different.

Now color. Here I have a couple of spools from my thread box. The big guy is a cone of off white/muslin colored thread. It's polyester so it's strong and it's cheap, but not all sewing machines like cones. It's also a bit light for the fabrics here. But I'd use it in a pinch. To light is better than to dark.

Next you see the Polyneon Madeira makes this and it is amazingly wonderful. You can get it for about $2.45 a spool (over 1000 yards!)from Allstitch.com personally it's my favorite for embroidery and plan to replace all my embroidery threads with this when they run out. It's the perfect shade of purple for this project. But it would be better if it was cotton for quilting. My favorite quilting thread is Aurifil but it's not avail. locally, and it's a bit pricey at $8.50 for a 1300 yard spool. So I'll be using the polyneon. It's strong like poly without the lint.

The last there is Sulky Rayon. Avail in all Joann's in almost any color. It's great for embroidery (but my machine needs a bit of adjustment to really go to town with this thread), but it's not strong. I can pull it with my fingers and cause it to snap. That's the trouble with Rayon, it's not a good choice for a quilt. Not to mention this is a dark royal purple. Great for the quilting perhaps, but if any of your stitches pull a little bit that purple will scream "look at me this work isn't perfect" And it's so annoying when the thread starts yelling like that.

You can also see the bobbin thread I selected is grey. This is a fine choice, you can use grey for darker colors like this or you can match the upper thread. If you match the upper thread you might find yourself needing to buy more bobbins. My grey is Rayon which isn't my first choice but it was already wound and this will use it up.

I have been buying Madeira Bobbinfil which is Polyester for the bottom and this is amazing for embroidery. Loads go a long way. It comes in black and white so for other colors you sort of have to "make do", but it's intended for embroider. I have also heard and read raves about the Bottom line bobbin thread. Bobbin thread is thinner, and not the best choice for quilting. Before I make a quilt I select my thread color and order a nice big spool of Aurifil, then I can load the bobbin thread with that use it through out the quilt even to the quilting. It seems no matter what I've done nor the size of the quilt a spool of Aurifil gets the job done. But remember you're checking your thread to see what you have. The spool of white that came with your sewing machine will work just fine if that's what you have.

Now as a rule I ALWAYS work left to right top to bottom when I sew. It might not seem to matter now, but if you get any bigger it will help you keep your place. Let to right and top to bottom. It doesn't matter what rule you follow, just pick and order and stick with it. Right yourself a sticky note it will help. I have taken those first to and put them in the sewing machine.
See how I have lined the two fabrics together and placed them in the sewing machine? Now... A word to the wise. There are no quilt police living in your house. If this is your first project, just line the fabric up with your sewing machine foot. Do that each time and all your seams will be the same. Every time. I promise. And that my dears is the most important thing. The same each time.

If you've done a project before see if you can see which setting creates a 1/4" seam. Does your manual tell you? If I set my ULT to 6.5mm wide on a straight stitch it will sew a 1/4" seam. If you don't know. Turn the fly wheel - that's the thing on the side of the sewing machine. Turn it until the needle is down. Now take a ruler or a tape measure and measure from the edge of your sewing machines foot (that's the part that sits on the fabric. Adjust the needle until you measure 1/4" Now the points on your other projects should all be perfect. Don't worry if it doesn't turn out perfect the first time, sometimes a tiny adjustment will move the threads over a tiny bit and then all will be wonder.

But for the purpose of this little quilt you don't have to do any of that. Select a straight stitch. As a beginner I found it handy to use a locking stitch. If your machine makes this stitch it will look like three dashed or straight lines of stitches. That means the sewing machine sews one stitch and then sews back half way and then forward again. This takes more thread but the machine sews a bit slower which can be helpful and you can handle your fabric more without worrying about the stitches coming out. To this day I love a locking stitch for bias square triangles or block swaps because they stay put so much better. Through all the wear and tear on them.

If you can't find that stitch with the three lines. Just select the straight stitch. This one is one solid or dashed line and when you sew a test bit of fabric it sews a nice straight line, so skipping about left or right.

Now when the first piece is sewn open it up to see your first row. Isn't it pretty? And easy too. The normal quilters "rule" is to iron the fabric so the fabric seam goes towards the darker side.

What are rules except things meant to be broken? In the case of memory fabrics some of them don't like to listen, especially the ones with heavier weights of interfacing. It's okay if the seam goes the other way. It will all work out. Now you can iron. Personally I have so many things going on around me when I sew, my three year old and my husband and my kitties, that the hot iron makes me worry about them. So if I can I like to finger press.

Finger Press? What's that? That's when you take newly sewn fabric turn it upside down. Look a see what the fabric wants to do, or which is the dark side, whatever. Now run your fingernail over that seam. That will cause it to lay flat. Nice wham, bam, thank you mam pressing of the seams. This will help your sewing machine move more easily over the seams as your top grows and will help the quilt to lay flat. You honestly don't have to use either method. You can just go with the flow, but your seams might not always line up perfectly. If that's okay with you then it's okay with the rest of us.

Now that you've sewn the first one move on to the next one, turning the pretty sides in together and sewing. When you work in a pattern such as left to right top to bottom, you can begin to string your work together. This is called a Daisy Chain. This chain will hold all the "first square sewn to the second square" all the way around the quilt. Above you can see where I turned the sewing machine to the side and you can see my sewn pieces collecting in a chain off the back of the sewing machine. They don't get in the way here and they stay in order. When all are sewn cut them apart going back to the first one you sewed and placing it in the upper left.

It should look something like this. Once you have this part you're ready to move on a bit.
Still going from left to right take to peices again. Since they are sewn this will be four squares! You're doing great the finish line is nearing!
I'd like to draw your attention now to a little error I made. This happens when you don't use interfacing to stabilize your fabrics. I have two options at this point rip it out, to try for it to be better the second time or the second is to just go with it. I've decided to let it be. This is a bottom edge that I can trim up later, so it doesn't worry me. Also I know it was caused by the strech of the dark fabric remember I cautioned you about this? Well there it is.
Now here I have lined up the next section of sewing. This is the entire upper corner of the baby doll blanket. Four squares this time! It's not any harder at all. Just be sure to look at the seam in the center. Try your best to make sure that is lined up so the two pieces will make a nice transion from one set of squares to another.
This is the back side of your four square. Check your seams and finger press as needed.

Look here all four are sewn and laid back out. Don't forget to go back to the first group on the Daisy chain.

Now again about left to right top to bottom. You might want to grab those two on the left and sew them together right as rain and then sewing the second two on the right. No, no... This is how the eye reads. That means that if anything is wrong with that center line that runs from the top of your square to the bottom the eye will see it. Strangers who don't know you will see it. But if you sew the one on the top left to the one on the top right, the eye doesn't see the lines the same, and voila beautious!

Congratulations, you've just sewn your first quilt top! I'm so proud of you! First and foremost be proud of yourself. These techniques can be applied to a quilt of anysize or even a wallhanging.

Next time we'll talk about batting and how to baste your quilt. Happy Sewing!

How to Make a Doll Quilt from Memory Fabrics Part 1

For my fellow bloggers I'm going to create a tutorial. I'm thinking it will have five parts. Fabric selection, Creating the Quilt Top, Basting a Quilt, Quick and Easy Machine Quilting and Last but not least How to Bind a Quilt.

First let's talk size. Sometimes we really just want to use what we have to save a bit of money and that's what I'm doing here. This very morning my daughter told me her favorite color is purple so I pulled out all my left over baby clothes fabrics from the quilt I made for her that are purple. My squares are 3.5" that means with a seam allowance of 1/4" they are sewn in and end up being 3". If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it, I'll explain in part two. From my supply of fabric I selected this one first. It's a stretchy fabric and it isn't being stabilized in anyway. But it has butterflies embroidered on it and I just know Jessica will like it, so I chose it as my focal point color. Since I know my squares will sew in at 3" I go ahead and plan on a 12" baby blanket. Four over and four down. As you can see it's a dark color and this will help to prevent stains from showing but will also require a bit of extra attention to match it up with other fabrics.
Next I add two lighter shades of purple. The fabric above is more towards pink and the fabric below is more towards blue, but both are purple. Keep in mind that you should trust yourself and what you think will look nice. Put the fabrics together, do they play well with others? If your eye screams no, listen. If you are especially fond of that one particular fabric try it with other colors. Yellow and purple can be extra hard to match with yellow going dingy at the drop of a hat. Sometimes changing to a different color like yellow and red or yellow and blue will keep that from happening.

Now I only have that one little thing of the fabric in the upper corner, but I really like it, so I know if I stick it in the corner it could work, so I put it up there now so I don't forget.
Now just for a moment let me draw your attention again to the fact that these fabrics all used to be baby clothes. These were Carter's PJ's so you know they have a bit of give to the fabric. It needs stabilized. But don't buy stabilizer! What you need is called interfacing. This will move with your fabric and give it a bit of structure. So it doesn't stretch when you sew.

Interfacing comes in many ways. It can be iron on, sew in, or peal and stick. With all the money in the world I'd get Sulky Iron peal and stick. It works great and has a grid so you don't waste much. But it gets extremely expensive on big projects. If you're going to splurge now keep that in mind should to want to move on to a bigger quilt.

I like to adhere it before cutting my fabrics out. That way the interfacing will go edge to edge.
This is stabilizer, it is normally used for embroidery. But I didn't know what I'm telling you now when I bought it, so since I got such a good deal I went ahead and used it. This will not wash out, and I have sprayed it in with spray adhesive. Because it doesn't MOVE I will need to remove it before I quilt it in. That part is easy but time consuming because for every piece you used you need to peal it off. The sewing line does act as a perforation and that helps to remove it a bit. I do not recommend using this in quilts, but you could leave it in for a wall hanging. Using it is a last ditch of "I bought it I may as well use it". If at all possible don't buy it in the first place.
Next try to add some more fabric. What do you see, what does a little project like this need? Keep in mind you can always turn the fabric different ways to get different looks. Sometimes you can even put a fabric in upside down to help accomplish something pleasing. There are no limits, only your own inhibitions.