Here are some more layout options for the 8-block Rainbow Dreamcatcher Round the Year Quilt!
By now, I am thoroughly confused. The Consultant still votes for Layout 3! I think I will put away this quilt for the time being and come back to it after a month.
What if you do not wish to do a mitered binding? I was working with scraps and did not have enough fabric to cut out a length of binding without too many joints. I decided to do a simple quilt binding instead – where you bind two opposite edges first, and then the other two. I have always finished with very untidy bumpy corners where the binding overlaps and I searched for a tutorial which would tell me how to go about it properly. I did not really find anything, so I recorded my method as I went along. It is nothing new, but I hope it will help new quilters obtain a fairly neat result!
My small quilted piece finished at 10.5″ x 14.5″, inclusive of the seam allowance along each edge. I prefer a single rather than a double binding for small pieces, so I cut two pieces of binding 1.5″ wide and about 11″ long for the shorter edges. I sewed the binding on the top and pressed it open. I folded it to the back twice and hand sewed it to the back. Both of the shorter edges were finished before I trimmed it to size, to get a sharp, square corner. I have no photos of this stage, I guess this is simple enough.
I again measured the longer edge, it was just under 15″. I now cut the binding length at 16.5″, that is 1.5″ longer than needed. I lined the binding to the edge of the front of the quilt ( right side down) , folded it to the back about 3/4″ over the bound edge and began sewing. I secured the seam with some back stitching, sewed to an inch short of the other end, similarly folded the binding over and sewed to the end; took a couple of back stitches to finish. I think this picture will explain better than I have been able to! I suggest you make a tight, crisp fold to get a neat finish.
Do the other longer edge similarly.
Now open out the binding…Here it is from the front.
…and from the back.
Now press the binding, especially at the corner where a crisp fold will mean a neat finish. If you like, you can press it to the back, fold in and press again … and pin in place if you are a pinner! Some people like to use binding clips, I get along fine without any of these.
Start sewing at the corner , crimping and pulling in the fold to get a straight edge!
I use a variation of the ladder stitch to bind my quilts. In such a small quilt, hand binding is the way to go, I do believe! The end corner is finished similarly.
Here we are, all done! Almost perfect edges!
You don’t have to do a mitered edge for a perfect binding, after all!
Two more blocks of the Round the Year quilt done today, using the porthole method described by Sobana Sundar in a previous blogpost.
The first was Card Trick, Block Three, which got done quickly.
The other block that I did was Wedding Ring, which gave me a lot of trouble as I did not glue the background correctly. The resultant seam ranged from 1/8″ to 3/4″. I had to rip it and re-do it.
I was not very happy with the end result. For the next block, I will do something different. I will mark the seam line on the front of the circle, and glue the background accurately from the top, using the seam line as a guide. I will take pics to clarify what I mean.
Meanwhile, I had promised to show you how I stitched the background with no fabric wastage.
In the normal course, one would stitch together two rectangles 9.5″x 18.5″ in the two blues ( along the longer edge, and end up with an 18.5″ circle. On this one would mark a 7.5″ circle and cut about 3/4″ inside that.
What I did was this…
I ironed the templates on the background fabric and cut out a further 1/4″ inside. I also took an extra 1/8″ on the outer long edges. I will trim the blocks to accurate size once they are done. Remember, NOT to take and extra allowance on the small straight edge! That has to be exactly 1/4″.
You need 10.5″ x 12.5″ fabric for 2 quarters as above. Which means that for one block you need either 10.5″ x 25″ or 21″x 12.5″, depending on how you place the templates.
I then cut out the freezer paper template described by Sobana in her post – an 18.5″ square with a 7.5″ radius circle cut out of the centre. I pieced my background using two light blues and two darks directly on this template.
You will need to probably refer to Sobana’s post on setting circles onto background squares to understand exactly what I did differently here…
If you have any questions, please feel free to seek clarifications!
A quick photo post to share the four Round the Year blocks completed.
Clockwise, beginning from top right, these are
Block Four – Sapphire Fire
Block Two – Evening at the Pond
Block Five – Venus at Dusk
Block Thirteen – Feathered Star
You want to make your own blocks? You can find the links to the free patterns from the Round the Year page.( Link above)
This month I am trying to catch up on the blocks of my Round the Year quilt, which had become pending when I was laid up for 3 months with a bad back!
I am piecing the current block, the Spiked Dresden, first. But Day Two was not as good as the first day!
This is what I did on Day One:
I finished piecing the Dresden ring of blades and started work on the pixellated centre.
Step 1 – Drew an inch grid on one-sided lightweight fusible interfacing.
Step 2 – Cut one inch squares from fabric for pixels
Step 3 – Arranged the fabric squares on the sticky side of the fusible interfacing and pressed them on place.
Yesterday I sewed the squares in place! Let me take you through my day…
Flipping over to the interfacing side, I crease a row along the inch grid line. I take the standard 1/4″ seam on the fold. I was glad I had cut the centre into two, because I did not have to clip the thread after every seam, I could kind of chain stitch the two pieces!
Now the seams have to be opened. I insert a small pair of scissors into the stitched interfacing to do this – mine are not sharp enough. I also tried trimming off the edge with a roller cutter, but this was not very satifactory either! The thinner seam is even more unmanageable.
This was the stage I discover that a small square had a mind of its own. I have to rip open the seam to insert it into the interfacing.
I then press open the seams. This was the toughest part – I hated it! That is why I probably forgot to take a picture! Now for the columns. I crease the columns on the grid and start sewing a 1/4″ seam…
…and again I discover a problem! I had left too much of the interfacing on the corners bare. So there is more ripping and insertion of fabric squares…
At long last, the columns are also done!
This is how it looks from the back.
Oh my God! I shudder at the thought of more pressing of those seams. So I skip the pressing and decide to move to the next step.
The centre will be ready at 7″, and I wanted a 1/2″ seam allowance, so I cut an 8″circle (diameter) from freezer paper. I press it on the right side of the pieced centre and cut out the citcle.
Back to the ironing table. This time I use steam, and have instant success!
I have had a tough day and am still trying to work out how this will be attached to the ring…but I will think about it tomorrow.
Tomorrow is another day.
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