2021 Feathered Friends Monthly Quilt Along - Month 7 October

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi i'm amy o'donnell on behalf of bernina world of sewing in raleigh in wilmington north carolina and welcome to month seven of our feathered friends adventure this has been quite a year for this quilt and i just love seeing everybody's progress that they're making every month and i'm really excited to bring you month seven we are in the home stretch ladies the workload continues to increase as our quilt center gets bigger but remember at the end your quilt is going to be completely finished it's going to be so awesome this month we're going to be making 18 of the feathered friends block which i'm showing you right here 18 of these blocks right here and it's going to be a lot of work and we after you make the 18 blocks then next month we're going to take these feathered friends blocks and we're going to put them in with our sawtooth star blocks from last month and we're going to alternate them and that's what's going to create the really cool border for this quilt so let's go ahead and talk about this a little bit each of the 18 blocks contains six of these shaded four patch blocks and it they contain three solid squares so we're gonna be making a whole lot of those um shaded four patch blocks this month's assignment is chain piecing friendly so once you get started you can buzz right through but like i've said in previous months it's important to pace yourself maybe do your cutting one day you're sewing the next maybe do 10 blocks a day 10 of the small blocks a day and work your way up to getting them all done i don't want anyone to feel overwhelmed we don't want this project to be sitting around an abandoned project box we all know what that's like and we are here to make sure you finish this quilt because at the end like i said once we get all the borders on this baby is ready for quilting so let's stay the course and just take it slow and steady and do a little bit each day or every other day or you know whatever your schedule permits to get this quilt done because we want you to be successful at this like i said this month's assignment is chain piecing friendly once you get going you'll be able just to keep on moving you're going to be using your blade saver thread cutter that's going to be great you're going to be using your tucker trimmer or the rule the trimming ruler of your choice here's my tucker trimmer going to be using that you're going to be using your portable design board which has come in so handy on this project hasn't it and this is just like i said the foam core board with batting on it you're going to be using your strip stick because we're going to be pressing some seams open at the very end when we do the block assembly so this drip stick will come in really handy some of this month's cutting is stropology friendly if you're so inclined so you can use your stripology ruler and remember i have posted a youtube video to the bernina website showing how to use your stripology ruler to cut in quarter inch increments so you might want to review that you're going to need fabric marking tools you're going to need a quilting ruler your long quilting ruler for cutting the long strips if you're not using the stripology ruler and you're going to need a quilting ruler that has the 45 degree line on it which is right here you want to be able to cut a mark along this 45 degree line so i've got the long oval ruler which i love and i've got the shorter version of the same ruler which also has the 45 degree line on it so either of those rulers will work for what we're going to do when we make these shaded four patch if you've never made a shaded four patch before you're going to pick up a great new skill because these blocks are fun and fast to make it's very important this month to shorten your stitch length down to 1.8 to 2.0 like i always say these blocks are all going to be trimmed and we want the stitches to be super secure and it's very important to keep track of your colors this time around we're using all of our colors this month plus our background fabric just like we did last month so we want to make sure when we cut that we are cutting the right fabric for the right part of the block so be very you know take the little time out and check to make sure you're cutting the right fabric for the right place in the block and use your little color chart like i have hanging over here to help you make keep track of that keep your workspace organized that will prevent a lot of mistakes that will make you feel better about things and that's about it that's all i can think of so clear the decks fill your bobbins change your needle and let's get started here is a photo of the blocks that we're going to be making this month we're going to be making 18 of these blocks and you can see when they're all gathered together they're very striking in appearance and we use all of our fabrics in making these blocks and these blocks will be mixed with last month's blocks to compose the final border of the quilt let's take a look at our cutting diagram the long strips that you see the 2.75 and the 1.75 inch strips are going to be used for the shaded four patch blocks and the two and a half inch squares that you see there of the background fabric and of the dark fabric are going to be used as blocks in individual blocks in each of our shaded four patch blocks so those are going to be corners and centers the four by three inch rectangles that you see are going to be matched up with what we're going to be doing with the strips to make our shaded four patch block so the cutting there is pretty self-explanatory if you do want to use your stripology ruler i think it's great to do that you might need to review the youtube video about cutting with the sterology ruler in quarter inch increments or if you want to cut the old-fashioned way that's fine too but this is what it's going to look like what the cutting looks like for this so make sure you label your fabrics after you cut them put them in a little plastic bag or whatever organization system you prefer but you've got to keep these pieces straight because the blocks are going to be very striking when they're done but they're only very striking if you put the fabric in the right positions of the blocks so that's very key organization is key this last month and this month really for the whole quilt but the last two months where the work load is heavier and there's lots of pieces in these blocks so you gotta keep it all straightened out you want to pair up one of your dark strips with one of your background strips and sew them together in a quarter inch seam you can see that the background strip is wider than the dark strip and that's how it's supposed to be and you want to just pair those up and sew them in a quarter inch seam and you want to press toward the light quarter inch seam pressed toward the light on this one after we have sewn and pressed those strip sets and we want to press the seam allowances to the light side we want to lay them together right sides together opposite ends at each end so the light on top of the dark and the dark on top of the light and we want to cut them into one and three-fourths inch increments little segments we're going to cut one and three-quarters and you want to leave them matched up the way they are because we're going to sew them as is so you want to have the light against the dark and the dark against the light so kind of opposites right sides together and cut them in one and three-quarter inch increments so we've cut a bunch of segments into the one and three quarter inch increments as you can see here and this is very chain piecing friendly so you can see here that we are going to chain piece these on our machine be sure to reduce your stitch length to 2.0 1.8 to 2.0 since these are all going to be trimmed and you can just feed them through one right after another and we're we're feeding them through the machine just one right after the other factory style right ladies and men if there's any men doing this i don't know so you can see we're going to open them up and see what they look like here and you can see what they look like when you open them up we sewed opposite to opposite so this is exactly how it's supposed to look now we're going to make a small snip in the seam allowance about one quarter of an inch away from the edge of your dark fabric so you want to make a little snip do not cut the stitching just the seam allowance it's about a quarter inch away from that fabric edge there and here's a close-up of the snip i made and i've marked this with an arrow so you can see exactly how that snip was cut in there just right up to the edge of the stitching but not through the stitching the next step in constructing this block is to draw a 45 degree line a couple of 45 degree lines on the wrong side of this block to mark where we're going to be stitching so i've got this ruler here and pretty much any um quilting ruler any rectangular quilting ruler has these markings on it for angles and so i'm going to use this one and i'm going to do it on a white piece of paper so that you can more easily see what i'm doing with the ruler we need to draw two 45 degree lines going through the intersection of these stitches so i'm going to take my ruler and i'm going to line up the 45 degree line along the bottom of the block and i'm going to manipulate the ruler from the right to the left and back again until i can get the edge of the ruler to go right through that intersection of the stitching so it looks like i've got it lined up so i'm going to take my heat soluble marking pen and i'm gonna make a mark right here and right here and then the tip of the day is to keep handy a little soap scrap i saved my dial soap scraps and i made a mark right there so there's the first of my two marks just like that so now to make my second mark i'm going to keep this angle this line the 45 degree line on this line of the the bottom edge of the block and i'm going to slowly move my ruler from left to right keeping this 45 degree line lined up with the bottom of the block and i'm going to move it down until it's on the second intersection and i've got looks like i've got it lined up about right and i'm gonna hold that in place and i'm gonna do the exact same thing i'm gonna make a mark with my heat soluble marking pen or the marking pen of your choice i like the heat soluble ones and then i am going to use my slip slipper again to mark on the dark fabric and now i've got my stitching lines marked for the next step in making this block so i hope that was an easy way to explain that when you first look at it it seems like it's a little complicated but it really isn't you just have to kind of decipher it and break it down into manageable chunks so these two lines are parallel and they both go through the intersection at 45 degree angle i'm showing this again in slow motion so you can see how it's done you line up the 45 degree line on the bottom of your block and you draw the line at the 45 degree angle so that it goes right through the intersection of that stitching and notice that you have pressed the seams on these blocks toward the background fabric that makes them more visible so you can make the marks more easily and then you make this second mark through so the two lines the two marked lines are parallel and you can see the two lines are marked on the back of that block and notice the seams are flipped where the slit is you can see where the the um the seams are allowed to flip and that's the purpose of the slit you'll see what's going to happen to that slit in a moment now we're going to match up our block that we just sewed with four by three inch rectangles that we cut of our light medium fabric we are laying them right sides together and we're going to match up the edges and make sure the edges are lined up we're going to be trimming these afterwards but we do want to line the edges up the best that we can we're going to sew on the marked lines still with our stitch width reduced stitch length reduced and we're going to sew right through those points not on the other side of the thread but right through where those threads cross and we're going to sew on one line and we're going to sew on the other line and now we're going to use our ruler to cut these two blocks apart we're going to give it a quarter inch cut on the to the right of the seam line you know to give us a quarter inch seam allowance so line up your quarter inch on that sewing line and then cut and you'll see there's a sliver that we're going to cut away there in the center the center piece is removed after we trim and that's where our slit goes that we cut earlier open up your your block and this is what your shaded four patch looks like and the one on the left is the right side and the one on the right is the wrong side you can see i pressed the seams toward the solid triangle now it's time to trim we're going to use our tucker trimmer and we want to line that square up perfectly in the center of the two and a half inch block so this is going to be two and a half inches after we trim and we want to make sure that it's lined up so that little notch that little block in the center is centered on the block and we're trimming trim all four sides and if by chance you're not using the tucker trimmer um here's how you would trim just with a regular uh ruler you know a creative grids or whatever you're using you want you still want to have that that um center part centered in the middle of the block yeah the notch there where the little square comes in it has to be in the center and it's the same concept trim on all four sides and this is where your turing cutting mat can come in really handy and this is what our first two shaded four patch blocks look like here's how you can use your um turing cutting mat to separate the blocks once you've sewn them together yeah once you've made the block and then you want to cut them into two blocks so the turning cutting mat can come in super handy for this now we're making the next set of shaded four patch there's two color schemes going on one involves the medium fabric and one involves the light fabric we're laying our strip sets right sides together and cutting into one and three quarter inch increments i've got my segments all cut and i'm ready for some chain piecing i've drawn my 45 degree lines through those stitched intersections and now i am sewing on those lines to form my shaded four patch blocks here it shows where i have drawn the lines again note the 45 degree line runs along the bottom of the block note that the lines are parallel i know i keep going over this but i want you to understand how these blocks are made you can see the slit too see how i've pressed the seams and the slit allows me to press the seams the way they're pressed more chain piecing and they're on the left you can see where i've got them all lined up and ready to roll and be sure to put some pins in them too to hold it securely so it doesn't shift here's my layout of the feathered friends block on my portable design board it's important that you lay out one block and sew it together and then pattern all your other blocks after it it's easy to get turned around and confused so you got to make sure it's right and here is my first block all sewn together and this is the block that i will use and keep by my sewing machine so that i can pattern all my other blocks after this one here's how i am using my strip stick to press my seams open there's a whole lot of seams on this block and i like to have my seams open just to reduce the bulk and to me i think it just works better but everybody's got a different idea on that so it's your opinion but the strip stick is very handy these are my 18 finished feathered friends blocks say that quick really time really fast 18 finished feathered friends blocks so this is what we've done for this month and next month we're going to combine it with the sawtooth star block to make our our fantastical border for the outside here's what my blocks look like from the back and that's it for this month next month we're going to be combining those two blocks the sawtooth star and the feathered friends to make our final border so have a great month everybody happy sewing take it slow enjoy the process don't stress and remember we want this to be a finished quilt we don't want this languishing in a project box under your bed okay everybody have a great month and thanks again for joining us [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: BERNINA World of Sewing

Views: 250

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Id: N8rYNlR-L5U

Length: 20min 39sec (1239 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021