Dee's Saturday Sampler - Long Time Gone - Log Cabin & HSTs

welcome to saturday sampler in my corner of the world it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside and i hope that you're enjoying your weekend wherever you are and today um i am going to start with sharing some pictures the good news is i am finally able to get into the forum and answer questions and um respond to some of the the comments and uh posts that have been put there and i'm i'm very excited to do that so it's good to be there and it's it was great to see um some pictures and so just for fun let's take a look at some of the work that's been going on in the forum and some of those pictures and quilts this one i believe is gail and if i get your name wrong i certainly apologize for that but um gail i just if that's who this belongs to it's beautiful your your color choices are so rich and wonderful and you've done just a marvelous job and i love this then we have this one which is so springy it certainly is a is a quilt for this um easter weekend and you've done a great job of staying you know on the analogous side of the color wheel and your fresh clean white backgrounds are just just astounding what a what a great job that's been and this one i i think is jackie and again this one reminds me of summer again those rich colors and working with your your backgrounds and and some of your blocks you can really see what's going on in each one i love it and i know that there are some of you this um get rid of those in the background and this one i i believe is is sea green and i know that this was a daunting block for some just the layout of it but look what a great job the star really shines here and fabric choices and everything is just wonderful and what a again such a great job that everyone is doing with their blocks so encouraging and i think this is sarah beth and when i look at this it just makes me happy there are some wonderful things going on in this particular quilt and also here again that i i don't know what your your backgrounds are or you know your sashing is going to be but the background very clean very crisp uh very springy and again just a a great job on everything so that was really a lot of fun to be able to go in and comment to some of your guys's questions and your work and i'm just thrilled that you're posting in the forum so if you haven't been there yet and haven't posted your pictures please do it's really very inspirational to the rest of us to be able to see what what you're up to and the color choices and um how you are choosing to put your blocks together i also understand that there are new people coming into the sew along with a long time gone and welcome i'm glad you've joined us and if by some chance you still need a pattern there are some patterns still in the shop so if you would like to purchase one of those patterns you can go to the quiltshow.com click on shop and when you get there you'll see a drop down menu go to facebook live and youtube click on that and you'll see saturday sampler in that drop down as well click on that and you'll find the patterns in there so if you if you're just starting with this welcome aboard you can go back and and check out uh previous videos on how to do certain blocks if you if you need and want that help and you can also find that on youtube as well um under the quilt show and or under d christopher quilting so there's lots of ways that you can do that as far as the teaching goes i am here to share with you ways that i work at making quilting i've taken a lot of classes i've taught for a long time it's been a really long time i am not sure exactly but 30 plus years and through all of that time i've always been teaching beginners so i've learned a lot from you on how best to to tackle that problem and i'm going to share with you some of the ways that that i do things and help you to grow and learn and be the best that you can i think as a teacher my job is really to to show you how and i'm going to show you how the best way that i know of for me and for most of the people that i teach and this is very different teaching because in the classroom i can share with you the technique and then i can come and help you and encourage you and help you along in that process here i'm showing you the technique and then you're kind of on your own and but i'll i'll be in the forum to answer your questions for that and then i want to say i want to encourage you to strive for success i think perfection is elusive and it's very it's i'm not going to reach it i don't think in this lifetime but i am every day trying to learn something new to be as best as i can do and so i want to i'm going to be sharing with you how to fill your mary poppins bag so that when you need it you can reach in and pull out those techniques and those skills that that you need to do that and i do it online as i'm working as i'm teaching with running commentary um and so i'm really i'm really looking forward to those new that those of you who are new to this so welcome aboard come on in um the rest of of you be sure to post your pictures into the forum so that we can all grow and share from that and i long time ago when i was in college i was my major was education and um i had an art teacher and i had aspirations of doing some stuff with art and i've tried to dabble in that through the years but i remember one morning he was an inspiring creative wonderful guy and kind of world renowned with his artwork and all of that and so i felt very privileged to be learning from him but one thing he pointed out for me is that i was always trying to be perfect and do everything exactly right and he shared something with me that i would like to share with you because i do feel that quilting is definitely an art form it most certainly is and there's a there's a lot that goes on when you are making your own quilts but he told me that day as we were sitting on the grass outside of the art and sciences building that i needed to get out of my head and let my heart show and that has kind of permeated through all of my years of teaching no matter what course it is that i need to teach from the heart and so i hope that you enjoy the process as we go and today with that in mind going to the heart i coming back to today to just kind of touch on and work a little bit more with log cabins the last week's lesson on courthouse steps was really the process isn't much different because the courthouse steps is a form of the log captain block so i would like to share with you some some additional tips on that with our log cabin which is a half log cabin today and then i want to show you something that i've recently learned and added to my mary poppins bag and to my toolbox is a method of making half square triangles that i had not seen before and that intrigued me and i would like to pass that on and share it with you today so let me change cameras and we'll go down to the table and um i have a partial block right here you know completed and for this each of these were really a different width and it made that fun and kind of an interesting block and i really enjoyed it and i want to go back and share with you some of the things that decisions i was making as i put these together and the first one is as always what fabrics am i going to use and the fabrics that i chose way at the beginning was going to be complementary and i was going to go with cool and warm colors across from each other on the color wheel and that's what i'm pretty much stuck with and i want it to stay true to the quilt itself to be scrappy because i i adore scrappy and the more fabrics i can use the better and so i i have my warm and cool colors and remember that when we're talking warm and cool our warm colors are our oranges our pinks and reds and yellows our cool colors are blues and greens and somewhere in there violets can go one way or the other depending on what colors you put them with and what values and value is probably even more important than color because value is going to let your block shine the the block itself and what it what you're creating with that and so for this one i stuck with my warm and cool warm colors tend to come forward and pop out at you and so if you look at this carefully and i'm going to switch back to the camera because i want you to look behind behind me and see where i used value as my darker colors and my lighter colors uh less you know saturation in them and you can almost see um it looks kind of like a flying geese the way i arrange them on the wall whether or not i keep them that way when i put it in the quilt is yet to be determined but you can see that from a distance and when you take a picture of something it gives you a little bit more focused look on that so that is what i've done here on this side i've used lighter value fabrics and every other one has been you know the warm color cool color warm cool all the way down and that gives me these pop out a little bit more and these support those warmer brighter colors and then true to what i think is tradition sometimes it's just made up myth but um court you know as far as a log cabin the center was considered the hearth of the home and red is traditionally what people put in there and i kind of stick with that and so i i left this beautiful kind of burgundy red um here and i used it in all of my blocks and give it some continuity so just to tell you my thinking process i kept this the same in the blocks that i needed to make and i went with cool and warm cool and warm and i kept light on one side and darker value on the other and now as i sew and put these together i went to my strips of fabric and depending on what as i as i got my my strip together i wanted to make sure that i was measuring and and keeping things correct and i want to talk a little bit about piling up fabrics and i you know i have four or five fabrics here and i had lots of leftover strips and i wanted to share with you a couple of things that that i that i do when i have strips like that with the cutting of that i this was very straight on the bottom and so i can square this up by laying my ruler again out here and this is how i how i approach things and why i love these rulers the quilter select rulers so much is because they grip and they hold things in place so i have lined up my fabric and i'm going to use the grid to make that first that first cut on this and so i do not look here in my lining up of my ruler and the reason for that being is that this plastic is about an eighth of an inch and i have noticed that when um my students have been cutting and they're getting off and i look at how things are lined up this does not always look the same and i and i have kept track of that that if i were to line up here what this is up here and this is down here are are different and so i move it out about an inch and away and i make sure that black line on my ruler is covering what's out here and then i know that i'm equal at the top and bottom because that eighth of an inch of plastic does a little bit of distortion if i am trying to line it up from here to here because your your vision is at a slant so i'm going to cut this and in the cutting process when i have two or three fabrics stacked up like this and cut it and i never cut more than four layers that is my max because once i get past that for me fabrics start to move and i know that that many i believe you should only cut one layer at a time and that's great but i have found that if i start within my fabric go back and then move forward i don't get that pull and i get a i'm gonna have to yeah make sure that that gets cut and i did not press hard enough but um but i wanted to share that with you so let me go back to a shorter one um well i for next week will change been doing a lot of cutting this week and didn't realize how much i was doing so again if i was cutting this down for my last strip in that i'm going to start in the fabric come back and go forward and then i'm going to measure over my one inch and here is where again i love this ruler because the lines are very thin i can lay that black line right next to the edge of my strip if i go over and lay that black line on my strip i'm going to lose something and my block is not going to be accurate and for the the log cabin if you're cutting your strips exactly what they're supposed to be one can get off fairly easily so i am again if i want one inch i'm going to lay that line right next to where i'm cutting so that now i have my one inch strip and i can measure it to the length that i need for this particular block so with that so it's always good to have a nice sharp and now in this process of sewing this on i they've been cut to size and again i am going to always in my pinning start from you know the edges and pin there first and i do that um so that i'm sure that they are in line um and they're they're lining up exactly as they need to be and are even with the edges of my block because each time i go around i will size that up and when i pin i go straight down and then turn so i don't push my fabric because i want the back side and i see that i need to adjust that just a bit i don't want to see the back on the front and i don't want to see the front on the back so i'm going to stitch this and here is where again i want to make sure that i am very accurate in my quarter inch seam so that i get my full size for my block and i'm using definitely the foot of my machine as well as the the grid here to make sure that my quarter inch seam is and i use these um leaders and enders sometimes they're blocks for the the next quilt or the a quilt that i'm already working on and oftentimes they're just little scraps of fabric and so now i have uh this sewn on and in the pressing process again we always sink our seams and i run so we we're going to sink our thread and i run the iron right along that seam and then i just let it sit because i don't want to distort my fabric i i don't use steam um because the the wet on there tends to push and distort the fabric so now the last one that i need to put on is this one and again i'm doing exactly the the same thing i am pinning first in the corners pushing my needle straight down and then i make sure that is lined up with the fabric and straight down i'm turning that and again i i really paying very close attention to the edge of my foot and the line on the grid and or the your machine because i know many of you your machines have you know the the quarter inch line on the the table of your machine so whatever whatever helps you get or so a slightly scant because now you can go back and you can measure and make sure that your block is the size that it is supposed to end up being and so when i begin my measuring process for this i will put my ruler down and i will match up corners and sitting down is not i wouldn't say is the best um and so when i when i get started on this and each time i go around i again want my lines to to match up and i just want to point out right along here i i can put my seam lines each time excuse me and i can um trim off anything around the outside mostly today i'm very happy it wasn't much that i had to clean up off of those two more that just that but i but i walk my way through what it's supposed to be and each time around i i check that my seams are lining up and squaring up this block it's a it's one that i pretty much will square up after putting on each next row so now we have a finished block and it can be added to the others and you would continue to make these and move through the biggest challenge i think on this one is keeping track of what width that and which round that you are and i mean they number it 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 and 15. and they number it and give you the widths and work at that and keep it going so that i think is the one of the bigger challenges of this block so with that being said i want to move to what we're going to be working on for today we're going to be making half square triangles because this block is half square triangles the first block in that the second one is also half square triangles and um the third block is half square triangle so there's a lot of half square triangles in our future and i you know when i'm i'm talking scrappy and i and i love a scrappy block and i and i like to use a lot of fabrics in that and certainly jen does in her in her quilt in the book but there's a lot of different design elements that we can do with each one of these blocks and change them up to give it our own personal touch and next week we're going to spend some time on design but there's a number of half square triangles to make so for this week you're going to just push out all the the half square triangles and i'm also going to let this be a week of of any catching up that you may need to do i know that a few of you are working ahead um and so you may not need to catch up but there are some who are still um working on past blocks and that so we're we're getting close to coming to an end of this so get this all of these half square triangles made so this new method that i discovered through a friend is by a woman named beth helfter and she has created a method called the accordion method of making half square triangles it was something that i had not seen before and i believe she is self-published in this and her book is called oompa jazz up your scrap quilts with the accordion sewn half square triangles method and what this does that's different than other methods is that it allows for you to every half square triangle is going to come out different when you do the method where you take and put a line down the center of one of your blocks and sew a quarter inch on each line when you have completed that half square triangle you have two half square triangles that are the same and this method that i'm going to show you of hers with the accordion method does not do that every single one of your half square triangles will come out differently they'll have a different background and a different here is two that i made earlier this was one of the squares and this was two different squares and when they came together so i have two different backgrounds and this background will be on another i have it right here so that same background the next time it's going to be with this fabric and not this one again so that was the fun of this so here's another thing to add to your toolbox and you may or may not like it but i thought it was worth sharing so to start this you you could draw all the lines i am choosing not to draw all of the lines but for teaching purposes this first one i want to share with you why you might want to at least do a couple with with lines on it just so that you can figure out where you want to sew on with your machine because you are sewing on the diagonal and this triangle out here to the left is not going to be visible um you know there's nothing that you have that shows you where to sew so i'm going to talk you through how to set that up and get your quarter inch on each side now what i have done is i've oversized the blocks that i need to to cut for these are going to finish at two and a half and so if they're going to fin if a half square triangle is going to finish at two and a half as you know you need to add 7 8 of an inch to your um square so that it will finish or be unfinished at two and a half and finish it two inches so but i i i went up to three i might have even gone three and an eighth now that i think about it so when i put this over under my machine i am going to do two things one is i have the 45 degree line here so i want to lay that up against my 45 degree line but first i want to make sure the point is here on the quarter inch line and then i'm going to line my side on that 45 degree angle and what happens up here what i noticed is that when i have this lined up at the bottom the point is on the inside of my bernina 97 foot it might be your 37 or whatever machine that you have but on mine it is on the inside of this foot right here is where my quarter inch is so i can make sure that i am on point at the bottom down here i start at that 45 line i get my presser foot going down and then i start to sew and i am again watching that point go through um down here so what i would suggest to you is find out on your foot by drawing that line the first time where do you have to line your block up to do this without drawing all the lines you know and taking the time to do that because there are a lot of these half square triangles and so whatever it is on this side over here that you can mark on your table with tape or whatever or if you by chance have this grid how you can line that up so i am going to continue following my quarter inch line then you will remove your block and here is is where this becomes interesting and noteworthy so i'm going to take this top fabric and i'm going to bring it from the left side to the right side and then i'm going to take the underneath fabric and bring it to the left and i kind of do a little bit of finger pressing just to keep it there so i only have one piece of fabric here and this is overlapped to itself to the left then because this is my background fabric i'm going to pick up my next piece and i am going to put it into that corner and i i found that it was a little bit helpful even though i gave myself a little bit extra fabric it was helpful to put this in um the pins in so that it would stay it would just stay in place and i didn't have to fight with it on that so now i have my next piece on top of this half square triangle and i'm going to now again get everything lined up as it needs to be and then i am going to get it right up where i want it and at this point i only have this down here to guide me and so my eyes are down there to make sure that point stays on that quarter inch line and i am going to um create five of these so again i go to my left and i'm going to pick this up and move it to my right and i'm going to take the underneath and move that all to the left and again i'm just going to slightly finger press that for good measure i'm going to now because this is my darker value i'm going to take my background and again line it up with my block and i'm just gonna keep repeating this and i i'm gonna go five because if i don't um what i do at the end is gonna get kind of tight you could literally make an accordion of all of the blocks that you need i have only worked with about 10 to 12 at a time which seems to you know be fine for me i can still go pretty quickly on that and so again i am watching down at my point down here keeping that at my quarter inch and my leaders and enders are really just keeping it from knotting on the back so again i am going to take go from the left move this to the right pull all of that to the back and put my next block on right here and this will give me lots of design options for those four blocks different blocks that we need so again i just to reiterate i at this point is right here on the inside this one is down here i usually get this one in place first hold my finger there and start moving that through and then keeping that point on my quarter inch line down here [Music] i'm going to pull that forward to the right those back to the left and grab my next white piece pin it in place again pushing your pins straight down lining up those corners i'm really for those of you who are on today i am thrilled that you are here on this probably busy family weekend with the holiday and hopefully um you'll kind of enjoy or at least be intrigued by this um i i'm glad i have this method in my in my arsenal of of things my arsenal my tool bag box my mary poppins bag however you want to say it yeah a couple more rounds here and then i think it's it's going to be long enough to to show you how this all comes together so thank you for your patience in watching me sew put that in kind of close again to the right the underneath to the left and two more pieces and then we are going to be set i just for this demo i i chose five of the dark and and five of the background because we're going to at the last stop of this method we are going to um we're going to create a tube and this was a good number to pull the pin out a little too soon on that one but that happens and because i gave myself a little bit of extra room i know that i am fine with that and so again and and again i suppose if you wanted to if some of you have taken to the the glue method you certainly could glue those points so that they stay put and um but again if you oversize your blocks you're going to have a little room um if those errors happen like it just did for me i'm not worried about it because i know i have that little extra extra space and then for our last one um so i've done i if you can see here i've done one two three four five of the printed fabrics and one two three four and now i'm going to put the fifth and last one on and then we will be finishing up with this um it's very i find people to be so absolutely clever and amazing i wish some days that my brain worked like this that could could see this happen every once in a while i surprise myself and actually figure out some clever little thing um but i'm glad she did because it's it's been kind of fun and when i'm not on camera and trying to talk and sew at the same time i um i can i feel like i can accomplish a lot more half square triangles in a shorter amount of time so at this point we are we are here and again this one goes to the right everything so that you're only working with one um layer of fabric so this is all this direction to make the tube now i'm going to take the top this side the top of this and then this one on this side and they're going to come together and again i'm going to line them up the same way that i have been doing but this time it's going to form a tube and now so i'm going to get this one in all right now i have this little tube thing and it makes this kind of look to it so i'm going to um and if you notice that in between there is only one layer of fabric and that's exactly what it's supposed to be and so you would take your scissors for the first one it's and you're just going to cut down through the center and it you know so you're only cutting one layer and that brings that back open and now i'm going to take the time to um work this from the back side and i am going to trim all of these i'm going to get a smaller ruler it works a little better on my mat and then i'm just going to um keep all of this to my right side because i'm right-handed if i was left-handed it would go the other direction and i'm going to trim all of these off and again i only want um let me turn it this you know it lays a little bit flatter for me that way so again from corner to corner i am trimming those off and so i will open that up so that this middle that i'm cutting is only one layer of fabric under there and i'm going to get and so because i started with five squares i'm going to get 10 half square triangles out of this and now is the process um that you're going to take is to square all of these um up and there's lots of methods for squaring it up the traditional one would be to press this open you know sync your threads and put your ruler here at the size that you need and trim it up and so i you know i'm going to be trimming this up to about two and a half so i'm going to lay it in there and i can again do this the traditional method i know someone put into the comments and gave a website to show you it a quick easy way i'm going to show you another one in just a second so you can um do it and and this is what i call traditional it's one that we've learned and lots of people use it so you're going to get you have room to trim them up and get your perfect squares but another way that um i have found that to do this uh the block locks work great and this is kind of my version of a block lock because i need these to line up to be two and a half on the side of my ruler i marked with blue tape my two and a half and my two and a half and i put a tape across that corner and what i do with that tape is that i lay this here and i put that tape on my seam line because it's really it's at my half half an inch i know this is probably not overly visible to you but my stitch line i can see my stitches right along here and i do that so that number one i get an accurate um two a two and a half inch square and also that takes up the space that the thread takes in my in my pressing when i press it over and i this was trial and error to to make sure that i was getting that correctly and of course you know the cutting wasn't exactly quarter inch but i know that i was sewing at a you know a quarter inch so my seam line is running right below there and then i can take and trim both sides of that and then once i have that done i'm going to trim off my little points so they're not sticking out and when i open that up after doing that again then i can press it it's picking up all my little fuzz here i can sink the thread i can press it open and i should have my two and a half inch half square triangle and i do so that is another way you can trim it up and use a little bit of blue tape to help you with that process on this and the trimming should go pretty pretty quickly and pretty fast for you so as you can see on this fabric i have two different backgrounds for this particular fabric and so again with this method you will um no two will be alike when you're done and that was kind of the fun um in the enjoyment and thought you might enjoy learning that technique if you had not seen it before like like i had not and you've got let me share with you again um the woman's name is beth helfter and you can find her on the internet if you desire to find the book and again there's um 32 squares here that you need and you're going to need 35 for you know which is going to give you 60 64 half square triangles and then you're going to use 35 here you're going to use more on this this particular block and this one so there's there's a number and this one is a different size of half square triangle that you're going to be making for this block next week again i will share with you some design possibilities for you really emphasizing value and we'll put together also and give you some pressing tips and things for this block on your flying geese that you hopefully have been making all along i i noticed in the forum that some of you have already put this block together and that's awesome but for those who may not have i'll give you a few pressing tips and putting those together so that those points are nice and sharp and there you take the bulk out of the seams so that should keep you busy for this week and give you give you some time if you need some ketchup time or whatever and as you can see in the back depending on how you choose your values and how you place the colors that you have chosen for your fabric you can get some real different looks with this block this log cabin block by using lights and darks or you know your warm colors cool colors or just make it completely scrappy and that works very well too and that's pretty much what what jen did in her pattern but again this is you've got the techniques and you've got the tools let your heart shine through and you're going to have a quilt that you're going to love and i'm so proud of those of you who are are new to quilting and have taken on this project and from what i've seen on the forum you're doing a great job so keep posting those pictures have a great week and we'll see you next saturday bye

Channel: THE QUILT SHOW

Views: 13,745

Rating: 4.8927612 out of 5

Keywords: dee christopher quilting, dee christopher saturday sampler, Long time Gone quilt sampler, Long Time Gone Quilt pattern, Jen Kingwell patterns, log cabin quilt block tutorial, Half square triangle quilt tutorial

Id: O_jBpLXDSfY

Length: 53min 15sec (3195 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021