Welcome to SewVeryEasy, my name is Laura. And I have found a piece of fabric that made me clear off my table and stop what I was doing so I could start a project. When I came across this cartoon panel, I had to have it. It is a panel from Timeless Treasures and the cartoon characters—if you look carefully you might recognize them as Earl and Opal Pickles. And Opal has taken up quilting and poor Earl is going to have to put up with it. Now the creator of this cartoon's characters has been doing this for about twenty-five years. It's Brian Crane and his cartoons are very very funny. Now I'll put a link in the description to Brian Crane so you can check out his cartoons. I'll also put a link in the description to the fabric in case you want to get some. The other thing that the fabric came with is this cartoon strip. Now it's going to be a lot of fun to cut up to go with the big panel. So the other fabric I chose with the two cartoons is this black and white swirl, this black and colored swirl, and there's this very awesome piece of fabric. It looks like the selvages have been cut sewn together on the bias and it is going to be a lot of fun to work with this fabric and it's going to be very easy because it will hide a multitude of sins. This is going to be a fabric to keep in my stash because I know I will use it a lot. So the first thing we're going to need to do is square up the panel. Now you can follow along with any panel that you have because this is a sew-as-you-go kind of technique and you will be able to square it up as you go along. It's very hard to cut panels because they don't want to square up to the pictures, because the fabric is printed and they have a tendency to shift. So they just don't square up the way we like them to square up. So I'm going to show you a couple of tips and techniques on how to fool the eye and yet keep that squared up. So let's get this first panel cut and squared up so that we can get some borders going. As with most panels, the ruler will not align up to the inside frame of the picture, so we need to sort of force it and pretend as we go along. So I am going to want to cut 1½" from that border. So I'm going to line up the 1½" from this corner and 1½" from this corner. Now I can see that the fabric looks like it's bowing this way. Here's my 1½" line and it doesn't fit. So you can just take the fabric and just tug it slightly under the ruler until you come to that 1½" mark, and then you're able to cut that off. So it's 1½" from each border and now I'm going to do the same for each of the sides. I'm not going to match up the ruler along this edge; I'm going to match up as best I can to the frame of the inside of the panel. So again, I'm going to line up 1½", and I can pull or push the fabric in so that it will follow that line at 1½". And it doesn't have to be exact. It's just going to get you as close as you can to the 1½". Cut it, and do that all the way around. So 1½" has been cut all the way around, as close as I can to the border of the fabric. Now this is not going to be square, and that's okay because the next border is what's going to make it square. So for the next border, and this is going to be the border that will square it up, I try to find a fabric that is very similar to that fabric that it's going to butt up against. So I could choose one that has this color, but from a distance you can see that it looks a little bit darker, whereas this one has the same appearance; it has the same feel to it. This has sort of irregular dots and this has irregular dots, but the lightness is what we'll read on this, versus the dark, so I'm going to use this border next. Now I have to decide how big to make this border because this is the one that's going to be squared up. I do like to make it bigger than what this little border is going to be so that your eye is more pulled to this color than this one, even though they're very similar. So if this is 1½", I would like this to be finished about 2", but because I need to square it up, I need to cut it an inch bigger. So I'm going to cut enough to do a 3" border all the way around the panel. So the borders have been put on and the seams have been ironed flat and open. They're not going to one side or another. And by doing that, your eye does not see any shadows here or any lumps; it is nice and smooth. And this is the look that you want because what you have done is you have tricked the eye to think that this is just the continuation of this panel. Now you're able to take this to the mat and you're able to square it up. Now when you need to square up a very large piece of fabric like this panel, you need to find the center marks going in one direction and the other of the panel. And that's where you need to fold it. So in my case the center mark is right along here and I'm going to fold that making sure that this is straight and this is straight. Just ignore the sides because this is where the squaring-up happens. So take a long ruler and find the straight of the fold and have it match along one of your measurements. Now if the ruler is not long enough to come to the end, use another ruler and have the two butt up against each other. So I have the ruler and a mark along the folded edge. Then as you look all the way down here you will see that this is different: I have it very wide here and I have almost nothing there. And that's fine because this is where you're going to take this extra off and you're going to be able to square it up. So make sure that the fold line is straight on a mark on the ruler and you'll be able to cut all the way down and cut this extra off. Now it's not so important what the measurement is at this point because you can trim it down once it is squared up. You see what the difference is here? And I will do that to the other side. So I have the two sides that are squared matching the fold. Now I need to cut off the bottom. Again, if you don't have a ruler long enough, buddy it up with another ruler. And at this point, I can use the cut lines on each side to find the straight line here. The bottom's been done; now it is squared up. So you can see it is all squared up and you have fooled the eye to think that that is all one border and that that last border was not cut crooked—however, it was! Now we can go and put the next borders on without worrying about it. So the next border is going to consist of some of these cartoon strips plus this fabric. So I want the fabric to appear that it's running from one side down into the other. In order to do that I need to cut the fabric a little bit different. So I am going to cut two strips down the selvage edge and then two strips are going to come along this edge. So here's the fold and here is the selvage, so this is the cut edge and normally you would cut the strips going in this direction. But to start with you are going to need to cut coming down this way, all the way down. That way, when this is put on the quilt it's going to give it that continuous look. So I have cut four strips—because I'm going to have two borders—four strips along the selvage. Now I can open it up and I can cut four strips in this direction, along the width of the fabric. So now by cutting your borders from the length of the fabric and the width of the fabric, you can see that the stripes are all going to be going in the same direction. The side borders you're going to be able to put away for now and we're going to work on the top and bottom borders. Now I want to be able to place an entire cartoon strip in the borders. I'm going to need six cartoon strips so you need to choose the six that you want and cut around a quarter inch all the way, leaving the four [squares] together. So we're going to construct these borders first and then we'll put them on the quilt second. So out of the six comic strips that you cut, you need to sew two on to the ends here; two on the ends here. And if you keep your fabric laid out in this order you will keep your stripes going in the same direction. So we'll get these sewn together, then we're going to repeat, taking the same size measurements to make another border with this. You need to cut five strips from the polka dot fabric, and three of them are going to make the outside borders, so one and a half and one and half is what you're going to need for the left and the right of the quilt, so you can sew those together and put them aside. Now with these you need to do the same as we did before: You need to take one cartoon strip and sew it on that corner; one cartoon strip and sew it on that corner. And then you have all your borders done and we just need to assemble them. So let's recap the borders. We have four of the strips cut along the length of the fabric. We have two polka dot borders and these are going to go along the side. These six are going to go along the top, so we have two with the cartoon in this direction with the stripe, and one with the black and white. And then the opposite: The cartoon is here with the stripe. Now these are all going to be put on the quilt just like a log cabin quilt. Just like the log cabin, you're going to do one side, a bottom, the side, the top. Side, bottom, side, top. So let's start with the stripe going in this direction. Sew all the way to the bottom, trim it off, press, and then we're going to do the next border. Now that I have the one side sewn on and pressed and trimmed, I'm going sew on the next one. And this is the one that the cartoon is in this corner and you will see the stripes are going in the same direction. So I'm going to sew that on and trim it. The bottom has been sewn on, trimmed; now you need to put the next side on. And because you've cut it down lengthwise, it doesn't matter what direction. It will match. Side's done; top. Bind it up, sew all the way, press, and trim. With the top on, one round is done. Now we need to do the second round. And we're going to put a solid piece on the black and white polka dot. Side is done; now we're going to sew on the cartoon that's attached to the black and white. Sew it on, trim it off, and then we're going to put the solid black all the way down the next side. The side's done; now top, iron, trim. So the second round has been done. Now I'm going to continue with the third round. Stripe onto the right, cartoon on the bottom, stripe on this left side, cartoon on the top. So the three rounds with the cartoons in the corner are done. Now we're going to add one more polka dot border and we will be done. Well, if this is not fun and happy well I don't know what is. It was very easy to make even though it looks very complicated because of the striped fabric. That striped fabric being designed on the bias really makes a difference, however, it was not on the bias. You just need to remember that you need to cut your side strips down the length of the fabric. The top and the bottom are going to be from the width of the fabric. You do not need to add the cartoon corners, however, I do like them so I wanted to add them. And it's that easy. Once you have that center squared up, well, the rest of it goes together very nicely. I'll put a link in the description for all of the widths of the fabric that you're going to need and how much fabric you're going to need. Well, I'm so glad you could join me today on SewVeryEasy. Feel free to subscribe and, as always, come on back and let's see what we're sewing next time
in the sewing room. Bye for now!
