Into the Woods Sew Along Week 2: The Simple Wedge Trees

Welcome back to Week Two. I’m Misty and this  is our Into the Woods Sew Along. And this week   we’re going to be tackling our grove of trees.  We already cut these but I did want to mention   again if you haven’t already done your cutting,  the large simple wedge template does make this   very, very easy. And I highly recommend it but  if you don’t have this or don’t want to invest in   this template there is a link in the description  where you can print off a paper template for free.   So be sure to get that if you still need it. And  then we just need to make sure we have all of   our pieces to get started with this project.  We’re not making blocks here. This is just a   row assembly so it makes it really, really quick  and simple. And to do that you’re going to need   seven red. Sorry I’m going to do that part again.  It makes it really, really easy. And to do that   you’re going to need seven red wedge trees, seven  black and 14 to 16 of your white. And I say that   I’ll get into that a little bit more. You need at  least 14. I have a preference. I prefer to have 16   of those. And there’s plenty of your background  yardage to do it either way, whichever one suits   you better. We’re also going to cut out seven 3  ¼ by 1 ½ inch strips for our trunks. You can see   them here in the quilt. So you’ll need those.  And then we’re going to need our pieces for in   between the trunks. So you can see here it starts  with a little piece. This is a 3 ¼ by 3 ½ so you   have to watch since it’s only a quarter of  an inch different but it is a rectangle.   And then here we have 3 ¼ by 6 ¼. So you’re going  to need two of these small ones per row and six of   these larger rectangles per row. And that’s really  all you need. So let’s go ahead and get started. We’re going to make this row that you see here.  So as you can see one of the rows starts with a   red tree and one starts with a black. So on ours  we’re going to go ahead and start with a red tree.   So I have that here. And we’re going to  start just by making sure our tree is   pointing upward just like we want it in the  quilt. And then we’re going to take one of   our background wedges. These are exactly the  same size. They’re cut exactly the same way.   And we’re just going to lay  these right sides together.   Now let’s talk a little bit about matching up our  trees because it can be a little bit confusing.   Since we’re not dealing with squares, we’re not  going to go corner to corner with our wedge. We’re   actually going to have the tip of our tree hang  over just about a quarter of an inch. And while   you’re getting the hang of this you can totally  come with your ruler and check and see. And I   can see that’s just about a quarter of an inch  that’s peeking over. And I like to fold this back   and kind of do the same thing. We look pretty  good there as well. And so the reason that   we’re doing that is because we want our seams  to still nest and lay as straight as possible.   And if we actually went point to point these  would get a little bit off as we started   sewing. So it’s just an eyeball situation,  and this is one of those practice really does   make, not perfect, because we’re not trying to be  perfect, practice does make better here. So we’re   just going to take some time. And I want to be  totally honest when I first did these wedge trees   I had to use my handy seam ripper quite a few  times. And that’s ok. But I’ll talk you through it   and if we see a mistake that’s not something  that I would be happy with I’ll pick it out   and we’ll just make it work. And so don’t  be afraid if you have to try and try again. So let’s go ahead and take this to the  machine. And we’re going to line this up. Again   I’m just eyeballing. I’ve gotten pretty  good at this now, for that quarter inch.   And then we’re just going to sew down the side  here. Make sure that we’re staying all lined up.   There we go.   And then now we can fold this open. Oh and that  looks beautiful. That turned out so nice. You   can see as we fold our seams back that’s going  to lay really nice. So I actually just sit here   at the machine and I’m going to sew these  one after the other. Some people prefer to   sew these in sets like this. And I think that’s  actually how the pattern is written is to just   sit and sew sets together. You can totally do  that. For me as you know I like to chain piece.   I don’t like to have to get up from my machine too  much so I’m just going to grab my piles here and   I’m just going to pull them closer. And I’m just  going to add one after the other at the machine. Next up we have a black tree. Remember  we’re going to alternate colors,   red and black in between our background  white trees. And so again I’m just going   to fold this over. And we’re going to make  sure we have that quarter inch overhang.   And we’re just going to take this  and sew our quarter inch seam.   I always take a few stitches at the beginning  there and then line up my bottom, sew down the   side. So again I’ll roll that back. That’s still  looking so nice. The thing that you want to look   for is when your two trees come together you can  see these are lining up. And I have a quarter inch   seam allowance there. And so from the bottom of my  trees to where the tip of the white background is   you can see that there’s plenty of space for me  to come through with my quarter inch seam later.   So those are the things that I’m watching  for as I’m sewing all of my rows together. So up next we’re going to add another background.  And we’re just going to keep going back and forth.   And I do kind of finger press at the tip   just because I want to make  sure that this is laying nicely.   And actually, here’s another little pro tip. Once  you’ve sewn one that you’re really happy with,   when I lay this on I can actually  make sure that my point lines up   exactly with that point. And so then I know my  piece is in the same place as that last one and   I can be pretty confident that it’s going to work  out and lay nicely. So now I’ve got that lined up.   We’re going to take this and sew our quarter  inch seam, pause, line up our bottom edge   and just zoom down the side.   There we go. And roll that back. That still  looks so nice. And then we’ll just keep   adding. Red is up next. I’m using that same trick  with my seam allowance down here at the bottom   to make sure my corners match up. I  don’t know if you guys can see that.   And then I have that quarter inch overhang  here at the top. And I can just sew down.   This one got a little off at the bottom.  I’m actually going to go ahead and take   one more seam and see. Because I still  have plenty for my seam allowance here,   this one is still right. This one might have  just stretched a little bit. I’m going to   go ahead and add one more. As long as that one  works out ok I”m not going to pull this one out.   A lot of the times in quilting,  we can just make it work   and we can trim things off straight as long  as we have those seam allowances that we need.   So you just need to remember here that you’re  alternating your print with your background so   that our trees are always pointing up. That turned  out really nice so I’m just going to keep going.   I’m not going to let that one little thing bother  me. So we’re just going to add the next one.   You can see I’m taking most of my time  to just make sure everything is lined up   as best as I can with that  little bit of overhang. And   we’re just going to keep going until  we have seven trees sewn together. Alright. We’re going to add our last tree.   And then we can add the trunks.   Alright. These are all sewn together. And you  can see we have our trees all in a row. And now   what we need to do is we need to create this  straight piece on the edge. Now if you read   in the pattern they recommend taking one of your  wedges and cutting it in half. And theoretically   this should work just fine. There’s  no reason that it won’t but for me   I tend to have way better luck if I just attach  a whole wedge, sew it just like normal and then   come back and trim it. So that’s how I’m going to  show you. We’re going to add this last background   wedge to the front and the back and then we’ll  bring it back here and we’ll trim it off straight.   Ok so now you can see I”ve added a whole  wedge to the start and the end of my row   of trees. I’m actually going to go ahead and  give this a nice good press. This is actually   a block or a row I should say where I like to use  Best Press or some starch just to kind of prevent   stretching if you’re interested. But  just going to go ahead and press this   so everything is laying nicely and we don’t  have anything tucked and our seams are all   going where we want them. So I just kind  of gently, again you don’t want to distort   these wedges. But you do want to make  sure that they are pressed nice and flat.   There we go. That looks better. So now let me grab my ruler here.   And I like to make sure that my bottom and  my top edge are lined up. And so you can see   I’m on this straight line down here and this half  inch line down here. And I like to just go ahead   and slide this over so that I have about a quarter  inch of overhang. And I do that so that I make   sure when I’m sewing all of this together, I’m  not losing this bottom edge of my tree. And so I’m   going to go ahead and trim this off. Again double  checking, making sure I’m as straight as I can be.   Line this up a little bit more because we only get  to do this once so we do want to be very accurate.   There we go. I think that looks good. I’m also  checking my ruler on the ruler lines since I have   my row I can make sure here I’ve got this quarter  of an inch line and this quarter of an inch line   and everything is where I want it. I just want  to be really thorough. And then I can trim that   off straight. Then we’re going to do the same  thing on the other side. Again line up our row,   go over by about a quarter of an inch, check  that we’re lined up on the bottom. And I think   we are good to go. It’s a little farther than  I’d like. There we go. And trim. There we go. So now we’re going to go ahead and make the  trunks for our trees. And so this is really simple   straight sewing. We can set our tree tops aside  for a moment. And we can pick up those background   rectangles and the cute little tree trunks that we  had cut earlier. And we’re going to start with our   3 ¼ by 3 ½ and then we can add one of our tree  trunks. This is an inch and a half by 3 ¼.   And then we’ll alternate until we get to the  end of the row with a tree trunk and our 6 ¼   piece here just to create that long strip that  we need. So that’s what I’m going to do. I just   take all of these over to the machine with me.  And I’m just going to add one after the other   starting with our smaller piece first.   Alright so this is our last tree trunk. I’m going  to add this on and then we’re going to finish off   the row with that 3 ¼ by 3 ½ inch rectangle.  We start and end with that smaller piece.   And we do that to make sure that our tree  trunks end up in the middle of our trees.   So then let’s add that. Again you do want to  be careful since this is just a quarter inch   difference that you have it turned the right way  on this piece here. It should be 3 ¼ high and 3   ½ wide. And that is the row of our tree trunks.  So we’re just going to press these really well.   And I like to make sure, since we are dealing  with black and white here, I kind of take my   time on the pressing and make sure all of  my seams are going in towards the trunk.   I just don’t want them to show through.   So I just can lift and roll and make sure that  my seams are going the way that I want them to.   And after you’ve pressed it from the top you  can go back from the back side and make sure   they’re all going the way you want them  to. Just always press from the top first.   There we go. Let’s flip these  over and see how they’re looking.   Those look pretty good. This one  is going a little crazy. Whoops.   Now for this particular part I’m not pressing it  any way to have it line up because we don’t have   to line these with any other seams. But like  I said I do want the seams to be hidden behind   that black fabric. So there we go. Our row is all  done. And now we can attach it to our tree tops. 2022And so this is so fun. And we can just  take this to the machine, lay these right sides   together . I always put the trunks on top of the  trees just because this has a little bit more body   and gives me more to work with and I don’t have to  worry about it getting any waves or anything like   that in it. Now with that being said, I do always  like to make sure that I kind of pin my center one   so that I know it’s lined up. So  I'm going to grab some pins here.   And you can do that. We’re just going to fold  this guy in half. I know this one is the middle.   So I’m going to fold this in half and I’m  just going to finger press a seam right here.   And I just find on projects like this it  helps me keep everything lined up since   there isn’t a reference point for these  tree trunks. Just to have a few places   where I’ve created a guide. And so here is my   center. And then I know if I start at the  top here and sew to this point I should have   everything lined up and again on the second half.  That’s really the only pin that I put in. And   so we’re going to take this to the machine and  we’re going to sew down our quarter of an inch.   So we’re coming up to that place that  we pinned. I’ve actually pinned it out   of the way so I don’t have to take  that out. I’m just going to watch.   You never want to sew over a pin so  take your time. You can always pull   that out if you need to.We’re just going to  readjust, make sure everything is lined up.   And so I don’t know if you can see here,  this is that one tree where my bottom,   one of the pieces just kind of hung over a little  bit more. So on this I’m going to line up with my   black piece because I still have my quarter inch  there. And so I’m going to use that as my guide   which means I’m going to have a little  bit extra red hanging over on this side.   And then we’re coming up to the end here.   There we go. So now we can  just press this nice and flat.   And I do like to press my  seams up towards the tree.   Again I just don’t want those seams to show  through my white background. So I’m just running   my iron along the edge here. Whoops. It’s being a  little difficult. Oh you know why. My pin is still   in there. I’m like why isn’t that folding back?  I don’t want to iron over that. There we go.   This should be a little easier now. Ok. We can  just roll those back. Now those look so nice.   I love it. Alright. So now all that’s left on our rows of trees  is to add the sashing strip to either side.   And so those are just strips from our  background that measure 1 ½ by 11 ½.   So I’m just going to sew one of  these to either side just like so.   There we go. Let me turn this  around and do the other side.   So you can see here I do have a little bit  of overhang and I don’t know if it’s just my   seam allowances were a little bit off but I’m  just again going to line up with the edge of my   trees because I know that’s right. So actually  let’s go ahead and take this and trim it off,   just so I’m not dealing with that.  I’ll just make sure that everything is   straight. I’ve just got like just under a  quarter inch there that I’m going to get rid of.   And then we can add our sashing strip.   It’s usually worth it to take  the time and get rid of those   little differences that we  might find in our sewing.   And as long as everything is square  we’ll be good to go. There we go. And that is a complete row of trees. This  is the top row that we’ve made here. You’re   going to repeat the exact same steps except  starting with a black tree for your bottom row.   And then you will have two of these that you  can set aside until we’re ready to assemble   this. So I hope you enjoyed making your rows of  trees. And we’ll see you next time for Week 3.

Channel: Missouri Star Quilt Company

Views: 44,047

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Id: bGRYlL4kcAc

Length: 27min 21sec (1641 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020