Natalie: Hey everybody, welcome back to Final
Stitch. I’m Natalie withMissouri Star Quilt Company. Today we have a great episode. We’re
going to be talking about what to do with inherited or leftover blocks and I’m excited
to get started. Natalie: We’ve so enjoyed hearing from all
of you. And we’ve gotten some great questions and comments about what to do with inherited
blocks. Liz, what’s our first question today? Liz: So our first question comes from Becca.
She says, “I found a bunch of old blocks in a stash I inherited from my great aunt.
It looks like she made these many years ago. They’re not quite square but I don’t know
if it’s ok to square them up. What should I do?” Natalie: So I would say if you know you want
to make a project and use these blocks then it’s absolutely ok to square them up. I
have a stack right here that we found, Mom found at an antique store and they are beautiful.
They have all these fun colors and obviously hand pieced with diamonds and Y seams. But
they are clearly not all the same size anymore and you can see that they go in and out and
they’re kind of messy. So if we were going to do anything with them we would need to
square them up to make the quilt flat and to make the blocks all fit together. So I
think it’s 100% ok to square up your blocks if you’re working with antique blocks. And
my opinion personally because I’ve been quilting awhile, if somebody found blocks
of mine and they loved them, I would want them to use them. I’d want that to get,
you know, turned into something functional or beautiful. Liz: You would want them to live on. Natalie: Yes. So in looking at these blocks
real quick I’ll just go through my process. I would want to measure them all and find
the smallest measurement. And if the smallest measurement is too small then I’m going
to add some fabric to make the blocks all bigger so that they can square to the same
size. Liz: Ok so you want them all to square to
the same size so you can use them? Natalie: Yes. So they’ve either got to be
able to be squared to the same size without sashing or you add a row. And I’ll show
you how, like, so these ones measure about, well I’m looking at about the smallest,
it’s about 14 inches square roughly. And this one, it’s a little bit bigger. It’s
actually closer to 15 inches. And then this one in the pile, it looks like it’s been
washed before. So it’s going to measure down at like 13 ½ inches. So for this to
get up to the 15 I would have to add like an inch all the way around. And do keep in
mind when you add an inch to one side you’re adding it all the way around. Liz: So you’re really adding two inches? Natalie: You’re really adding two inches.
So if it’s 13 it goes up to 15 and it will be square because you do it on all four sides. Liz: Gotcha. Natalie: You can, if you want to, get creative.
Put your sashing only on one corner. Whatever it is that you want to do to make these blocks
a set, in different ways. There’s, I mean, the options are endless really. Liz: The sky’s the limit, ya. Natalie: The sky is the limit. So today though
what I’m going to do is talk about these blocks in particular. This one I’m going
to square to a straight, clean edge so that the block itself is square. And then I’m
going to add a strip probably, I’ll probably go with 1 ½, two inches all the way around
so that I can center it and square to the size that I want. Liz: And then trim it down. Natalie: Ya. So this little block I’m going
to go ahead and square. The rest of them I think I can get to something more consistent. Liz: Ok. Natalie: So these ones I trimmed up the other
day while I was thinking about this. And I went with a 14 inch measurement. And you’ll
notice on this block, these points got cut off. And as long as I keep things like somewhat
even it doesn’t bother me. I think it’s still going to look beautiful. It’s still
be a finished project. And I’ll hang it on my wall and love it or snuggle with it
on the couch and think about, you know, the person that I inherited them from or the woman
that spent her time making them. They look like flour sack materials, you know. It’s
a great piece of history. And so I don’t mind losing the points a bit in order to make
them more functional. Alright. So let’s get these squared up and then we’ll add
our border piece to this one. When I initially start squaring I’m just going to start on
one side and get a straight line going. These are, they’re less than 15 so I can use that
ruler. You definitely would want to press these. I’ve already pressed these quite
a bit. And starched so that is a tip if you’re wanting to get started, get them pressed.
And as far as keeping points all you have to do is remember that if you have a quarter
of an inch from the edge of that point you’ll be fine. So we’re going to start with this
straight edge. And then I’m going to turn it and I’m going to do the opposite side
to keep this straight. And I do not know quite yet how big this is going to be because I’m
trying, this piece right here is really kind of cut off. Alright we’re just going to
get rid of these fuzzies and make a nice straight line. Ok. Liz: And are you worried right now about the
14 inches or you’re just getting straight lines? Natalie: Right now I’m not because this
block is getting a sashing. Liz: Perfect. Natalie: So all I’m doing is making the
edges straight. Then I will add whatever amount of fabric I’m going to add and that’s
when I’ll go to 14 inches. Liz: Gotcha, ok. Natalie: So right now I honestly, I don’t
really care what size it is because I know I’m going to add. I’ll measure it to make
sure that I put enough on but right now I’m just worried about getting straight lines. Liz: So that when you add your sashing it’s
nice and straight? Natalie: Exactly. And I am worried about keeping
it square. So I’m still watching these lines to make sure that everything is still square.
But I’m not super worried if it ends up being 12 ⅜ or something like that. That’s
fine. Liz: It doesn’t matter. Natalie: Not yet. We’ll get there. Ok, one
more side. Ok. Alright, at this point, this is my last cut and I do want to make sure
my block is square so I’m going to stick this in the corner just to double check. It
is 13 ½ inches tall and the half line is right in this section. So I’m going to clean
that up. And then I will add some little strips to this. Liz: So before you add strips to that would
you, how would you square the? Natalie: Square the bigger ones? Liz: Yes. Natalie: Alright, so we decided that these
ones are going to square to 14 inches even. So basically you’re going to do that in
the same way but we’re going to watch our grid, we’re going to watch our numbers.
So we’re starting here, I’ve got about the ten inches to the 24, that’s 14 inches.
And so I’m kind of going to try to center it up on that section and see if I can make
it fit. And then same thing, I’m just going to start with one side and do the opposite
side and keep them within that 14 inch square. So and this is where you’ve got to decide
if you’re going to lose points or not worry about it. And I happen to be completely unbothered
by losing points on these blocks today. I think they look just fine. Liz: And like you said at the beginning, if
it’s consistent your eye kind of likes it to be consistent more than it worries about
perfect points. Natalie: Yes. Liz: And this way it gets to be used and loved. Natalie: Uh huh. And I’m kind of eyeballing
my square. I know that I’ve got ten to 14 here or ten to 24. And then same here. Two
to 16, that’s 14. So you’re just kind of find a spot that makes sense. Ok. So this
is our last cut on this one. Liz: And we should say too like you say you’ve
pressed these already and you’ve used a little bit of starch so the ruffley edge is
the ruffley edge is the ruffley edge sometimes. Natalie: Yes and there’s a lot of extra
fabric on this and a few little pleated areas. Liz: It’s all going to be ok when you quilt
it. Natalie: I think it’s going to look really
fun. I have a fun fabric that we picked to go with it. I’ll show you that in a minute.
Alright, same idea here. So I”m looking for my 14 to 24 or ten to 24, sorry. Liz: That would be a little bit short. Natalie: So watching those lines and just
kind of centering it up and then I go all the way around. It gives a little bit of freedom
in that I really get to just kind of do my best to not feel too bad about it, you know.
I don’t feel too much pressure to make it perfect. And you can see on this line right
here, this is just shy of the 14 inches but I know that it’s not more than a quarter
of an inch so I’ll catch that even though it’s going to be slim. I’ll just make
sure and watch it when I’m sewing. Liz: Gotcha. Natalie: It’s not going to be too terrible.
. But then I still have the majority of it is square which is going to make my life a
whole lot easier when I’m assembling this. Alright, ten to 24. I’m keeping it straight.
There’s another little dip right here but I’m not worried about it. It’s going to
be ok because it’s within a quarter of an inch from the edge which means my seam will,
it will be caught in the seam. It will just be a little short in that part. Alright, ten,
16, 24 we’re good. Whoops, I had to re-straighten it. Ok, so I’ve got those squared up. Now
I’m going to go ahead and add the little bit of extra. And what I’m doing for this
particular one, you would use whatever color you want, but I found a great little piece
of muslin fabric that looks almost identical to the background. So that’s the piece I’m
going to use. And I think that because this measures 13 ½ which is pretty close to 14
but I’m going to go ahead and add a little border all the way around to make it match
the rest of them. I have this little piece right here where the flying geese kind of
came apart. But it looks like I have enough fabric so I’m going to go ahead and stitch
that back together just so that there’s not a hole in it in that area. Liz: So you can do a quick repair on that
edge Natalie: Yep, just a super quick little thing
that will make it a whole lot stronger. And then I will add my strips and I think I’m
going to go with maybe a two inch strip just so I have plenty of room. I’ve got some
strips cut already. They actually look perfect. So let me fix this guy. And to do this, I
mean, I’m just going to try and finish out this diagonal seam. So I’m going to fold
it back and go right along that edge. These beautiful tiny little stitches. Liz: I think the other thing that’s really
nice about you showing us this is it’s totally ok to do a machine repair on a hand stitched
block. Natalie: Yep, well and this one is, actually
if you look at the back it’s a combination of machine and hand. Liz: Nice. Natalie: I wonder if the machine was a treadle
though. You never know. Liz: You never know. That’s why you wish
for those labels, right? Natalie: Yes. Alright, that actually worked
out pretty well. I’m happy with that. Ok. Now I’m going to add these pieces right
on top. And I’m going to just go all the way around the whole block. Liz: Ok. Natalie: I’ll do my two sides and then my
top and bottom. Liz: Ok. Just like you were cutting the sides
and then the top and bottom. Natalie: Yes. I’m going to lift and look
just to make sure that I am catching the fabric. Liz: And I notice you’re putting the strip
on top of the block, why do you do that? Natalie: It’s my habit because when you
add borders to a quilt if you put them on the bottom the feed dogs will carry more fabric
and then you’ll end up with a wavy border. And so anytime I add a strip to anything I
put it on top. And I hold it nice and tight, not super tight. Like you don’t it to then
ruffle the block but tight enough that it just keeps everything more in line. Liz: So you don’t get a wavy border. Got
it. Natalie: Ya. And it is just my habit. I think
in this situation technically you could go either way because it’s a small piece but
I’m just going with what I know. Liz: It’s a good habit. Well because we
saw you cutting off some ruffley parts of the block it makes sense to make as straight
an edge as possible. Natalie: Right, right. Now if you wanted to
be more particular you could cut these to 13 ½ inches so that all of your strips ended
up helping to square your block. Liz: Gotcha, ok. Natalie: That would be a more accurate way
of doing it. Liz: Extra precise. Natalie: But I’m not super worried at this
point because I am going to square it up again anyway. Ok. Liz: That fabric is a pretty darn good match
for that background. Natalie: It’s a great match. It’s worked
out perfectly. Alright now I’m going to trim these off. There’s a lot of things
you can do with found or inherited blocks. My mom made me one that is just a cute little
pillow. And it was like a whole quilt that got cut up into small pieces and I just keep
it set on my shelf in my sewing room. And it’s so cute. I’ve seen them framed, made
into wall hangings or you can take a quilt that has some damage and turn it into a bed
runner. Lots of fun things that can be done to save. Liz: I know a family who had taken a quilt
that had gotten worn through in several spots and cut it into Christmas stockings actually. Natalie: Oh I love that idea. Liz: So everybody got a stocking. Natalie: That’s so great. And then there’s
all these good memories and then good memories to come in the future for the continued use
of that project. Liz: That’s right. Natalie: This is a super long piece so I’m
just going to flip it around and then we’ll cut them at the same time. Liz: And use the other end. Perfect. Natalie: That’s a nifty little trick when
you’re strip piecing something. You don’t have to cut it off, you can just use the other
side, if there’s enough space. Anything to save time and effort. Alright. I’ll press
this back. So you can see this long loop over here. It looks kind of funny at first. But
you know, it made life easier for the moment. So I’ll cut that little section, flip him
around. It looks to me like we did pretty well on saving points on this guy. Liz: That’s great. Natalie: Ya it looks really nice I think. Liz: It’s funny that this one seems to have
gone through the wash and shrank. Natalie: It does. It shrunk a little bit.
I’m going to scoot this over, up and out of the way. And then we are going to trim
him down to 14 inches, correct? Liz: Right. Natalie: Alright, so what that looks like
is a centering trick. We’re actually at 17 ½ so we have to take off a little bit
more than three inches all the way around which means it’s going to be about 1 ½
inches from each side. So I’m just going to kind of lift and look and make sure. And
honestly everything else on this project is kind of eyeballed so I’m not super stressed
about it. Liz: Great so you eyeball this too. Natalie: So that’s going to put me right
about there on this side and it looks like it will be very similar on the other side
so I feel comfortable. So what I’m, so what I was looking at there, this is the 14 line
and I wanted to see how far from this seam the 14 was going to be. And it looks like
it’s about a half an inch roughly. And then on this side I’m looking at this beginning
corner line because that’s where I’m going to put this side when I flip it around. And
so I want to make sure that I have about the same space from the seam on that side because
when you’re eyeballing you’re still trying to center it up but it doesn’t have to be
exact, exact. Liz: Right you don’t have with a 1/16 of
an inch perfect. Natalie: Exactly so I’m trying to eyeball
it with some amount of accuracy and something that’s going to come out and be pleasing
to the eye. So just checking that line and then also checking over here. And I see that
I’m going to be pretty close. So I’m going to make sure that’s pulled up so that I
can see the bottom of the 14. Alright here we go. Liz: Kind of like a bravery test. Natalie: Kind of. And my ruler is not quite
long enough so I’m going to slide it up. As soon as I get far enough up from the bottom
that I can cover the top I slide it up because I don’t want to go off one way or the other. Liz: And I saw you hold your rotary cutter
in place while you slide the ruler. Natalie: Ya keep those thing sets and then
you’re good. Alright so we’re going to flip it and then do the other side. I’m
going for that 14 again. And then we do the same thing, same thing here. So we’re going
to go with about, put my seams at that. And this is much easier because it’s now smaller
than the ruler. And even though it’s just, it ends up being just a little bit of extra,
it makes the blocks all the same size and it won’t stand out in a way that is, I guess
what I mean to say is it’s going to look really good. It’s going to look really good.
And I may put this one into the center and then put the rest of them around it. You know,
I don’t know for sure. And really actually that’s where we’re at. We’re at let’s
figure out how to use these blocks. One way that I find to be super fun and easy is just
to cut a solid piece of fabric and do every other one. Or you could put them all together.
Let’s see. So I have five blocks, six blocks. Do I have six blocks? Liz: You have five blocks Natalie: I only have five. You’re right.
Thank you. Ok so I have five blocks. So I’m kind of thinking it might look cool to do
these in a nine patch setting with one, two, three, four blocks of just a regular fabric.
And these fabrics are really bright and fun. There’s also some red and some brown. So
I went searching in the stash downstairs and we found this really cute fabric. It’s not
in the same era. But it has a lot of fun bright colors Liz: I love it. Natalie: And I think it will be really cute
because it’s got this sheep, knitting type of a feel to it. So we’re going to do this.
We’ll do one here and one star block. I”m going to scoot this guy to the side. Then
we’ll do another little print. And this time I am going to leave them all forward
facing. A lot of times I don’t really worry about right side up or directional fabric.
But this time I’m going to do that. I just think it’s just kind of fun to find a piece
that has, you know, it has the teal here and it has the hot pink and it has the red from
this one. Liz: It does, it pulls out all the colors,
the purples and the browns. Natalie: Ya. Liz: I love how it’s a combination of very
old blocks and very new fabric. Natalie: It kind of makes it very contemporary.
Oh I’m going to have to switch because I have five. I forgot these were the middle
ones. There we go. We’ll get that right. That guy goes in the middle. And then these
two guys go down here. Liz: Oh cute. Ok. Natalie: So there we go. So we’re just going
to make a giant nine patch and we’re going to add these little finished blocks in between.
And that is what I’m going to do with these ones. And I think this will look so cute with
either a little cuddle on the back to snuggle up with on the couch. Or I may just quilt
it and hang it on the wall. Because it’s just cute, it’s fun. Liz: It is, it’s really fun. Natalie: So that’s one idea. Liz: Ok, so we’ve got a couple of other
questions. Maybe we put this aside for now. We’ll show you guys what we do with this
later, whether Natalie ends up adding cuddle to the back or creating a wall hanging. And
then we have another question about leftover blocks from a quilt that’s finished. Natalie: Ok Liz: Ok Natalie: So that was just one way that you
could use an inherited or found block. There are actually so many different things we could
do but I think we have one more question and I will let Liz give us that question. Liz: Great. So Marie asked, “I have a couple
of leftover blocks from a quilt I’ve finished. What can I do with a few blocks without making
a whole new big quilt?” Natalie: I actually think this is kind of
one of the ways that we can have the most freedom and the most creativity. You can do
whatever you want with them. So I found a few blocks in Mom’s stash leftover from
some kits we made a long time ago. And they’re all different colors. And so the first thing
you want to do obviously is make sure they’re all the same size, square them up. Always
kind of do that. It’s going to make your life a lot easier. But we have four blocks
and they’re, you know, red and orange and yellow so I was thinking it would be cute
to just do a little square wall hanging or table topper and maybe do a fun sashing treatment
on these. Sashing is great because it separates the block. But it also gives you an opportunity
to add something secondary. And so what I was thinking is that we could take these blocks
and put them in a little four patch because four is perfect and we’ll put I found this,
this is an old batik that I don’t know if we have anymore but it’s kind of rainbow
and has all the colors. So I thought it would look really cute if we used this. So I would
put one here in the middle. And these blocks are made out of batiks so I went hunting for
something that would kind of match the background. And I didn’t find an exact match. It can
be tricky, you know, when you’re looking for something, you’re looking through fabrics
that are newer to match things you have that you had a long time ago. But you kind of also
have to be willing to try new things and say, oh this isn’t what I thought I was going
to do with that but it actually looks really good. So I pulled out everything that had
any beige or cream or tan or even red, yellow and orange. Anything like that. And we found
this one that kind of has a little bit of a zebra stripe look and it had the same tones,
you know, it’s in the same family as far as shading and tone so these are the strips
that we cut. And we measured all of our blocks. These blocks measure 11 inches. So we cut
our sashing to 11 inches. And they’re going to go in between just like this. And I have
a couple of really fun ideas. So one thing you could do is snowball these little sashing
strips and end up with a little Friendship Star. So then you would just do that where
you snowball that corner. And they look so cute. Liz: Yes. Natalie: And then another, let’s see, I’ll
show you this. Liz: You get this secondary thing happening
in there. Natalie: Yes so you end up with this cute
little Friendship Star in the middle . And how fun would it be to give that to a friend? Liz: Right. Natalie: Here’s this cute little wall hanging
because I love you. Because, you know, friends. Liz: Ya. Natalie: And friendship stars, they just all
go the same direction so you would just run these through and strip piece them and then
they end up rotating in kind of a pinwheel star. Liz: And does it matter which way they go
as long as they go the same way? Natalie: On Friendship Stars they all go the
same direction. Liz: But it doesn’t matter if they snowball
that side or this side? Natalie: No just be consistent. Ya I don’t
think it matters. So see then you’d have this cute little friendship star in the middle. Liz: Awesome. Natalie: Another thing obviously is you could
make the little star legs. So then these would just overlap to create another little, a different
type of star. Does that make sense? Let me see, I did one here where I finished a couple
so you could see. Alright I’m going to take these away. I’ll throw in this one. I actually
did friendship star on one end and regular star on the other end so we could flip them
around. And I thought it might actually be kind of fun. We have, we created a little
poll so that you guys could participate and help me decide. Do we want a star, like a
traditional star or a friendship star? Liz: Perfect so guys look for the poll in
the comments section of this video and let us know if we should make the Friendship Star
or the traditional eight point star in the center of this quilt. And then we will check
your comments and the winning vote is how we’ll finish this quilt and we’ll bring
it back in a future episode. Natalie: I’m just folding these so I can
press them and make them stay a little bit better. So you can get the idea. And these
are just little 2 ½ inch squares that I’m going to overlap in the middle to make that
star point. Just like that. Isn’t that cute? Liz: Awesome. Ok so that is our slightly wonky
leg star? Natalie: It’s barely though, I mean not
super wonky. They’re pretty similar. Liz: And then can you flip it around and show
us the Friendship Star? Natalie: Yep. Absolutely. Liz: Awesome. Natalie: So we’ll do this for Friendship
star. And let me press one of these because that will make it easier to see. And this
one will go just like that. Liz: And so it’s just a tiny little bit
of extra work you’ve got Natalie: A neat little friendship star in
the middle Liz: A really cool center for your leftover
blocks. Natalie: Right and then, you know, depending
on what you want you could put the little cream strip all the way around and do a border
or you could bind it just as is. And it makes a really cute little project that, you know,
could be Liz: Could be anything. Natalie: It could be hung on the wall, it
could be set on your table. And really these can go in a row. You could do a long straight
table runner just with plain sashing in between, you know, just so many different ideas with
blocks. I mean I love the creative license that it gives you to just do whatever you
want and just play with them. Liz: So guys do take that poll and let us
know which way we should finish this one. And then show us what you do with sashing
and cornerstones and how you put your leftover blocks together. We love to see more ideas.
If you share with us on social media using the hashtag #msqcshowandtell then we can see
all of your awesome projects. Natalie: And I love to see your projects.
It’s so fun. There’s so much creativity and talent out there. Natalie: I hope you enjoyed this episode of
the Final Stitch. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. Thanks so much for
joining us and we will see you next time.
