Welcome to the Quilted Block of the Month. In each issue I’ll post the block, and supplies – batting, thread, needles. I’ll show how the block is drawn on the fabric, with any rulers.
I will be using these blocks as class samples so each one will get it’s own binding. This wil make a good quilt as you go project.
This months supplies:
SewLine Pencil – this is my first time using this pencil, and so far I’m quite pleased.
Collins Quilt and Sew Ruler
45 mm rotary cutter
6” x 24” Ruler
12 1/2” square of hand dyed fabric from my stash
12 1/2″ to 15” square of a light gray solid from my stash
12 1/2” to 15” square needle punched cotton batting – this is from my stash and I don’t know the brand
80 weight polyester thread for ditch work and bobbin (Superior MicroQuilter)
40 weight trilobal polyester (FabuLux by Wonderfil and Magnifico by Superior)
The first block: New York Beauty.
I chose this as one of my first competition quilts is When Alex & Jinny met in NY Beauty Happened, and I love New York Beauty Blocks, as it’s a great reminder of home in both the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty.
Step one: cut a 12 1/2” square of cotton fabric. Using either the Quilt & Sew Ruler or the 6” x 24” ruler mark a line 1/4” in from each one of the edges. These lines serve the purpose of seam lines joining blocks together. I will use the ditch and the seam allowance to move to the next stitching place. Oh but I am getting ahead of myself here.
After the lines were drawn creating the seam allowance I chose to freehand the corner curves, then added dots about one inch apart along the length of the corner curve.
Halfway between the dots I lined up the ruler, straight up from the inside curve to the outside curve and placed a dot at the top.
Using the Quilt & Sew Ruler I joined the lines, to create the spikes. This is where the SewLine marking pencil came in handy, the lines are consistent, and there’s not stopping to sharpen pencils.
After twenty four years of quilting I think I have the marking pencil that works long term.
Now it’s time to stitch in the ditch. First line of stitching: along the inside curve.
Then along each one of the spikes. I stitch slowly, about 1/2 speed or less. This gives me great control as move over the surface of the quilt.
Once I finished stitching the upper curve, next was the entire seam allowance around the piece.
Right now it looks all fluffy in places and ways that are entirely frustrating and inappropriate. However, this is good practice for stitching in the ditch. This is an important component of stabilizing a pieced quilt top.
Here’s a sneak peek of next weeks blog post:
This is a tension issue that I’ll show you how we dealt with this.
I have a plan for the August Quilted Block of the Month, it’s a block that I’ve been wanting to make for a while.
Happy Quilting,
Teri
@terilucas
#terilucasquilts
#quiltedblockofthemonth
@terificreations
Will quilt the spikes on the inside?
there are more blogs coming!
Did I miss the “sandwiching” step? Luv that fabric color!!!!
Nope…didn’t write up that part …I’ll do an interim part this week to share what I used
This looks like it’s going to be great! I truly don’t need any other projects, but this is a “school of Teri” project and learning is always a priority! Thanks for sharing what you do so very well!
It will be fun to have you join me. 🙂
A very interesting post, thanks for sharing! I look forward to more!
I’m intrigued by this as I have a New York Beauty quilt top that needs to be quilted but has not been as I did not want to try to tackle it by hand and wasn’t sure how I’d even begin to quilt it if I were to try doing so by machine.
check out “When Alex and Jinny Met in NY Beauty Happened” I have a lot of different quilting motifs on there. It was partly an exercise in machine quilting, and partly practicing motifs.