Christmas Row-by-Row Quilt - Diane Bourg
This year I will be teaching a Christmas Row-by-Row Quilt for you to finish for Christmas 2012. Each month will be a different technique, including dimensional border, embellishing, quilting, and binding. I will demonstrate at the first meeting of the month, and if you want to bring your sewing machine to work on your blocks, I will stick around to help. You don't have to use the colors I used for my quilt. I suggest picking your border fabric first, then your background color, then add the other colors used in the blocks. You will be embellishing this quilt, so start collecting "glitz and swarm!"
Overview:
Block size is 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" unfinished for most blocks.
Quilt size is 44" x 38".
Fabrics:
5/8 yard Christmas border print
background for blocks
greens for trees, wreaths and corners
dark tans for gingerbread people (five pieces approximately 6" x 6" or 1/8 yard)
red
gold for stars
white for snowmen
blue
3/8 yard binding fabric
1 1/4 yard backing fabric
crib size batting (45" x 60")
Select border fabric first, then determine background fabric color. Select greens, reds, golds, blues and binding to coordinate. Greens, red, blue and gold should be solids, mottles, or small-scale prints/batiks that read as solids. Whites and creams may be solid or tone-on-tone.
Month
|
Block
|
Technique
|
January
|
4-patch corners
|
Strip piecing, chain piecing, flat center seam
|
February
|
Gingerbread people
|
Appliqué-window raw edge or turned interfacing method
|
March
|
Snowmen
|
Yo-yo appliqué
|
April
|
Wreath
|
Piecing half square triangles
|
May
|
House
|
Paper piecing
|
June
|
Trees
|
Flying geese
|
July
|
Stars
|
Folded 3-D
|
August
|
Construction & embellishment
| |
September
|
Border
| |
October
|
Quilting and hanging sleeve
| |
November
|
Binding & labeling
| |
December
|
Enjoy!
|
January Four Patch Corners:
Block Size: 4 1/2" unfinished
Number of Blocks: 4
Materials: 1/10 yard red and 1/10 yard green
Instructions:
1. Cut 1 strip of each color 3" x 25".
2. Sew together longest side with right sides together.
3. Open & press to red.
4. Cross-cut into eight 3" wide pieces.
5. Alternating red to green, sew 2 pieces together to make 4 blocks.
6. Take out a few stitches of the first seam and press the center flat. Seams should swirl around and center should look like a miniature 4-patch.
7. Trim 4-patches to 4 1/2" square.
NOTE: If you can sew an accurate 1/4" seam, then you can cut strips 2 1/2" wide, cross-cut 2 1/2" and save yourself the trimming step.
Christmas Row by Row
July – Flying Geese Trees
Block Size: 6 ½ x 8 ½ inch unfinished
3 Blocks
Materials:
1/4 yd background
6 rectangles 6 ½ x 3 ½ assorted greens
1 ½ strip brown or black for trunks
Instructions:
- Cut 1 strip 3 ½ in. wide of background, then cross cut into 3 ½ inch squares (need 12 squares total). Cut 1 strip 3” wide, then cross cut into 2 ½ inch rectangles (need 6 total).
- Cut strip of trunk fabric into 2 ½ inch lengths (need 3).
- Draw a diagonal line on the back of each 3 ½ inch background square.
- Lay a square on the end of a rectangle. Sew on the line
- Press to background. Trim out excess. Repeat on other side of rectangle to make a flying geese.
- Sew a background rectangle to each of the long sides of the trunks.
- Sew 2 geese together, green point upward. Attach trunk section to the bottom.
- Option: Make the trunk section 4 ½ inches long instead of 2 ½ inches. Finished block will be 10 ½ inches.
Christmas Row by Row
September -- Construction
Materials:
Completed quilt blocks
Background fabrics
Borders
Corners from January
Optional:
1.5” strips for folded border
2.5” strips of two colors for checkerboard
Important hints:
- Start from the bottom and work up.
- Using a walking foot helps, especially with the borders.
Instructions:
1. If you haven’t already, trim gingerbread squares to 6.5”. Sew together and measure. This will be your “base measurement.” Mine was 30.5”. Also, don’t press yet.
2. If you are making a checkerboard, sew two 2.5” strips together, cross-cut into 2.5” and alternate. Sew together into checkerboard. I needed 15 squares in each row. Press to one side.
3. Now press gingerbread people to opposite side and sew to checkerboard.
4. Sew wreath blocks together. Press the same way you did gingerbread. Sew to checkerboard.
5. Cut some 1.5 inch strips of background and sew between houses. Cut some 2.5 inch strips and sew to ends of house row. Measure and trim to your base measurement. Sew to wreath row.
6. Alternate tree and snowman blocks. Sew together. Sew to houses.
7. Sew stars together. Sew to tree/snowman row.
8. Measure through center of the longest side. Trim side borders and side strips to this measurement. Sew to sides. Press toward border.
9. Cut top and bottom borders and strips to the base measurement. Attach the corners, making sure to catch the strips.
10. Sew on top and bottom borders.
This month’s topic in the Christmas Row by Row quilt is quilting. I stitched around all the major motifs, outlined the doors, windows and roofs of the houses. The roofs got a scallop treatment. I used templates to stitch snowflakes in the borders and elsewhere on the quilt. In the checkerboard, I used a continuous quilting technique that I will talk about at the meeting.
To make the “no hand stitching” hanging sleeve, measure the width of your border (I think mine was 6 inches). Cut the length of your sleeve to the width of your quilt, less a couple of inches. Cut the width twice the width of the border, plus a couple of inches. Hem the short edges by folding down 1/4” twice and top stitching. Fold the sleeve lengthwise, WRONG sides together and make a 1/4” seam. Press open. Set aside until it’s time to do the binding.
November-Finishing Touches
It’s time to finish your quilt!
Step 2 Make a label for your quilt
For your label, you can use a plain, light-colored fabric that reads solid (you want to see the letters). At a minimum, your label should contain:
· Your name
· The year of completion
· The place of completion
But it’s nice if you name your quilt, and put details such as who it’s being given to (if a gift), the occasion, who did the quilting (if not you), etc.
There are labels that you can purchase from your fabric store. There are label designs that can be ironed-on. You can write the details with a fabric pen (Caution! Most Sharpies run when washed!). You can embroider the label by hand or machine if you wish (Caution! Rayon thread may not be colorfast! Consider polyester machine embroidery thread).
Leave room around the edges for hemming, turning under, etc. If you plan to hem your label by machine, do it now.
Step 2 Make the binding
See the separate document “Continuous Binding.” Do Steps 1 and 2. Standard binding width is 2 ¼ inches. Don’t attach it yet!
Step 3 Prepare quilt for binding
Put your walking foot on your sewing machine. Trim and square up your quilt. If you want to baste or serge the edges, do this now.
Step 4 Hints
Take the hanging sleeve and place it seam side down on the back of your quilt. Center it, and align the top with the top edge of the quilt. The bottom edge of the sleeve should just hang over where the border is on the other side. Pin the sleeve to the quilt from the right side. Sew in the ditch between the body of the quilt and the border to secure the sleeve.
If you are installing the label in the corner, you can put the raw edges of the label into the corner and pin from the front.
If you want to, you can machine baste the label and the sleeve from the back first.
Step 5 Attach the binding and finish
Attach the binding. See “Continuous Binding,” Steps 3-6.
Traditionally, you sew the binding to the front of the quilt, bring it to the back and hand stitch. You can also stitch to the back of the quilt, bring it around to the front and machine stitch to the front, using either a straight stitch or a decorative stitch.
Slip-stitch the label to the back by hand.
Continuous Binding
Step 1 – Decide on your Width of Binding (WoB).
This will depend on the size of your quilt and the effect you want. Common widths are 2 ¼” and 2 ½” but you can make your binding narrower for a mini quilt or wider for a large or flannel quilt.
Step 2 – Make the binding.
Cut strips WoF; you will need at least 12” extra in length. Do not trim selvages. Take two strips, put them right sides together at 90° with the selvages hanging off the edges (Figure 1). Mark the diagonal and sew. Trim seam to scant ¼” and press OPEN (Figure 2). Continue until one long strip of binding is made. Press in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Do NOT trim the tails of your binding.
Step 3 – Sew the binding to one side of your quilt.
Start on one side of your quilt, 1 foot or more from the corner. Do a dry layout to avoid having the binding seams fall at the corners of your quilt. Leaving a 6” to 8” tail at the beginning, sew the binding to one side of your quilt. Miter corners (this will be a separate How To). When you get near the end, leave a 12” opening (Figure 3). A walking foot is helpful for sewing binding to the quilt.
Step 4 – Trim the ends of your binding.
Trim the selvage off one end by cutting straight across (i.e. NOT on the diagonal). Overlap the ends and mark a WoB overlap. Cut the second end straight across at the mark (Figure 4).
Step 5 – Sew the ends together.
With the quilt towards you, unfold the binding and pull the ends to 90°, right sides together, with the end to your right on TOP (Figure 5). Leave a scant 1/4” hanging off the edges. Mark the diagonal, sew, seam to scant ¼” and press seam OPEN (a wooden iron is handy for this step).
Step 6 – Finish.
Re-fold the binding. It should just fit along the quilt. Sew. Fold binding over the edge of your quilt and sew by hand or machine.
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