- So it's time for another episode of The Quilt Coach,
where I answer questions that need more space than an email.
Some of the questions I'll be answering today are,
How do I get the bump out of my quilt strips?
How do I enlarge a paper piece pattern?
And what is a quilt map?
So stick with me and I'll show you how to do it.
(upbeat music)
Hi there, I'm Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts.
I give you tips, tricks, and strategies
to help you make the quilt that you want to make.
And I'd appreciate it, and it would help support the channel
if you could hit that Subscribe button.
So I get a lot of questions through comments on YouTube,
Instagram, and Facebook, plus email.
I try to answer them all,
but some of them just need a little bit more space
than an email.
So this is where I answer them.
Carissa asked me,
"How do I avoid bumps when I'm cutting fabric strips?"
This is a problem that a lot of quilters have.
So let me show you how to fix it.
When fabric comes off the bolt, it lies nice and flat.
So we think it's square,
and all that we have to do is line up
the selvages on the bottom line.
And then we can cut a straight line.
More often than not,
you'll find with this method,
you'll get a little bump in the middle.
So what went wrong?
So our cutting mats have all these lines on it.
And they're perpendicular to one another.
And when we start cutting fabric,
it's really important that our cutting lines
and our edges of our fabric align with these marks.
It's not only important that your selvages are parallel
to one of the cutting lines,
but it's most important that your fold line
is parallel to one of the cutting lines.
Before you start, you should remove this fold in the middle,
and I showed you how to do that
in my last episode of The Quilt Coach.
Then you lay your fabric down on your board,
then align the bottom selvage
with one of the vertical lines.
Next, align the fold with one of the vertical lines.
I like to use my ruler, and fold it over,
and then make any minor adjustments.
And then I simply confirm
that the top selvage is lying horizontal.
So make sure you measure,
and adjust your fabric until it is.
You will want to trim the outside edge
so that you have a clean cutting surface,
which is aligned with your horizontal lines
of your cutting board.
Then you move in the distance that you need,
and you cut a straight line.
Now, before you make this cut,
just check with your ruler one more time,
because fabric is sneaky,
and it can shift when you're not watching.
and be absolutely sure that your ruler is not
moving while you're cutting.
If you want to put a weight on the end of the ruler,
that can help.
And your reward is a nice straight strip.
So if your ruler is on one of the cutting lines,
and your fold, and your salvage
are on the perpendicular cutting lines,
then you should have straight lines every time.
Lorna asked me, "What happened to my Christmas quilt?"
Well, if you watched my video
on the no fail layer cake method,
you would've noticed that I was making
three different layer cakes
to help explain the block choices,
and to help prove the concept that it did work.
Well, three quilts in one week was possibly
a little bit too ambitious.
And by the time I needed to launch the video,
I still wasn't done.
but I did finish it up the following week.
And I did a blog post,
and I sent it out in my newsletter
with pictures of the quilt when it was finally finished.
And if you missed it,
I'll leave a link to that blog post in the notes below.
But I'll tell you, it will be a long time
before I sew with a pinked edge again.
Katharine asks, "How do I stop my log cabins
from going out of square?"
So a log cabin is a block with a square,
and then you add one to the side,
then you add one to the other side,
and you just continue in a spiral around your block.
You can also be quite intentional with your colour placement,
making a square and square,
or putting one colour on one side,
contrasting with one colour on the other side.
So in a traditional log cabin,
these strips are perpendicular to each other.
And the way that you keep them square
is that you use the same reference point every time you cut.
So you want to be sure that that first block in the centre
is square, and every time you add a strip,
you are referencing that.
What I do is I take a ruler,
and I line it up to that initial seam.
And I make sure that that is parallel
to some lines on my cutting mat.
And then I go from there.
And I repeat this step every time I trim up my block.
And even if one strip is a little bit wonky,
if I square up to the centre,
then the mistake doesn't compound.
And it doesn't matter whether you're working with identical
sized strips, or you're using multiple sizes of strips.
Vera asks for help with her triangle in a square block.
Now, Vera, I think actually you're doing a good job
on the block itself.
Don't worry about this little point here,
that happens to everybody.
And as long as you have enough room
for your quarter inch seam, I wouldn't worry about it.
You seem to have squared up your blocks nicely.
Where you run into issue is when you incorporate them
into your nine patch.
So I'm just looking at the photograph here.
I cannot see the back.
So one, you're leaving fabric in your seam here.
You need to roll that over with a finger press
before you actually press it.
So go take a look at my video
on a really good ironing technique,
and that will explain that.
But it looks like you are pressing your seams open
on these blocks.
'Cause I do not see any bump there.
Personally, I very rarely press my seams open.
I almost always press to the side because,
I liked my seams to nest.
And in a nine patch, you really want your intersections
to line up properly.
And it's so much easier to do it if your seams are nesting.
So I would press this one this way,
and I would press this one this way.
You do have a little bit of wonkiness is in this seam,
And that's just common issue
when you're sewing a seam and suddenly you're colliding with
a seam that's on an angle.
Your presser foot hits on one side
before the other side of the presser foot.
It kind of rams into it,
and veers your foot away from the seam
before it has enough inertia to get up and over.
So as you're approaching your seam,
just slow down or even stop
to make sure that you make that step over your seam,
and you can continue straight.
Now in my video on how to sew straight,
I also give a couple of hints
for when that seam is very large.
Sometimes you need to put a boost and put some,
some fabric underneath the other side of your presser foot.
But watch that video,
it will really help you get these types of seams straight.
Amanda asked me, "What is a block map?"
Well, a block map is just a helpful tool.
When your blocks's complex,
you need extra precision for the block to work
with the block that you're going to sew next to it.
You can use graph paper,
or you can draw it out on a computer like I did,
but all you want to do is draw out your block
in its actual finished size.
So as you sew your seams,
you can take your pieces,
and just lay them down over top of the map,
and just check your accuracy.
You can also plan ahead by making notes,
such as where different coloured blocks lie,
and by figuring out which will be the best way
to fold your seams, and making a pressing plan.
So not all blocks need one.
In last month's example, there was a block, within a block,
within a block, within a block,
and there were particular points
that were really important to be accurate
so that they would nest properly.
There was high contrast in the quilt,
and if those points were not accurate,
it was going to be very obvious to your eye.
Tina wrote me that she had purchased a paper piece pattern
and she wanted to make it bigger.
So how do you enlarge a paper piece pattern?
I'm presuming that you have a PDF pattern.
First, you need to set your printer
to the size that you would like your pattern in.
Chances are it's going to no longer fit
on an eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper.
So you need to change your setting to tile,
and on my printer, it now says poster,
which it appears be the very same thing.
Then you want to change the scale.
So this pattern was 10 inches.
I am now, I would like to print it at 20.
So that's a 200%.
And I would like my overlap be a quarter of an inch.
I also need to just choose the pages
that have the pattern on it, not the whole pattern.
So it may go from one sheet of paper,
to four sheets of paper,
or six sheets of paper in my case.
You can see there's this quarter inch that has appeared.
So I'm going to trim that from one sheet,
and I'm going to put glue on the other one,
and that's where they will fit together.
You don't want to use tape,
'causes I'm going to be sewing over some of these lines.
Now you will immediately notice
that the quarter inch seam allowance is no longer accurate,
and that's not an issue.
Just take your ruler and trim them at a quarter of an inch.
Or if you're like me, I trim it right off.
And I just add it in, when I trim up my block.
You may also find that some of your lines no longer line up.
This is just a issue with distortion
when you scale things up on the photocopier.
It's not a big deal, all you need to do is take your ruler,
line it up on the two marks,
find the ends of the line,
and just draw a straight line in between them.
Now you'll also want to put all your pieces together
and just make sure that where the pieces meet,
that the lines line up as well.
This is a pattern from Kristy Lea of Quiet Play.
This is a pattern that she did as a fundraiser
for the Australian bushfires,
which seems so many years ago now,
but check out her website.
She's got some really good paper piece pattern,
and I'll put a link down in the notes below.
Understand that with these tips,
there's also a big difference between knowing and doing.
Doing takes practise, and also some skills get rusty
if you haven't used them for a while.
So always make a practise piece.
Find out where the issues are on your ugly fabric
before you use your precious good ones.
And don't be ashamed
if you need to make multiple practise pieces.
You are not alone.
Well, that's all for today.
Thank you very much for showing up.
I hope these tips can help you in your quilting.
If you have any other questions,
please email me at info@justgetitdone quilts.com
and put Quilting Coach in the subject line.
Don't forget you can download any of my free
Stash Buster patterns at justgetitdonequilts.com.
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