Welcome to Man Sewing everybody.
I’ve got a really fun twist on a traditional block called the Ribbon Pole.
Let’s get started.
If you’re new to Man Sewing one of the things I love to do is put a little free printable
for you down in the description below.
And I often use it as kind of a pattern or a map or to cover my mistakes as an insurance
policy in case I ever give you the wrong sizes.
So please take a moment, drop down in the description below, print out the free printable
so that you can follow along in both the diagram and the sizing that we’re going to do.
Now you can make this any size like I said it’s a basic, basic block.
But if you look at the quilt behind me here it’s 57 inches by 82 inches.
And I wanted to find the names of the parts, ok?
So our white is going to be our background.
The gray is the pole.
And the two blues you see here are the ribbons that wrap around them.
So to make that quilt itself the size you need, of the background, the white fabric,
oh and I’m sorry this is a beautiful Scribbles fabric that we have here.
And it’s from Andover Fabrics.
And I just love the print but I chose the same print all the way through so you could
focus on the design.
So again we’re going to need, of the background white, we’re going to need a yard and a
half.
Of the two different blues, you’re going to need a yard and a quarter of each.
And then of the gray for the pole, you’re just going to need one yard of that.
And then you could add in for your bindings and your backings and all that.
We’re just talking about the construction of the quilt right now.
So that being said, here’s our printable.
In the recipe card here, it’s not even mathematics.
So what we need to do is for the parts that have the ribbons and the background fabric,
we’re going to make eight sets.
Where the parts that have ribbon and the pole we’re going to make four sets of half square
triangles.
And you’re saying maybe I don’t even know what a half square triangle is.
Before I show you how to make them, let me show you what it is.
This here is known as a half square triangle.
It is a square and half of it is a triangle.
Actually both halves are triangles, right?
And we’re going to make a bunch of these.
And I”m going to show you how to make four at one time using my dear friend Jenny Doan’s
method.
So we’re going to use our ten inch squares.
And anytime I’m playing with a big block I like to make big squares first so I can
see the design come together.
So we’re going to go right sides together here with our ten inch squares.
Do your best to line them up.
It’s yardage so you’ve probably cut your own which makes it sometimes a little easier.
Ok now we’re going to come over to the sewing machine.
And I love to use an edge guide for accuracy.
I’m going to start off of the edge with my quarter of an inch and I’m going to use
some cotton thread.
And we’re just going to sew all the way through here.
I also like to hang onto the opposite corner.
I’m not putting much pressure but I’m just pinching those corners together.
I’ve sewn off of the edge.
I’m going to rotate.
I’m going to come right back in here, still pinching front corner and opposite corner.
And what that does is it helps us not get a pucker at the last corner.
Now because we’re doing this the exact same to all of our squares we’re going to get
the same math when we cut it open.
So do make sure you’re using something to maintain accuracy, precision I didn’t say,
just accuracy.
Ok, I’m still hanging on to that opposite corner.
And I’m coming into a wonderful little finish right there.
I’m going to go ahead and cut those stitches or those threads.
And now if everything has gone correctly there is no way to get back the right sides of that
fabric without the use of a rotary cutter.
So that’s the next thing we’re going to do.
Let’s lay this nice and flat, move a few of these things out of the way.
Just for bulk management in the future I have found that it is really nice to take a moment.
And I’m going to dog ear the corners.
Now the thread have crossed right at the edges.
So I’m cutting just on the other side of where that cross was so that I’m not cutting
into the union but just getting rid of the bulk there.
And then I use those thread crosses for my ruler.
This is why this 15 inch ruler is so great.
It goes all the way across those ten inch squares.
So right where the thread have crossed I’m going to cut here.
Make sure you have good pressure because I’m not going to move the fabrics before I make
the second cut.
I want to go ahead and peel the ruler up so I don’t move anything around.
And this will give me four beautifully pressed or cut I should say half square triangles.
But I mentioned press so let’s turn the iron on while we’re getting ready over here
because we’re going to need that next anyway.
And here we go.
You notice I shifted my body so I’m still kind of cutting right handed.
If you have an efficient susan mat then that’s a nice way to spin your fabrics around there
for you.
And here you can see that my half square triangles are coming together nicely just like this.
And now throughout the whole project what I’m going to do in these is I’m going
to press to the blue fabric.
And that way both whether it’s the white or the gray or what not I’m always pressing
to the blue.
We often teach press to the dark side but this will help for my unions later on.
So to do that I”m going to hold the blue fabric in the air.
I”m going to take my hot iron and I’m going to press right up against that thread
and then I’m going to flop it over, just like this.
And we’re going to do that to all of these.
And then what we want to do is start to show you how to make the actual rotation of the
block.
So earlier I showed you that wonderful print out and I told you you were going to need
eight of some and four of others.
And I don’t believe these are part of that count at all.
Let’s see if I got it right.
I think I did.
So let’s just take a moment and get a little bit of space so I can show you how the whole
thing comes together and we’re all but ready to go to your sewing machine and your fabric
and make your own for the day.
So let’s just slide a little bit out of our way here.
And I’m just going to follow the diagram.
So in the diagram, the lighter color is the background, the yellow and the blue are the
ribbons, the dark gray is the pole.
So as I put that here I’m going to take one of these and I’m going to angle it so
that the lines are following the same.
Maybe you can see that a little bit better this way.
So here is this.
Then the next one I’m going to want, let’s separate these out, is going to be the opposite
color on the pole.
So now this is like this.
This line is coming across here like this.
And then I’m going to need this same color ribbon to carry around.
So this is going to follow through this way.
And then it’s going to angle back this way, ok?
And this ribbon here, so it’s one, two, three, count across the top.
So then this next piece down here, you can also see it also forms a triangle this way.
But this color is going to go across the pole.
So then what I want to do is I want to match in my ribbon so that the ribbon is coming
this way and the pole is starting to be covered.
And then you’re going to see that it shifted and now I have this ribbon will have come
out this way.
And I have one more to fill in down here.
And then this ribbon, let’s see, oh that’s right.
The easiest way to point it out is where this one made a nice triangle of the teal color.
This is making an opposite triangle of the white color there.
But you can see that this ribbon is now bending and going through.
And that has started the base of the rotation.
But in order to get this blue to come back through I’m going to build this out another
formula.
So let’s just take some time for us all today and do that.
Let’s slide this up.
Now you saw it happen and let’s just keep on working together.
Ok so I’m over here in the background is just as easy as anywhere.
So I’m going to bend this.
This time the darker of the two blues is going to come across the pole.
See it there forming like that.
Isn’t that neat?
Ok so then I need this one out here.
Again just look for your triangle shape that way.
And then you can come back to the diagram to see what’s going to happen.
But it’s the opposite color that’s going to form in there like this.
And then that brings my eye together.
So now we’re starting to see that full rotation and just like this.
And now you can see where the ribbons are really starting to twist around the pole.
I have a few more squares but I’m running out of table space.
So let’s just show you how to construct this.
And the easiest way for me to do this is really to come across one, two, three,one, two, three,
and then sew those rows together.
However if you look at the . quilt behind me you can see that there’s three entire
poles wrapped into ribbons each.
So when I built mine I basically came to the design wall first and then I just treated
it like a standard block quilt.
And I just stitched a block to a block to a block to a block as I went through.
It worked out beautifully.
There’s always fun tricks though when you’re sewing half square triangles together.
So let me share one of those with you.
I’m going to fold this over.
This is the seam I want.
And so I’m going to what we call nest up our edges.
So I’m kind of pulling.
I’ve got a little bit of bias, a little bit of stretch in my fabric right there.
So I can make sure that those corners line up beautiful.
And now as I come over to the machine I’m just going to press this down.
And now I’m actually backstitching because I’m not doing anymore trimming.
So I really want these rows to hold together beautifully.
Ok so then that’s right there but I do like to come back to my design surface to make
sure I’ve got everything going correctly.
Then I could grab on this block, make sure my edges are lined up.
And then I’m going to rotate it just like this.
And then as I’m getting ready to stitch this I’m thinking of the story that I’m
not sure if I really should tell you or not.
But I think you deserve a good story today at Man Sewing.
So here it goes.
This project was supposed to be a very simple and small table runner project but I was having
so much fun, I just kept building and building and building.
And the reason I want to tell you that story is that right now, sure it’s basically table
runner size, right?
And you could stop here but if you’re having as much fun as I was or got all the yardage
I told you to get, you’re going to make a quilt this size.
So I just kept playing and playing.
And so it’s turned into one of my favorite quilts of this season just because it was
so fun to construct and so fun to build out.
Now of course I sent it in for longarm machine quilting at MSQC because of the size of it.
And I wanted a really fun and geometric pattern.
So we just used a fun kind of a square around a square geometric to just, again so your
eyes could really focus on the, the colors, the, the design of the block itself so you
could really see the ribbon pole forming there.
So here’s what I want to know from you in comments below today.
I want to hear about the project you thought was going to be small but then got really,
really big while I come up with some more big ideas right here at Man Sewing.
Oh, hey are you still in here.
I thought you would have been checking out some of those other great videos.
You know we’ve got a link there, over there.
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We’ll catch you next time, at Man Sewing.