Hey everybody, it’s Rob from Man Sewing. And I am totally geared up about today’s
tutorial. That’s right this quilt behind me has actually been something I’ve been
dreaming for for a long time. Now before I show you around the quilt, I want to tell
you where the story started. I was teaching up in Washington a few years ago. And I had
a woman in my class, and yes she was from my grandmother’s generation. And she was
way cooler than I even. She kept talking about this thing called steampunk. And I didn’t
want her to know I had no idea what steampunk was. I thought it was a music style. So I
went home and googled steampunk and I found, steampunk to me is like the Terminator filmed
in the Victorian age in all sepia toned footage. So I wanted to create a quilt, if you look
closely it’s basically a simple broken dishes pattern. And I’m using gradient colors.
I’m going to talk about the fabrics in a second. And then these gears are simply appliqued
on top. And the gears were brought to me because I just got a cool new dye cut that came to
me from Sizzix. And the gears are part of it but I’ve got some drawn gears that you
can have as a printable as well. So with that, let’s talk about the fabric choices. Two
different brands we’re using today. We have Northcot’s Sandscapes. This is what we’re
using for the half square triangles in the background for the broken dishes . Of course
you figured that out. And we’re also using the Kona solids. This is called Gray Area.
And it’s a really cool pre-cut of a bunch of different shades of gray. And that’s
what I’ve used to form all of the gears in the background and their shadows. So you
ready to get started?
So as I said, this quilt is two parts. The background, and the applique is the second
part. So we’re starting with our sandscapes. And this has got about 42 pieces in it, roughly
four of every color. And we’re going to have 10 different fabrics showing. Let me
get this part out of the way. And I literally broke down my pre-cut pack, peeled them off
and put them in color gradient order, from my darkest, all the way down here to my lightest.
They did not come back out of my pack exactly in that order but it was really easy to see
the differences. Once we have all of our fabrics separated we’re going to make two separate
piles. We’re going to build some high contrast blocks and some low contrast blocks. So these
are more of the low contrast up here and you can see in here, these are more of our high
contrast . And that just comes from our different choices of colors. So real easy, we’re going
to start with our low contrast blocks. And I’m going to take fabric one and fabric
two and I’m just going to set them together. And then I’m going to put them in my pile
that I’ve labeled low contrast. I’m going to do that twice because you’re going to
have at least four squares of everything. And don’t worry about right sides together
yet. We’re going to get there.
Ok, so now we’re going to start our high contrast pile and it gets a little bit more
confusing but watch this. So count over. Here’s one, two, three, four, five. That’s my first
group. So I’m going to slightly rotate six, seven, eight, nine, and ten so that as I’m
going through my piles, I can kind of keep track. Now what I’m going to do is I’m
going to take from basically pile number one and pile number six and build a high contrast
group. Here and here. And then I’m just going to continue to work my way around the
table, building them up this way. So that I’m making lots of different color combos
actually. And then the turn around is sometimes where my eye gets confused down in there because
of the reach but having those on point really helps me stay organized. Now once these are
all done like this, we still have a little bit of cutting chores to take care of. So
I am going to quickly get this stuff out of our way. That was easy, ok!
Now, are you ready to go ahead and handle some of the cutting chores? So we’re actually
making five inch blocks out of our ten inch blocks. So one of the things I’m going to
do is I’m going to take and slow down and build, keeping my sets together so technically
what I’m trying to say is I have two pieces of fabric. And I’m going to cut in layers
of about six. So three groupings at a time. Just because with many more than that, I start
to get a little bit hazardous with my slicing and dicing.So these should be as accurate
as possible, ok? But at this moment I’m just going to go ahead and take and make these
down into five inch squares. So I’m measuring over on my ruler and I’m kind of looking
at the outside edge of the pinked bumps there. Like yay. And then I can turn and rotate this
on the lazy Susan which I love so much. And we’re going to go ahead and make a second
cut. So super easy. Go ahead and do that to all of your stacks. Just make sure you’re
keeping your two pieces of fabric together, right?
The next thing you need to be aware of is these individual groupings are going to stay
and become our half square triangle bases. So you’ve probably seen Jenny Doan do these
wonderful half square triangles where you take your two fabrics and you basically lay
them right sides together. Then we’re just going to sew around all of the edges. So before
I go to the sewing machine, what I really like to do is work through my stack and I
just start flipping them so they’re right sides together. So I’m totally ready to
go when I get to my machine. So I’m just going to keep working through my piles. And
if you can keep your similar fabrics together it will make the organization easier later.
So like I said, build your sets, get them right sides together . And then as we go to
our sewing machine, we are going to have our two fabrics, right sides together, just like
yay. And then I’d like you to go ahead and sew around all four sides so that when you’re
done, it looks just like that.
Now, easiest way to cut these is off of a lazy Susan mat. But if you don’t have one
at home, you can certainly cut it standard. But the key is don’t move your block after
the first cut. So the first cut is going to go right through the corners there. So if
I was not on a lazy Susan, I would cut, I would not move, I would simply take my ruler
like that. But because I’ve got the benefit of modern technology, let’s enjoy it a little
bit today. So I’m going to slice, swing, and prepare to slice again. And I’m basically
laying my ruler right on the cross of the threads. And now when those are done like
that, these are going to open up to form four individual half square triangle units. And
as I’m opening them up, I come to my iron and I’m just pressing them. So darkish fabric
is in the up position. And then I’m pressing it like this so that my seam allowance goes
to the dark side. So, oop! One of the things I learn in creating all of these millions
of half square triangles and I literally did the entire background of this quilt in under
three hours. All pieced, all assembled, everything. Was that if you keep all of your seams facing
the darks, later on it makes it much easier for assembly because we’re going to take
these wonderful little half square triangles and build the broken dishes block.
So to build the broken dishes block, they’re basically opposite colors touching each other
as we go around, just like that. So at this moment, what I go ahead and do is take two
at a time. And I would head to my sewing machine and of course all of this is done with a quarter
inch seam allowance right? Quarter inch seam allowance, fold, quarter inch seam allowance
and then I press them open and I come back in and I assemble it so when it’s all stitched
it’s just like that. Let me get these out of the way. Maybe that will make it a little
prettier for you at home. So it’s going to look just like that. And these units here
simply start to form all of the color gradiation you see within the quilt. Now, let’s take
a quick moment. There’s two different ways to lay this quilt out and construct it. The
fast and easy way is like I did. Let’s just call these, I can’t call them a four patch
because they’re not. Let’s call them a four-cube. We’re making up new quilting
terms today. So the four cube makes it easier to manipulate them all around the quilt but
it also means that your seam allowances may be heading in all different directions. So
if you are looking for perfection in this, you could lay out each individual half square
triangle on your design wall and really get even more color movement throughout your quilt
than I did. But it’s going to take a lot more management on your part. So I always
take the path of least resistance, if you know what I’m saying. The other fun thing
about stitching with these half square triangles like this is technically you’re now working
off of the bias so all you have to do is nest your seams together and if they’re not exactly
the same, you can kind of just stretch them under the needle of the machine and they come
out beautifully.
So let me give you a little bit more detailed information about what was going through my
color sense while I was playing with these blocks as I was managing. Remember you’ve
got all of your high contrast and all of your low contrast blocks assembled. And I’ve
built them in these four cubes so that I can go ahead and quickly move them around in the
quilt but I also want to point out that I started using my low contrast but my darkest
blocks down here in the bottom corner. Those of you who’ve been watching a lot of the
Man Sewing tutorials, you know that I like my lightest fabrics usually up in here and
my darker fabric down here. So that was my approach again here. But again, low contrast
blocks and then I would use, occasionally, some of the high contrast blocks to bounce
the color in and out and shift. So mostly low contrast in this area. Mostly the higher
contrast in this area but then also my darker blocks and my lighter blocks up in here. And
then we kept them in either four chunks of each section or kind of L shapes. And that
helped me kind of manage and carry the color around. But of course the fun way to do this
is to put it on your own design wall and take your time and just be creative and enjoy it.
Quick tip on that. A lot of us will rush through the design process. I am learning to slow
down a little bit. I know, it’s hard to believe. But I slow down just a little bit
and I let my quilt sit on the design wall at least 24 hours before I make the final
decision. And that’s really helped me, I go in and out all day long looking at it,
and it really helps me find that one thing that I change before I wish I would have changed
it. Now, let’s start talking about some of those appliques.
Ok, so let me get you all geared up to do these applique. And as I mentioned earlier
you’re using the Kaufman Gray Area fabrics. And I love these because of all the different
gradients within or the different shades of gray. So if you look carefully at my gears,
I’m not just using the same color as my top gear and the black or dark gray for my
background or my shadow. I’m actually making all kinds of different color combos. And when
I prepared my gears, of course, I used a die cutter but I want to show you how to get into
other simple ways if you don’t have a die cutter at home. First of all, thanks again
art department at Man Sewing, we’ve prepared for you some very similar looking gears to
what I’ve got behind you. So this would be a printable, free download in the little
links and description below. And you can just take this and you can just trace with your
fusible web. I’m always using Heat ‘N Bond Featherlight because I love the way it
works. So I’ve just traced that with a pen. And then once it was traced on, you’re going
to iron it to the backside, of course it’s a solid so it doesn’t really matter. Iron
that on there and then you’re just going to cut that out with scissors. Now I had some
fun gears laying around my house so this one here, I simply traced my gear. And again,
anytime I’m doing this I’m going to try to cut out a couple of layers at once, so
I only have to draw one time but I’m getting my shadow and the top color of the gear as
well as I go. So that’s another way of doing it, tracing household objects is always fun.
Now this gear I made right here using a circular rotary cutter tool. So I add fusible web on
the back first. And then what I do for that is use my New Year’s Eve party favor that
doubles as a rotary cutter. And I’m going to set up my first circle. And I can measure
here and I know because it’s a five inch square, I’ve got only a little bit, I’m
going to say 2 ½ but I always go just a little under. And then I’m just checking my edges
to make sure I’m on track. So now I need to move just slightly this way, good, good,
good. Pull the blade back. The blade cover I should say. And then just a nice easy cut
just like that. Now, once that’s cut the tool then moves to the outside and this rotary
cutter, this lazy Susan mat here is fantastic but not for this project. So I’m going to
take a second move this here because I don’t want this spinning around too much. And now
I’m going to actually take my, I’m just going to take little wedges out of my gear
as I go around. Of course, this takes a little bit more practice and is not nearly as symmetrical
looking as you can see. This one obviously turned out a little bit better. And then of
course, you’d want to cut a hole in the center. And here’s a trick. Maybe you don’t
know where the center point was but you can see it on the back and the paper. So you can
always come back here to get that center hole cut out. Just like that, ok? So those are
a couple of easy ways to create your own gears at home. But I was really excited, like I
said, it was Sizzix that offered me the gear dies that got me so excited and opened the
door to create this quilt in a heartbeat. But many of you don’t even know what die
cutting is so let me show you.
This tool that just popped onto set over here is the Sizzix brand. And the reason I like
the Sizzix is you can use any other brands dies within here. So a die looks like this.
And I have two different sizes of gears behind me. So I have two different size dies. It’s
plastic on the back, I guess, I don’t know what the real material is. But this is foam
and there’s a metal cutting surface inside but it’s not cutting my hands as I press
on it. Let me bring the tray around and show you how to load this thing up. Ok, there’s
multiple layers that go underneath on the bed, like yay. And that adds the thickness
and different dies have different thicknesses from other brands so you do sometimes need
to make adjustments. I’m going to show you how to cut the big gears. So I’ve got those
in place there. And then I also have already prepared two pieces of fabric both with fusible
web on the back. Now what I want to point out is I can cut as many as eight layers of
fabric with fusible, in my cutter here. But I’m also building these in sections where
I have my light and my shadow together so that they just stay nice and organized. And
that way at the end of it I have equal amounts of bright gears and shadow gears. Once that’s
there then I’m going to put my protective layer on the top here and come on over to
the cutting machine. Now, I start to push this through here and the pressure of all
of that starts the knob to spin or the handle to spin. And then I just grab it and continue
working through here. You might even hear that plastic on top being re-scarred. Every
time you run it through there, it’s going to get scarred and it’s no big deal. Let
me just take this part out to make life easy here. Ok? Now, voila! Just like that. We have
our wonderful gears. I can quickly expose one of them and probably even expose the other
so I can show you how to do the shadows. Let’s tidy up a little bit. So that’s the first
one. Sometimes the top surface doesn’t cut all the way through or hits a little snag
so you can just cut that little part out with scissors if you need. But once our gears are
made, I know so easy.
Ok, now what I’m going to do is I’m going to take my light gear and technically before
I start building any of these, I’m going to peel the paper side off of at least the
top layer, if not both layers. We’ll just do the top for now, easy management. And then
what I can do is I’m going to match up my gears. And the reason I peeled the paper off
the first is so I don’t have to peel it off later once I get these all organized but
it’s getting a little stickier. And then what I did is I just kind of off set the gear
itself so that the shadow showed up and the light side showed up. And you’re probably
noticing that the die is slightly larger than the ten square and some of these little chunks,
I actually have all of those in the quilt too because they add a little bit of character
in my opinion. A little bit of nibbling in the gears, old age gears right? So let’s
talk about how to manage the shadows and you’ll be ready to get started.
So this is the light source up here in my quilt. So therefore I want my shadows to be
in the appropriate position or opposite direction my light source. So if you look carefully
here’s where the light was coming from and I have all of my shadows on the lower end
or backside of the gears themselves. So it just feels natural and gives you that very
three dimensional effect. So let’s take it step by step and I’m going to give you
the wrap up. Are you ready if you’re taking notes, right? So build your background. Construct
your broken dishes quilt all the way through. And then what I really do is I take a giant
piece of batting, not fusible. I lay it on my design table, not wall. That way I can
take my gears and I can position them around on the quilt and then when it’s all done,
I literally bring my iron to the quilt instead of bringing the quilt to the iron. Nothing
moves. And that gives me the opportunity to go through and press down, you’re going
to have to heat set these onto the quilt to anchor them down. And then the final step
is free motion machine quilting . So free motion quilting here you can see I used black
thread for all of my gears so that I wasn’t constantly changing thread and that just sped
up the efficiency, right? Then for the rest of the background, I kind of tried a “Di
Vinci” style blueprint quilting. And it was going fairly successfully, don’t look
real close. And then I also, you could just do little swirling movements and little line
shapes. There’s a few sections up in here where I just of was just following the patterns
of the triangles themselves. Just kind of mixing it up to add different textures, right?
So anyways, those of you who have never heard about steampunk, I hope I’ve offered you
a little extra coolness in your life because I think it’s awesome stuff. I really hope
you enjoyed this gear quilt. I know some of you have been following along on our Facebook
page and saw us leaking photos. We’re very excited to see it. I hope it was all you were
looking for here today at Man Sewing.