Put a Bowtie on It

Back to working on the BAMQ BOM, this time we're making a bowtie block. I always put up the blocks I've made so far so that I can check on the print mixture and color balance I've got going already. I decided  I wanted a mostly lighter  overall block (except for the bowties), and a fairly large block this time.

There's so many different ways to do this one, but I chose a fairly large quadruple version. My idea was to have a lot of fabrics in this block, mostly light grey prints in the background, some of which I haven't used yet. And then a mix of the darker almost black prints I've been working with. This was my initial layout.

Here's the final layout I decided on. Too bad the dark prints are getting cut in half triangles to make the bowties, I kind of like this look as squares.

Time to use a specialty ruler, the Simple Folded Corners ruler.  I put little sticky bookmarks for the edge lines I'm aiming for.

I chose the No-Trim version instead of the Oversize and Trim version. I like doing it this way, no line drawing or extra trimming required.

Did I sew together that teeny tiny HST™ as well as the folded corner? 

I bet you already knew the answer to that one! There can never be too many teeny tiny HST™s!

All the parts ready to assemble.

And there it is, a quadruple bow-tie block with 15 different prints.

The new block fits in really nicely I think. This is going to be an interesting quilt to try and put together.
 

200 HRTs

 

I was blazing through the trimming of the rest of the HRTs I've been making for the Lupine Mystery quilt (for what seems like months and months now) and I stopped at the very very last one for a picture. I don't think I could have made all of these so easily without the great Bloc_Loc rulers.

Here's the 14 sets of HRTs that were done. I was working on trimming the remaining 11 sets.

I got into the groove and then suddenly all 200 were all trimmed and done, woohoo! I'm so relieved to get this clue done for the mystery quilt.

Back to HRTs

 

Back to actual sewing happening today! Finally! Woohoo! But of course I had to re-teach, re-view, and re-learn how to do the rest of the HRTs with the Bloc Loc Rulers that I cut out for the Lupine Mystery Quilt.

I referred back to the kinda tutorial I'd made for myself way back in June. This is a sort of update to that, with a big deal note to begin with: Both fabrics are right side up when you cut the pairs. Very Important for prints especially.

Flip one of the triangles, right sides together, offset the triangle tips, sew together.

Press seams to the purple.

Make sure you're using the B ruler with the B units, pay attention to which side the seam allowance is on. Trim on two sides.

Keeping the ruler locked onto the seam, spin ruler 180°, slide down to the final measurement of 2"w x 3.5"h.

Repeat with the A ruler and A units.

Okay, one set all done!

There it is, an actual thing that I sewed, and ironed and trimmed.

And then I cut and sewed a whole bunch more, but they haven't been pressed or trimmed yet.

Community Giving Binding and Tutorial

 

This is a combination of a post about getting the quilt binding done for the BAMQ Community Giving quilt AND a tutorial on how to join the ends of the binding using the The Binding Tool by TQM. This is mostly for me, so that I don't have to go watch the instruction video each time. I'm pretty sure I picked this tool up on the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day.

You sew on a 2.5" wide quilt binding leaving a 12" gap between your starting and ending points. And I mean as close to exactly 12" as possible. (this is one point I wasn't always the best at). If you don't measure this, it's hit or miss on whether the binding will end up being the right length.

The printing on the tool is ALWAYS face-up. The square end of the tool butts up against the spot where the stitching ends on the left, and you mark the binding with the "MARK HERE" line on the tool.

Unfold and open up the binding flat, right-side up, place the tool on the binding and align the "MARK HERE" line with the line you've marked. The binding fabric they use in the tutorial is a solid, so it's a little hard to tell which side is up so I wanted to note that mainly for myself.

Trim the binding using the angled side of the ruler. Okay, that's the left-hand side of the binding cut and ready to sew together, now moving on to the right-hand side.

Turn the ruler around, but don't turn it over, **Remember it stays Printed Side up**. Butt up the square end of the ruler to the stitching ending point. Mark the binding using the "Mark Here" line.

Spread open the binding, right side up. This is the point I've messed up so pay attention: Align the small angled edge of the ruler with the line you've marked.

Trim off using the angle of the ruler. 

It's pretty standard from here out, pin the two ends together, aligning the snub nosed ends.

Sew with a 1/4" seam. Press open.

Sew down the binding over the 12" gap you had left. You're done/

And then, when you flip over the binding, if you've got a label, don't forget to add it in. For a quilt that's going to be used and washed a lot, I don't hand-sew the binding.

There it is, all done! No gaps, no lumps, no tears or un-sewing.

I made the binding out of some of the quilt's own excess backing fabric (the green one) and a piece of fabric left from the backing of one of my quilts (the yellow one).

I hope that tutorial helps me in the future, and maybe you too if you happen to have this tool in your ruler stash.

Mini Pumpkins

 Oh yes, that's right, I'm supposed to be working on finishing up my #5 on my BAMQ UFO list. It's the Quick Curve Ruler Mini Pumpkins project that I started back in 2019. These four blocks were the only parts that I had finished.

I also had put aside the right size squares of orange fabrics that I was meaning to use. So I dug out my Quick Curve Mini Ruler and tried out my smaller rotary cutter. Unfortunately the blade isn't quite wide enough to reach the cutting mat through the ruler thickness and fabric. So I just used my regular rotary cutter.

The cutting of all the curved orange pumpkin sections went pretty quickly. I found that I had four top "stem" units made. Now I need to cut the block backgrounds and make two more top of the block "stem" pieces. I will either make another grey pumpkin block or cut new outer edge pumpkin pieces for that bottom one. It just looks too strange of a shape because the outer curve is too match-y with the background fabric.

Prints Test

 

Moving on to the Prints Test to make sure I really know how to make these HRTs for the Lupine Mystery quilt. Both fabrics are right side up together, then cut on the diagonal.

The pairs flipped into position and paired with the correct A or B ruler

All sewn together, and doing the trimming.

Okay, now that I've got my brain wrapped around the process, it all worked very quickly. And the prints were no problem-o.

That's two out of 25 sets done. I definitely have some more cutting to do.

HRT But Not Like That

 I am moving on to Clue 4 of the Lupine Mystery quilt. And that means that I'm trying out a new tool, one of several special rulers that I have for making half rectangle triangles (HRTs but not the hormone replacement kind!). This Bloc-Loc one is actually a pair of rulers, one for each direction of the angle.  This makes the markings on the ruler so much easier to use for me. 

I really like how the Bloc-Loc channel grabs and holds the pressed over seam with the HST version that I've been using for a while now. Just to note: these Bloc-Loc rulers don't really work for pressed-open seams because the channel is cut to accommodate the three layers of fabric that is on one side of the seam versus the single layer on the other side.

Once I've made the trim on the first two sides, I just rotate the whole ruler with the block underneath it around and then slide it up the channel along the seam and trim the remaining two sides.

Repeat with the other ruler that has the angle going in the opposite direction and then I've got one set done. And then another, this goes pretty quickly once you get started.

 Still a few more left to sew, to finish up the rest of this set.

Next, I know that I need to make the next set with two prints that actually matter which side is "right side up" to make sure I really understand how to use these rulers.  It's so easy to turn over pieces when they're either these batiks or white on white prints that are "close enough" on both sides.