week 5 ,6,7

Due to lack of internet, there is no blog. freshly installed I have now got satalit broadband...its fantastic. apologies to all.

Week 5 is straight forward and quite easy, just make sure you sqaure all your blocks up before you sew them together in a row, and cut off any tails that you have.

Week 6 Houses....now these are fun. take your time with these and just work through slowly, and it will come together, join the houses together in a row, if you can see trees on the original photo then its because jan, whos quilt it is, made her houses a bit too small, so she added trees to lenthen the rows. we will be covering these techniques in week 9.

Week 7 , seminole.
I suppose this looks like its quite hard to do, but in fact once you get going its so much fun and really easy.


Week 8 ,
This is more time consuming than anything. choose one colour to run through to keep it together, but change the colours around to add interest.

Week 9... I will be adding pictures later on in the week as the server wont let me upload today......sometimes happens, I will put pictures up of how to add the prairie points and other  items relating to the row lengths.
Happy sewing...send me some photios and i will add them.

Week 4

 This week we made the beautiful heart block,
Its quite straightforward, but the important thing to remember is to change the centre strip around each time. If you didnt turn the strips around, when you sew the blocks together you would end up with one continual line through the centre of all the blocks , and it would take away from the block.

See here how effective the blocks look together.

week 3

This is Bettys log cabin, she has used very strong colours, but dont they look good.

These are also Bettys. she made her own vine for flower row, and instead of butterflys she used stars.
Why dont you experiment with different types of applique around the leaves and the butterflys on these two rows.
Also you can go wild with the flowers, and put as many as you like on the vine.
Its best to leave the flowers off though for now, until you have finished the quilting.

Week 2

Make up the log cabin blocks as in the instructions,
Take care to place the fabrics in the correct order so you have the colour you wish in the centre.
YOU WILL NEED 10 LOG CABIN BLOCKS

The instructions say trim the finished block to 5 inches. Your blocks depending on the seam allowance might be much bigger than this, I suggest if this is the case then round the block down to the nearest 1/4 of an inch. For example if your block measures 5 5/8th then trim it down to 5 1/2.
All your rows will need to measure the same, before you sew them together. We will address the row lengths toward the end of the class, to achieve this.

Have fun and experiment with colours....again if you are using scraps you can use a different colour for each log.

Week 1

The first couple of weeks are fairly easy.
The checkerboard row: this can be done by stitching two long strips together and cross cutting into sections. you then turn the section to make a 4 patch block. you then sew the blocks together to form the row, with one extra section added at the end, This method is the easiest , when you put the sections together the seams will slide into one another, giving you neat and tidy points.
If you are using scraps and want to use all different fabrics, you can cut up lots of sqaures at 2 1/2 inches and piece them all togeher to make the row.
A tip to try out ideas, use a sheet of sqaured paper, and using one sqaure on the paper to represent one sqaure on the row, use coloured pencils to colour in the sqaures. this will give you an idea of what your row will look like.
Good Luck and have fun.

Class by post....Sew in a row

                      Welcome to Class By Post.. Country sampler sew in a row

This is Karens nearly finished, one more border to go. i love the pink you added in , it sets the other colours off. Well done

Wow Romi this looks great, the extra borders added to it , I cant wait to see how it will be quilted. (Romi used her own centre piece )

Quilt Binding - How to Sew Mitered Binding - Quilt Binding Instructions

Quilt Binding - How to Sew Mitered Binding - Quilt Binding Instructions

here are some intructions on how to bind your quilt.

Week 8 and 9

These final weeks are all about measuring.
Cutting sashing strips and border strips to the right measurement are so important. I have myself in the past just stitched on strips without measuring and then cut them afterwards, and have been very dissapointed.
I made a quIlt once for a class sample- it turned out so well i decided to quilt it very heavily. it took 80 hours plus to do the quilting. BUT when i got to quilting the borders, because i had stitched them on and then cut them, i had very dissapointing results. The borders, when quilted were very wavy...ruining the whole quilt and wasting my hard work. Now i know most of you will not be quilting obsesively but it is important to get it right.

Week 7...

Foundation piecing Foundation block piecing consists of sewing pieces of fabric on to a paper or a muslin foundation to form a quilt block.  Foundation piecing can be used for creating full sized quilt blocks as well. Using the foundation piecing technique to piece blocks allows a quilter to construct complicated patterns easily and accurately .
Make sure to allow plenty of fabric for each piece.
I have added a link to a good page I found.

http://www.quilt.com/HowTo/FoundationHowToPage.html

Here is a picture of what your block should look like......

Week 6

This week is some what slower, but the results will be great. Paper piecing is so acurate.
Just make sure your corners are sharp, when folding the fabric over the papers.
Dont forget to make two blocks, but change the colours of the 2nd one.
HAVE FUN.....

Karens blocks so far, great colour scheme. Keep up the good work. Can I have some more pictures please....get those cameras out

Week 5

This is a nice easy one this week, and perfect for using up any strips you have left over.
Here I have used a light background, with contrasting fabrics. Play around and perhaps try a dark background. You could make the star from just two colours to make it work.
Make two blocks from this pattern.
You will have quite a few blocks now, lay them out around the centre point, as in the final picture. This will help you choose the colours for the final block.
Dont forget to send in photos, so we can all see what you are doing.

Week 4

This week is great fun, you can get great effects mixing colours. Again make two blocks and experiment with the combinations. Before you start the stitching, make a practise piece and try until you get the correct stitch length. Here is a picture of what the stitching should look like if you decide to use the machine . If you want you can do the stitching by hand, useing a  blanket stitch.

Thank you very much Marie for sending a picture of your work so far. I think the country colours will be lovely. The two blocks of the same design, look so different because of the colour placement. The orange background compliments the colours, maybe you should use a simular colour for your sashing.

Week 2 blocks

Here is an example of last weeks block in two different colour ways. look at the two carefully and decide which part of each block is more dominant.
These blocks were made by Romi, her colours are very vibrant and it will be interseting to see the end result.

WEEK 3

This weeks block is made from 4 smaller blocks.
here you can see the four smaller blocks in their final stages before they are stitched together.
Again consider colour placement. This quilt is all about manipulating the colours to change the look of the block.
Make another block the same but try reversing the colours, for example here you could use the light for the background and the lifght for the stars. You will be amazed at the results.

Week 2

As you can see here, this is the same block made in two different colourways.
It is very interesting to see how the light and dark placement can change the whole look.
Play around with scraps of fabrics to see how you can change the block.
This week you need to make two blocks of the same pattern, so why dont you challange yourself to make them completley different.
Have fun and why dont some of you send me some pitures.
Have a great week.

Hi, I hope you all like the colour instructions. This week is quite straightforward, but it is very important to get the colours right within the block, where you place the lights and darks can play a very important part in the finished look .

Good morning everyone, I recieved this picture from Karen, who completed her centre in record time. It looks great Karen. I love the choice of colours. It will be very striking when it is all together.

Please send me pictures of your progress and i will put the pictures up here for others to see.

Weeek 1

This is the centre of the quilt, it is made up from 4 smaller blocks. Choose the colours carefully , make sure you keep the background light. Play around with the fabrics until you like the combination. this week is easy, but please take care to get your seam allowances correct. each block should measure 12 1/2 inches before you sew them together.    Pictured here to the left is a single block.