Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Tips on making the double hourglass quilt

As I have said in some other posts I have a few tips on making the double hourglass quilt, listed by Alison at Cluck Cluck Sew. Refer to her easy to understand instructions but add a few of these tips and you will have a double hourglass quilt of your own, whipped up in a jiffy.
1. It's all about the ironing. 
a.When sewing the initial coloured strips and solid colour together press the seam to the patterned material.


b. Before opening each sewn triangle press the seam in the closed position first. This will set the seam and stop the stretch and buckle happening that can occur when dealing with seams on the bias.


c. When opening the first set of triangles sewn together (after setting the seam in the closed position), press the seam toward the triangle that has the print material.

All of these items will ensure that when you sew blocks together and / or assemble the triangles that the seams will all be in opposite directions so that they butt up closely and form really sharp corners.

2. Use the square rulers you have available
Alison's instructions regarding how to get your quilt triangles the correct size do work well. But I found that I could not cut the material off the template plastic, so had to put my ruler over it to have an edge, then it gets messy.

For using a Jelly roll - 2 1/2" strips I used my 6.5" ruler. The 45deg angle line is aligned to be straight with the bottom of the fabric and then you cut. Just like that.
For a Jolly roll - 1.5" strips I used my 4.5"ruler.
3. Chain piece
It will make the quilt sew a lot faster than getting up and ironing after every small seam.

4. Concentrate on each individual seam as it goes under your presser foot.
Make sure the seam is aligned and butting up. If you have to use pins then put one through each join. If you are confident without them just check each one as it goes through.
Have fun.

2 comments:

  1. I saw your post on Cluck Cluck Sew. I wasn't sure whether I was a perfectionist (enuf) or not, but your comment about pressing tips rang true with me. Thanks for the tips! Easy is good, clean results even better! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great tips here. Love your quilt!

    ReplyDelete

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