Tutorial - Great Scrapbuster, "The X Quilt"

Photo of X Quilt coming off the frame. 

I love it--it's so scrappy. 

Let me show you how I construct the X Quilt Block, using my 2.5" wide strip method,

a genuine scrap buster approach.

Fabric Cutting and Assembly Reference

10-1/2 inch X Quilt Block

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Step 1 - sew together 3 strips of fabric

Each strip is 6-1/2" long by 2-1/2" wide

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Step 2:  Fold unit in half, and press to mark a center line

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Step 3: Open pressed unit to reveal center line crease

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Step 4: Put unit on a cutting board, and lay 4-1/2" square ruler template diagonally following the ironed crease line.  

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So far, we've sewn two units.  Pressed, and Cut with 4-1/2" square ruler template.

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To make this block, make 4 units

Review:

Step 1 - Sew 3 strips together

Step 2 - Press in half

Step 3: On your cutting board,  lay 4-1/2" square ruler template on the unit

Step 4 - With rotary cutter and ruler template, trim to 4-1/2" square

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Fabric Cutting and Assembly Guide

Note the Orange, Red, or Yellow Cross in the center of the block are built from 2-1/2" Squares, plus (1) 6-1/2" x 2-1/2" Horizontal Strip.

I made 42 blocks.  6 blocks per row, 7 rows.

Above Photo: first 4 blocks.  Auditioning orange, red, and yellow fabrics for center crosses.

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NEXT STEPS

2-1/2" Wide Sashing (medium to light gray fabric)

Sew 10-1/2"sashing strips to each block

I laid the blocks on the floor of my studio, to create a good color distribution.  

I found success in focusing on the YELLOW crosses

as they have the most twinkle, the most sparkle.  

Satisfied with the arrangements of a few rows, I knew I had a good plan for arrangement of the remaining rows.

Rows 1,2,3, and figuring out arrangement of blocks for row 4.

From the floor layout: I folded and marked row 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Adding horizontal sashing to each row.

I finished sewing rows together and threw the quilt top on the bed to take a couple (progress) photos.

Question:

Why is a queen size quilt about 90" wide?

Answer: a queen size mattress measures 60" across, plus 15" drop on both sides = 90"

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Next, I added two borders: 3 inch navy print, followed by a 6 inch gray border in the same fabric as the sashing.

Sewing 3" Navy Blue border around perimeter of the quilt top.

Adding 6" gray fabric border

Quilt loaded on the frame, first row of long arm quilting.

Side note: it takes me two hours to load the backing, batting, and quilt top on the frame which also includes cleaning and oiling of machine:

1. clean machine surface with lint catching cloth. 
2. emove throat plate to clean and make sure there are no stray threads or lint from previous quilting project. 
3. one drop of machine oil in the bobbin race rim while you have the throat plate cover off.
4. install new needle.
5. one or two drops of machine oil in designated port to oil bearings (right hand side of machine head).
6. clean frame surface, frame rails.
7. clean machine carriage and its wheels (checking for dirt, lint, stray threads from previous quilting project).
8. wind M size bobbins (10 bobbins needed for a queen size quilt based on my Floral Feather free style edge to edge quilt design).  My other signature designs are: Squirrel Feathers, and Fish Feathers.
9. clean inside housing where bobbin race sits.  always lots of dirt and lint there from last quilting project.
10. one drop machine oil inside the base of the bobbin race, then insert bobbin.
11. thread machine (top thread)
12. load backing, batting, and quilt top on frame,
13. snug belly bar and take up bar to take up slack.
14. attach side 4 clamps at the left and right margins of quilt fabric layers.
15. Turn on machine.
16. Test stitches with scrap strip of fabric on the oversized batting at the right hand margin.  Nearly always I have to adjust bobbin tension.  Its a lot of fussing some days.  I swear naughty elves adjust and play with the bobbin tension between quilting projects.

After all that, I began free style (long arm) quilting Floral Feathers.  A serpentine design that ends in a spiral, backtracking with feathers.  Its a very curvy, Victorianesque design I created a couple of years ago.  The sequence is about 10" tall, and covers an area 12-15" wide.  

I flipped up the bottom of the quilt, so I could photograph the backing.

and to show you two art panels added to the backing (a day's work to sew the backing for this quilt).

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Yesterday, I squared two queen size quilts--this X quilt and another quilt called Blues Shoo-Flies.

Blues Shoo-Flies Quilt

I'll be doing a separate post about the Blue Shoo-Flies Quilt, which includes a tutorial how to fix a backwards placed block, while its still on the frame. 

Oops!

It was a scary moment discovering this mistake. 

The repair turned out to be straight forward, and simple. 

I want to share photos how the repair was made.   

2 QUILTS FINISHED

I prepared and installed bindings for both X quilt and Blues Shoo-Flies Quilt yesterday, and last night from the dinner hour forward I turned and hand-stitched the bindings to finish these two queen size quilts for a show this Sunday August 6 "Heritage Day" in New London, WI. 

At my tent at Heritage Day, I'll have 10 queen size quilts for sale, table runners, baby quilts, hand embroidered/hand beaded purses, and a bazillion oversized potholders.  Come see me! 

http://www.historicalvillage.org/heritagedays.html

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Yippee, I'm down to only one LARGE  FULL storage bin of fabric scraps. 

Best wishes to you.  Thank you for stopping by my blog, to read about life here in central rural Wisconsin, living in our old Victorian Farmhouse.  We're picking a big garden this year, lot's of green beans, zucchini, and tomatoes.

Love ya--friends.  Leave me a note, ok?

P.S.

Friday August 4th--I had to turn on the furnace today.  Its cold, rainy, gloomy day, 54 degrees F. 

Summer on the Porch and Other Things

This is our front porch.  We purchased 6 of the trough planters and railing brackets at Fleet Farm. 

3 planters in a mossy green that matches our house color, and 3 in medium gray to match Jon's Mom Betty's house.  I filled them with purple and yellow wave pansies, short yellow marigolds, and bib lettuce. 

Perfect spot for lunch time meal, usually a salad for me.  Many times I sit at this rocking chair to do hand sewing projects--like sewing bindings on scrappy over-sized potholders. 

All together I made 4 dozen oversized potholders last month.  They sell well at craft shows. 

100% cotton prints and batting, washable. 

SORTING THROUGH FABRIC SCRAPS:

I spent the month of May downsizing and sorting through 4 Large Bins of Fabric Scraps. 

Much of the fabric scraps I gave to a friend who weaves rugs, and I used leftover quilt blocks and cotton batting to build dozens of oversized potholders. 

Multiply this pile of 2.5 scraps by 100 and you'll have an idea what 4 full storage bins of scraps looks like. 

Ever Growing Piles of Scrap Fabric and Why They Grow:

As I finish a quilt project I always have leftover quilt blocks, and lots of  2.5" wide strips.  The fabric scrap bins were getting ridiculously full.   

I used the leftover quilt blocks --sewing padded purses and cell phone carriers that I sell at craft shows. 

Often I combine hand stitched wool penny medallions for decoration

This is my design--I created the carriers with  a large swivel metal clip-on to attach to the waistline, or at the neckline.   

Back to the flower troughs--marigolds, pansies, and bib lettuce . . .

Its been a great year for munching, harvesting bib lettuce on the porch.  I'll be using these trough planters many years and I can see already--they'd be great for planting fresh cooking herbs.  Nice!

From my three planter boxes I harvested. 

This is what I love to eat for lunch everyday.   Lettuce with yellow peppers and bits of sweet onion, sliced white mushrooms, blackberries, two ounces of dill cheese, a few croutons, and not shown drizzle with dressing, a raspberry balsamic vinegar.  

 There is an amazing tea and vinegar store in Stevens Point called Diversi-Tea.  Yummy.  I've tried the strawberry, blueberry, but raspberry balsamic is my favorite!  Great marinade for chicken too!

Second rocking chair - Front Porch

East Porch (summer kitchen entrance)

East Porch

As I was planting the flowers--I labeled each trough planter with name tags, so Jon would take the just the gray planters I made up for his Mom Betty.  

Actually the gray and green planters are difficult to see a  color difference in the bright outdoor light. 

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SORTING FABRICS - LOST AND FOUND - REPURPOSE

Ok--back to my story about downsizing and sorting scrap fabrics . . .

Last week, I used some leftover quilt blocks to build a couple of padded purses.  I was looking through the scrap bins hoping to find dozens of  flying geese blocks I made back in 2013 for my Circus, Circus quilt.  

After sorting and downsizing the bins for two weeks I didn't see any flying geese blocks.  What???   I made dozens of them.  Where are the flying geese blocks?????

The flying geese blocks were hiding in the BOTTOM of this basket, topped off with rolls of 6-8" lengths of 2.5" wide fabric strips sewn end to end. 

I randomly selected four flying geese blocks and made a padded purse, then added more UFO blocks and leftover blue quilt binding . . .

First part of making a padded purse . . .

Finished Purse

Featuring hand made polymer clay beaded zipper pull . . .

 The best part of this purse is its padded exterior, and padded pocket. 

Padding is a good feature when you want to carry and protect your cell phone.  Underneath that pocket is a HIDDEN POCKET--a place to hide a passport, or folded receipts you don't want swimming around in your purse

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I used only a small amount of those flying geese blocks for my Circus, Circus Quilt, 2013. 

I cannot explain to you why I make so many extra blocks.  The Circus, Circus quilt I made up as I went along--adding this and that.  What I really wanted in this quilt was COLOR COLOR.  

For me, the design process is--I get an idea, and build quilt blocks and use what I need, store the rest for other projects.  Lately, I've been using a little bit of math to better plan my quilt tops and art panels for the backing.  I'm attempting not to make too many extra blocks. 

  

I used a few of those flying geese blocks to create front of this Navy Corduroy Upholstery laptop carrier.  It was experimental, free motion quilting, and beading.

While sorting through scrap fabric bins  I found one hunk of this upholstery fabric left--a fabric I loved and made lots of purses from.  I was sad to see it go. 

There wasn't enough to build a full purse, and certainly not enough to make cross-body straps.  But I was sure I could combine other fabrics and build something fun!  I added two cotton fabrics to the margins, free motion quilted it to a layer of cotton batting and decorative cotton living. 

Built a padded pocket for the interior, with secondary hidden pocket beneath.  Added hand made polymer clay beaded zipper pull, a wool medallion hand stitched with seed beads, and finished off with batik orange/yellow appliqued circles.  This is a full meal, all the bells and whistles.  Anything more and I would have ruined it.  I almost did.  Ha. Ha.

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Hope you have a great day.  Ugh, I have to do some laundry before I get to sew today.  Bummer.

Drop me a line.  Tell me about your summer . . . . please.