BLOG: Quilting + Appliqué

How to Piece Batting Together – a Thrifty Trick

July 9, 2014

Thrifty Tip - How to Piece Batting Scraps

Did you know you can piece together batting scraps?

Sometimes when I’m cleaning out my sewing room, I ask myself why I’m keeping all these long skinny strips of batting around. They’re mostly strips cut off the edge of a quilt after quilting and can be anywhere from 5-10 inches wide.

This week I was sooooo happy to have them!

I ran out of batting with just a few blocks to go on the Wild Flowers quilt. I’m doing Quilt As You Go, so small pieces work, but they needed to be at least 10 1/2 inches and I had already used all the bits that size.

I’m trying to finish the quilt by this weekend, so it was time to grab some of those scraps and piece the batting together.

Did you know you could do that?

Yep! And it’s pretty darn easy.

Step 1

Set your machine to the widest, tallest zigzag you can.

Step 2

Butt the edges of two batting scraps and run them down the machine so that the seam runs right down the middle and the zigs and zags catch some of the batting on each side.

How to Piece Batting Scraps - a thifty trick from Shiny Happy World

My machine often skips stitches when I do this. Don’t worry about it as long as most of them catch.

Step 3

Use the new, bigger piece of batting.

Butting the edges keeps you from getting a fat ridge of overlapped batting in there, and the zigzag stitch is plenty to hold the pieces together during construction. And look how nicely it all holds together once I add some quilting! Click on the image if you want to see it bigger so you can really see where that seam is.

So that’s it! I used up some of those bulky batting scraps and I’m ready to finish the last blocks for my quilt. No shopping needed!

Want to know what my favorite quilt batting is and why? I lay out all the details in this post – My Favorite Quilt Batting.

These links go to all my posts about quilt supplies.

Quillt Sizes and Supplies Needed
My Favorite Tools and Supplies and Where to Get Them
Cuddle Fleece
My Favorite Batting
How to Piece Batting Scraps (a thrifty tip)
Thread – no post here, just a reminder that you need thread. 🙂
Putting Fusible Adhesive to the Test
Which Products Do I Use When? Freezer Paper, Fusible Adhesive, or Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy?

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about cutting and quilting your background blocks.

Happy stitching!

Block 6 in the Controlled Chaos Scrappy Quilt-Along

June 26, 2014

I was out of my studio last week so I didn’t get a block made, but I’m back this week with a brand new color. Yellow! This is its first appearance in the quilt and I definitely like it paired with the blue. (It’s crazy how many blue scraps I have. . .)

Ready to make block #6?

What You’ll Need

70 two-inch squares in color A (shown in blue)
30 two-inch squares in color B (shown in yellow)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into columns.

(I know usually I saw rows here, but this block will be easier worked in columns. That way you have two types – some that alternate blue and yellow and some that are all blue.)

Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.

Sew the columns together to make the finished block.

Here’s the exploded view. . .

Here’s what my six blocks look like so far. . .

Love! By next week’s post I’ll decide what the finished size of my quilt will be. I’m thinking about hand-quilting mine. Crazy, right?

Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

How to Make a Scrap Quilt – Video 3 – How to Join Pieced Strips (and keep the seams lined up)

June 11, 2014

This is the last video you need to learn how to make a scrap quilt. Mine is a Controlled Chaos scrappy quilt and you’re welcome to sew along. I’m sharing a new block every week.

The whole quilt is a simple collection of two-inch squares.

Watch the video here showing how to cut those squares from scraps. I show two different techniques.

Watch this video to see how to sew them together quickly using the chain piecing technique.

This newest video shows how to join those pieced strips together while keeping the seams lined up for nice, neat intersections.

Here it is!

See? Pins are your friends. 🙂

You’ll use this technique in all kinds of quilts – not just scrap quilts.

I specialize in designing quilts that have no intersecting seams (like this Buttonholes quilt), but most quilts have them and not getting a good intersection is the most obvious “mistake” in any quilt.

So any time you want your seams to line up – grab your pins!

You can see all the posts in the Controlled Chaos series here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Block 5 in the Controlled Chaos Scrappy Quilt-Along

June 10, 2014

Here’s block five in the Controlled Chaos scrappy quilt. I still had lots of purple scraps out from last week, and I love purple and green together so I went with that pairing. I love it!

I know I say that every time – but I really love how this quilt is coming together.

Here’s how the blocks look so far. . .

Controlled Chaos five blocks with no sashing

Barely controlled chaos. I like it!

I love the way the blocks blend together with no sashing. It’s hard to tell where one stops and the next starts and I really like the unruliness of it. One quilter who’s playing along mentioned that she might put sashing between her blocks – so I thought I’d share that version of the mock-up here too. . .

Controlled Chaos five blocks with sashing

This chaos is definitely more controlled. I like it too!

I think both versions look terrific. How much chaos are you comfortable with? 🙂

Ready to make block #5?

What You’ll Need

49 two-inch squares in color A (shown in purple)
51 two-inch squares in color B (shown in green)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into rows.

Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.

Sew the rows together to make the finished block.

Here’s the exploded view. . .

I have to be away from my studio all next week, so we’ll be taking a week off of Controlled Chaos. But check in tomorrow for a new video! This one shows how I match seams to sew the blocks together when I’ve pressed the seams open.

Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

Controlled Chaos Quilt Block #4

June 4, 2014

Block #4 is finished for the Controlled Chaos quilt!

I realized all my blocks so far included blue – so this time I grabbed some purple and orange. I’m loving how they look together!

So far. . .

Speaking of how they look together, here’s a quick mock-up of the first four blocks. . .

Love!

I’m so happy with how this is coming together!

Ready to make block #4?

What You’ll Need

70 two-inch squares in color A (shown in purple)
30 two-inch squares in color B (shown in orange)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into rows.

Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.

Sew the rows together to make the finished block.

Here’s the exploded view. . .

A Word About Randomness

It’s really HARD to be random when you’re sewing blocks together. The inclination is always to put two fabrics together that look good together, but if you do that you’ll have two things happen. . .

It will take longer to make your quilt because you’re making decisions with every single square.
You’ll tend to put the same fabrics together over and over again and a pattern will emerge. It’ll be a subtle pattern, but your scrappy quilt will look just a little less scrappy.

Some people throw all their blocks in a paper bag and draw them out without looking. I like the idea of that, but it makes my squares wrinkly and that bugs me.

Instead, I lay out one stack of squares for each fabric. I just stack them up near my sewing machine as I cut them, and I don’t go for any kind of order. Then when I sew, I just take them in order, regardless of what comes up together.

Did you see the video yet about chain piecing? Even if you already know what chain piecing is, take a look. I show my randomness method at the beginning of the video.

Block #5 coming next week! I don’t have any yellow or green yet, so I’ll definitely be using one of those colors.

Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

If you’re stitching along – please send photos of any finished blocks! I’ll include them in future posts. You can email them to me at blockhead[at]wendigratz[dot]com.

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

Video – How to Chain Piece Quilt Blocks

June 3, 2014

In this video I show you how to chain piece quilt blocks for speedy piecing.

This is a really common technique in the quilt world, so I know a lot of you will be familiar with it already.

If it’s new to you – prepare for your world to be rocked.

Seriously.

It’s just amazing how much time you save by not snipping threads on each set of blocks as you go.

I don’t just use this technique for quilting. I use it any time I’m sewing more than one set of things together.

If I’m working on a puppy softie and I have four sets of paws, a tail and two sets of ears to sew up, I chain them all together. I do backstitch at the beginning and end of each of those sets – but I don’t cut the threads until I’m done with the whole chain.

Here’s the video. . .

See how easy?

This is the technique I’m using to sew up all those itty bitty blocks in the Controlled Chaos Scrappy Quilt-Along. I’ll be sharing the next block in that quilt tomorrow!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Video – How to Cut Small Squares from Scraps

May 28, 2014

I think everyone has a favorite method for cutting small squares from scraps.

In this video I share the two methods (and tools) that I use – depending on the size and shape of the scraps I’m cutting.

Of course, you can use these methods for any size squares. Right now I’m working on the Controlled Chaos quilt and that uses 2 inch squares, so that’s what I showed. 🙂

Here’s the video.

Coming next week. . . a video showing how I chain piece these squares together. It’s fast!

You can see all the Controlled Chaos posts here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

Controlled Chaos Block #3 – a scrappy quilt-along

May 27, 2014

Here’s block #3 in the scrappy quilt-along.

I love it!

This time I went for a classic checkerboard in pretty blues and greens.

My inspiration?

A block sent in by a reader!

Ann shared her first block and wrote. . .

Blue and green stripes – not as noticeably ‘stripy’ as I had hoped for – will try for greater contrast in next block.

Here’s Ann’s block.

I have to say right here that I love this block! So much that it inspired the color combo in my own block #3.

But I see what’s Ann’s talking about so I’m going to share a little color lesson here.

The Official Quilters Rule (which you may choose to ignore at any time) is to choose your lights and darks carefully.

Ann has her rows divided by color, but within each stripe there’s a full range from very light to medium dark.

Sometimes your eye wants to see contrast because of color, and sometimes it wants to see contrast because of shade.

The best example in this block is that stack of three very light colored blocks right in the middle of the bottom three rows. See how your eye wants to group them together as one tall rectangle? That’s because they’re very similar in shade, even if some are blue and one is green. And they’re surrounded by noticeably darker blocks of both colors. That breaks up the desired stripey effect by creating a competing shape that the eye likes more.

I happen to LOVE this dapply effect and I reproduced it in my own block. But if it’s not your cup of tea, here are a couple of things you can do to help bring up the contrast.

1. Be more mindful of your darks and lights. If it’s hard for you to “see” the effect you’re getting, try using your camera to help. Lay out the blocks you think you want to use, snap a photo, then convert the image to black and white.

Here’s Ann’s block converted.

Without the distraction of color you can more easily see that it’s a random assortment of light and dark.

Use this tool to help you really see which blocks are lightest and which are darkest. If Ann had used only her darkest blues and only her lightest greens, she would have gotten the more stripey effect she wanted.

You can get the same help by looking through a red lens – faster than taking photos and fiddling with filters. Quilt shops used to carry them, but I haven’t seen them in a long time. Get some red acetate from a florist and look through it to make a cheap and easy red lens for yourself.

2. Use the distraction of color to your advantage. If I’m pairing two colors in a block I almost always go for a warm color and a cool color. That helps your eye see contrast between the colors where there’s very little (or no) contrast in the shade. Take a look at my first block.

If you look at the grayscale version it’s very clear that this is a big wash of medium tones with almost no contrast except a handful of randomly-placed very dark squares. (A total failure according to Official Quilter Rules.)

But in color you can clearly see the stripes! Thank you warm and cool contrast! 🙂

The reason Ann’s block didn’t feel stripey enough to her was because it had a range of shades in both color stripes and blue and green are right next to each other on the color wheel.

Again – I love it! But now you have some tools to help you out if you feel like you’re not getting the contrast you want. Thanks, Ann, for letting me use your block as an example! And for inspiring my third block. 🙂

Ready to make your own Block #3?

What You’ll Need

52 two-inch squares in color A (shown in green)
48 two-inch squares in color B (shown in blue)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Arrange your squares according to the exploded view.

Sew sets of four blocks into squares. Then arrange those squares in rows.

Doing it this way will keep the edges of the color blocks perfectly straight, even if your seams and intersections aren’t perfect.

Sew the larger blocks together into rows.

Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.

Sew the rows together to make the finished block.

Here’s what my quilt is looking like so far.

I love it! But I have to NOT use blue in the next block. 🙂 I didn’t realize until I had put them all together that every block has blue so far!

Block #4 coming next week! And take a look at this video showing how I cut my squares from scraps.

Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

If you’re stitching along – please share photos of any finished blocks in the Shiny Happy People group! We’d all love to see what you’re making!

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

Controlled Chaos: Scrappy Quilt-Along #2

May 21, 2014

I’m so glad that some of you will be joining me in this scrappy quilt-along!

Here’s block #2. This time I used orange and mostly turquoise-ish blues.

I really like how it turned out!

And here’s a quick mock-up of what it will look like if it ends up next to block #1 in the final quilt.

I like the way the horizontal blue stripes of the first block kind of feed into the blue border of the new block.

What You’ll Need

40 two-inch squares in color A (shown in blue)
60 two-inch squares in color B (shown in orange)

Instructions

Use 1/4″ seam allowances for all sewing.

Arrange your squares according to the diagram below and sew them together into rows.

Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.

Sew the rows together to make the finished block.

Here’s the exploded view. . .

I’m really happy with the contrast in this one. 🙂

I’ve had a couple of questions about my process on this. . .

What’s the best way to cut squares from scraps?
Is there a tricky way to sew all the blocks together?
Is there a special way to make the seams line up just right?

I’m working on a short series of videos to answer these questions and hope to have the first one ready to post next week. Keep any questions coming and I’ll do my best to answer them as we go. 🙂

Block #3 coming next week! Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

If you’re stitching along – please post photos of any finished blocks. We love to see!

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

Controlled Chaos Scrap Quilt Along #1

May 14, 2014

Raise your hand if you’d like to empty your scrap bins and make a pretty spectacular quilt along the way!

*hand raised and waving around madly*

I’m making a scrap quilt and I’d love for you to join me!

I had originally thought about just cutting all my tiniest scraps into two inch blocks and then sewing them together completely at random. That would be fun – in a way – but the call of pattern is too hard for me to resist.

Plus I know that that is one HUGE project and it will feel like a smaller project if I can have lots of “finished” bits along the way.

So then I decided to do a bunch of 10 x 10 square blocks, each one using only two colors.

I’m calling it Controlled Chaos. 🙂

This is going to be a regular series (that will help me actually finish it) with a goal of one block a week. We can make one block a week, right?

I’d love for any of you with overflowing scrap bins to join in!

Here’s Block #1. Simple. Classic. Stripes made out of itty bitty scrappy squares.

What you’ll need

50 two-inch squares of color A
50 two-inch squares of color B

Instructions

Use 1/4 inch seam allowance for all sewing.

Choose one color and sew 10 blocks together into a strip. Repeat until you have 5 strips of each color.

Press all the seams. I’m pressing mine open for this quilt. I think it will make things simpler in the end.

Sew the strips together, alternating colors.

Here’s the exploded view.

I think this block would have been more successful if I had tightened up the colors a bit more. I think the reds are good – they’re all red or very dark pink. But there’s a bit too much variety in the blues. I wish I had made them all dark blue or all light blue. It’s ok here because there is so much contrast between the red and the blue that it still clearly reads as stripes (and no way am I taking them apart) but it’s something I’ll keep in mind going forward.

Block #2 coming next week! Click here for all the Controlled Chaos posts.

Happy piecing!

Best,
Wendi

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

So far. . .

A Word About Randomness

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