So…….. Welcome to our first blog post about learning to quilt. I am Charlie, one of three members from Quilt Direct who are keen to learn about all things quilting and the tools we pack into parcels for our customers everyday.
Our early sessions have been about ‘half square triangles’. Having tried out different methods of creating half square triangles over several sessions, we all agree that using triangles-on-a-roll is a favourite with us all and we chose it to work on our first project.
This product has easy follow instructions printed on the roll (so no losing them). The complex series of dashed lines were quite scary to begin with but Katherine led us through pinning our fabrics to the paper (right sides together) and we were soon away.
Everyone was able to follow the lines and within a short time we unbelievably all had 16 completed (& perfect) half square triangle units!
We then had to decide on a layout for the block, as none of us had ever done this before it was quite baffling.
We had great fun deciding upon a layout for our own block. In order to finish our project in time for Valentine’s Day 2019, we had help from Katherine to turn the blocks into a quilt and then quilt it using the Bernina Q20, see our video above.
Here’s the finished item ! We hope that you like our first team effort.
Using this method we learnt:
- Do not pin over the sewing/cutting lines.
- Use a shorter stitch length to (about 1.6mm) to perforate the paper so that it may be easily removed.
- When removing paper hold the narrow side of the seam, start the rip, remove large section first.
- When squares are complete pile them all the same way. Stay organised!!!!
- Set all your seams and press to the dark side.
Products we learnt more about during this project:
Bernina ¼” Patchwork Foot, 37, 97 and 97D
Bernina Straight Stitch Needleplate
Triangles-on-a-roll Tearaway Papers
Best Press Spray