Railway Fence Variations

These three quilts show how you can sew 3 strips of fabric together, cut into 6 1/2 inch blocks and create a variety of different patchwork designs. The 2 peach coloured quilts were made from furnishing fabrics bought at a garage sale and the pink quilt the fabric is a polyester fabric.

Sampler Quilt

Block 1: Rail Fence.

This is a great block to start the sampler with and your patchwork journey if you are a beginner. The skills you will learn thru this block are the cutting of fabric with a rotary cutter and ruler, sewing ¼ inch seams, matching up a seam and sewing 3 rows of fabric together.

To support the instructions l have included photos. But do remember any question you may want to ask please go to the Craft Gate yahoo group. There you will meet other Block Of The Month participants and l will be visiting regularly http://groups.yahoo.com/group/craftgate/

Don’t forget a vast array of your patchwork and craft equipment needs can be purchased online thru the Craft Gate website; www.craftgate.com.au Craft Gate proudly supports the TV show Suzan Is Craft which is seen on Channel 31 thru out Melbourne, Sydney from 4th March and shortly Adelaide and Brisbane. For write ups re the TV show and guests interviewed do visit the blogs http://suzaniscraft.wordpress.com/ and http://craftingblogger.blogspot.com.au/

Step 1. By now many of you will have gathered your fabric, here are photos of my fabric choices. The floral fabric in the first photo is my main fabric with the next photo showing the support fabrics and the final photo is of my plain background fabric.

 

Step 2. This involves cutting your fabric so the equipment needed is the cutting board, rotary cutter and Perspex ruler. Choose the 3 fabrics you wish to work with for this block, iron and fold into 4 lengthwise. Place the fabric onto the cutting board, lining up the fold of the fabric with one of the horizontal gridlines on the cutting board. Place the perspex ruler towards the edge of the fabric, again lining one of the horizontal lines on the ruler with the fold of the fabric. At this point using the rotary cutter and cutting away from you trim off the uneven fabric edge (photo 3 and photo 4)

 

Now to cut your strip of fabric turn the cutting board around, so that the trimmed edge is facing your left side. Refer to the following photo. Now place your ruler 2 1/2 inches in from the edge of the fabric. With the fingers of your left hand hold the ruler in place (ENSURE YOUR FINGERS ARE WELL AWAY FROM THE EDGE OF THE RULER) and holding the rotary cutter in your right hand and at a 45 degree angle run the flatter side of the cutting blade along the side of the ruler travelling away from you. This results in the fabric being cut. Always close your blade once finished cutting due to the sharpness of the blade.

Cut another two strips of the same measurement, one each from the other two fabrics.

If you are left handed cut the opposite way around.

Step 3. This step involves sewing the 3 strips of fabric together. As in many patchwork designs the seams for this block are ¼ inch, straight stitch and with cotton thread. When sewing strips together sew down one way and then back up the other way. If all strips are sewn together in the same direction an arch will form thus creating an impossible piece to use. The piece needs to be ironed at this stage, as in many patchwork pieces iron the seams together and in one direction. If you have a strip of light coloured fabric always iron the seams towards the darker coloured fabric.

Step 4. Place the ironed strip on your cutting board and with your ruler trim off one end. Then measure in 6 1/2 inches with your Perspex ruler and cut with the rotary cutter. We need 4 of these blocks.

Step 5. Sew the two sets of the blocks together, as per photo, using a ¼ inch seam.

Step 6. Sew the two sets of blocks together. In this step the centre seams need to be matched with seams on top blocks going in one direction and the centre seam on the bottom blocks going in the other direction. Thus avoiding bulk forming and being noticeable in the finished project.

The finished block will measure 12.5 inches x 12.5 inches

Patchwork Sampler; Block Of The Month.

Patchwork Sampler.

Before you begin.

Over the next few pages we will look at some of the equipment you may need to commence your patchwork journey. There are some basic equipment needs that are musts while others you can add to as you progress.

1/ Sewing Machine: A basic sewing machine is all on needs if you decide to machine sew your quilts. The major requirement of your machine is that it does straight stitch. It would also be helpful when you come to quilt your quilt that the machine can accomadate a walking foot or alternatively can drop the feed dogs and utilize a darning foot.

To view needles for your sewing machine click on the following link http://www.craftgate.com.au/products/Packet-of-Assorted-Universal-Machine-Needles.html

2/ Thread: Many quilters prefer to use a good quality cotton thread in the sewing machine and for the hand quilting process. Thou a good quality polyester-cotton thread can also be utilized. The colour of the thread used is important, try to match the thread colour to the fabric colour. If using a variety of coloured fabrics match the darkest colour fabric with your thread. To view thread range please click on the following link http://www.craftgate.com.au/categories/Threads/Gutermann-Threads/

3/Pins: These will assist in holding the various pieces of fabric together until machine sewn. It is fine to use smaller, fine pins for this process and the longer Quilting pins when pinning the 3 layers, quilt top & wadding & backing, together. To view our range of pins please click on the following link http://www.craftgate.com.au/categories/Haberdashery/Needles-and-Pins/

4/Rotary Cutters: Rotary Cutters make cutting your fabric, especially when cutting multiple layers, a lot easier and very accurate. There are a variety of cutters on the market and it really is a case of trying the different ones available i.e if possible try out your fellow patchworkers, cutters before buying a expensive one. Besides a wide range of styles there is also a variety of sizes, 45mm is the most utilized size. When using a rotary cutter a Quilters Ruler should always be utilized as well. The depth of the quilters ruler ensures the rotary cutter is less likely to stray and cut fingers. To view our range of rotary cutters please click on the following link http://www.craftgate.com.au/categories/Scissors-And-Rotary-Cutters/

5/ Cutting Mats: These mats are specially designed to be used with the rotary cutter. They are often referred to as self healing in that if marked by the rotary cutter the mark will disappear. Don’t use other types of cutting tools on this mat as they will permantly mark these mats. Also never leave your mat in a hot car as once these mats buckle it can never be reversed thus rendering the mat useless. A good sized cutting mat to start off with is 23in x 17in.

6/Quilters Rulers: A quilters ruler is made of, usually, clear acrylic. This allows the user to see the fabric to be cut clearly and thus cut straight lines everytime. As there are many diff sized rulers available a good size to start with is 14in x 4 1/2in. The markings on the ruler should include 1/4in markings and 45 and 60 degree angle markings.

6/ Scissors: A good pair of fabric cutting with sharp points and another pair for cutting paper. To view our range of scissors please click on the following link http://www.craftgate.com.au/categories/Scissors-And-Rotary-Cutters/

7/Fabric: Many quilters utilize 100% cotton for their projects due to its softness, tightness of weave thus not a fabric that distorts its shape easily and the straightness of the grain due to its tighter weave.

Preparation Of Fabric: Many quilters prefer to pre wash their fabric prior to use as this pre shrinks the fabric and rids the fabric of any loose dye.

Selecting Fabric: When choosing fabric for a sampler quilt l tend to choose my main fabric first. The main fabric is usually a busy print. From this fabric l will identify approx 3 colours within the design and choose fabrics of a less busy nature of those 3 colours. These three colours/fabrics become your support colours. The final fabric to choose is your background colour, this colour is pale, of one tone or a tone on tone. This fabric recedes into the background when viewing the completed quilt.

Fabric Amounts: This is a rough estimate only for a lap quilt i.e. 12 blocks, 12inchs x 12 inches. Main Fabric and Background Fabric each 1 1/2 yards or 140cms, Support Fabrics x 4, 4 fat quarters.