September 7, 2014

Broken Herringbone Quilt: Work in Progress Part 2

Picking up where I left off from last week's quilting, I am ready to share the results of sewing all those quilting Ts together!

So far, things are going well.  I learned a couple important lessons along the way, like leaving about an inch of loose fabric at the edges so I can sew these Ts together, and creating some semblance of order in my progress.  Let's break it down.

Step 4: Sewing the Ts (basic quilt component for the broken herringbone quilt)

As I planned out in Step 3, I sewed my pieces of fabric together, in order, to create a T.  All seams are 1/4".

Here I have two Ts done and sewn together, on the left hand side.  The rest of my fabric is laid out, awaiting assembly line sewing.


So how did I attach the Ts to each other?  Let's take a look.  First, this is where I realized that I needed my fabric to have a loose edge so I could sew one T to the other.

Unfold the bottom left corner, then flip the next T upside down, so you can sew right sides together. 

All sewn together. 


Here we are on the next T down, continuing the steps. Unfold corner.

 Flip next T upside down and sew together. 


 Again, I have attached Ts.  Next, let's show sewing the vertical seam.

Flip my fabrics so right sides face each other, and sew down that vertical seam with the same 1/4" seam I've been using all along.

Flatten the existing seams down as you sew, in the same direction, so you don't get weird fabric bulges along the way.  Do this consistently throughout the quilt.  Not only is it OCD happy to have all seams going in the same direction, it creates consistent texture to your finished quilt.  See below?  I flattened the seams going up.  A couple Ts later, I realized how much easier it was to fold them down.  So down it is for the remainder of the quilt.


 All sewn together.  See now neat and tidy these seams are?

Repeat repeat repeat.  I have the starts of two vertical columns of herringbone going now.

Last night I started planning out the next couple vertical columns.  After sewing those, I'm going to start measuring out to ensure I have the full width of my quilt.  I may need another column or two.  Once the width is set, I'll start laying out the full length of the quilt.  And while I'm at it, I may see if it's easier to stitch this in rows rather than columns.  Because I'm a glutton for punishment, changing up my approach halfway through.  ;)

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