When we moved here ten years ago from Ventura, CA, one of the first things we did was find Platte Woods United Methodist Church. We heard "about" the church the year before when we met the minister who married our younger son Patrick and Lori. We told him we were Methodist and he said we would have to go to PWUMC. We didn't know where it was but remembered the name. The next year when we moved here to Kansas City, we looked it up in the phone book and discovered it was just a few miles from our house.
The second Sunday we were here, we were in the 11 o'clock service.
Besides a Sunday school class, I inquired about the United Methodist Women. The only circle remaining was Hope Circle which met twice a month - one time for the program meeting and the other time for a quilting group. The quilting group made quilts that were laid out or tied at the meeting. Someone in the group would offer to take it home to sew the cut 6-1/2 - inch squares together in the laid out design and then bring it back the next month when some of the ladies would tie it together with yarn after layering the top with a sheet for backing and batting in the middle. Finally Gloria would take it home and sew the binding on it. There were enough ladies that two tables were working at the same time - one "designing" and the other one tying. Occasionally they met for a special cutting meeting and would cut the fabric that had been donated into the 6-1/2 - inch squares. They had quite an operation going. Then I joined the group.
The ladies made pretty twin and regular size quilts....all with the same design...squares sewed together in a diagonal pattern. They chose prints that looked good with each other, but if they ran out of a print but still needed more in the diagonal, they just changed to a different print. After a few meetings, I asked them if they had ever laid the squares out in a different pattern. They said, "No." but asked for my input. I suggested just arranging them randomly in no particular pattern...kind of a "fruit basket turned over". Well, they loved it and we never made another diagonal quilt again.
Well, ten years later, Hope Circle no longer exists except for the quilting group that we now call Blankets of Hope. There are five of us (Teresa being the only member still in the group when I joined.). We no longer tie the quilts we make because none of us actually enjoyed tying them. We also make lap size now instead of larger ones. Since there are only five of us, we have only one table going now. We still have some of the cut 6-1/2 - inch squares we are trying to use up, but now just as often, we take some of the fabrics and cut them for the design we want to make. We have all sorts of patterned lap throws. It seems to be what keeps us interested (besides loving what we are creating and knowing that our finished quilts are greatly appreciated by the recipients who need a little "Hope"), trying and discovering new quilt designs.
Recently Janice and I visited a new quilt shop in nearby Parkville and saw several sample quilts that we thought would be easy to make for Blankets of Hope. One of them used the Hourglass block. It was all different shades and prints of blues. I told Janice it would be a great way for us to use up some of our old cut squares. The next time we met as a group, Janice (who is great with color and print combinations) matched up two squares that I could use to make the pattern to make our Scrappy Hourglass Quilt. That really saved me a lot of time and it didn't take me long to get the blocks made. (You may not have squares already cut and will just be using your scraps, but I have some tips for you to make it easy for you too.)
Here is the quilt top finished spread out on my bed.
Here is the finished quilt: See update below.
Most of the squares I had were cut 6-1/2 - inches, but occasionally I had a smaller 6 - inch square that someone had donated to us. (It is amazing what we get donated to us ... sometimes finished quilt tops that we just need to finish and sometimes cut squares.) I decided I would recut the two squares/fabrics down to a 6 - inch square.
After cutting several and sewing them together, I realized that if I laid the two prints facing each other before I cut or trimmed them down to the 6 inches...
then when I cut them diagonally across...
I didn't have to do anything but take them straight to my sewing machine to sew down one of the sides. (Not necessary to match up the two pieces.)
I have a piece of tape I placed on my sewing surface that measures 1/2 inch seam (I was also working on a rag quilt for my hairstylist's soon to be born baby boy.) and then 1/4 inch seam for my regular quilting. I watch the fabric move along the tape line and not where the needle is going into the fabric.
"Set" the seams first by pressing on the seam...
then press the seam open...(press the seam toward the darker print)
press on the backside also...
Proper pressing will mean you can "nest" the seams together so that when you sew they will meet perfectly...
pin on one side of the center seam and then work the ends to meet and pin...
Perfect hourglass.
This time when you press, just press either way...
After I had all of the blocks made, I had to decide what size I was going to trim the blocks down to.
I decided I would cut them down to 7-1/2 - inch blocks. I marked with an arrow where I wanted to match the "intersection" and then trimmed them all down.
All of them on my design wall with a space in between where the sashing was going to go. (At this time I didn't have the material picked out for the sashing.)
I sent the other ladies a text and asked them if they wanted to meet me at the church to arrange the squares for the top. (I don't do random very well.) I also had extra blocks in case we didn't like how some of them were looking together for the quilt top.
This is what they came up with...
I picked out some muslin to cut into the 2-1/2 x 7-1/2 - inch cut strips for the sashing.
We had "numbered" the rows at the church, but when I got home, I put the blocks back up on my design wall in the order they had arranged them. One of the reasons I did this was because we had numbered them in "rows", but I needed to sew them in "columns". The tape came in handy for me though when I sewed the strips together.
Since the columns were staggered, I had originally thought I would even them off at the top and bottom, but after I started sewing them, I decided I would add a sashing at the top to fill in. Having it on my design wall, helped me see which block I had to sew a sashing strip at the top and bottom.
Even though the squares and sashing strips measured 7-1/2 - inches, it was necessary to ease some of the blocks to match the sashing strips by matching the ends and pinning them and then pinning as I eased in the block.
I sewed the sashing strip on the blocks for the whole column before I did any pressing (just to save some time and getting up and down)...
This was made easy also since I would put the block with sashing strip on my design wall after I sewed the sashing strip to the block...
The column before pressing...
Finished view of the wrong side... I pressed the strips toward the block so that I could nest the sashing seams together - top of the sashing on one column with the bottom of the sashing on the next column...
This method made making the hourglass block so easy and so fast. The ladies couldn't believe when I sent them a picture the next day of the finished top that I had finished.
I am writing this before I get the quilt completely finished, but when I do, I will come back and add a picture of it so you can see the finished quilt. We meet again the second Tuesday morning in November. I hope to be able to go back over to the church with some of them to pin it together with the batting and backing before then so I can machine quilt it and sew the binding on before the 13th.
Update!!
I called Fran and we went to the church (where we have two tables we can push together) and laid the quilt top out with the batting and backing. I brought it home and stitched in the ditch down the seams where I had sewed the column strips together. This is the easy ones because you can press the seams all the same way which makes it easier to "stitch in the ditch". Then I stitched across the quilt top in a straight line (in the ditch again) just having to go back and forth as the seam was pressed.
Fran thought I should use the backing for the binding. I admit I wasn't sure when she said it, but I respected her decision which was so right!
Have you discovered using the small clamps instead of pins to hold the binding down when you are hand-stitching it on? Best time saving tip I can offer!
You can slide them down as you get close and I especially love how it makes the corners so much easier to hold down. (Okay, I took this picture after I was finished, but I just forgot to take a picture as it was sewing it.😊)
Not sure how well you can see the needle in this picture, but this is how I sew the blind stitch so it doesn't show.
The second Sunday we were here, we were in the 11 o'clock service.
Besides a Sunday school class, I inquired about the United Methodist Women. The only circle remaining was Hope Circle which met twice a month - one time for the program meeting and the other time for a quilting group. The quilting group made quilts that were laid out or tied at the meeting. Someone in the group would offer to take it home to sew the cut 6-1/2 - inch squares together in the laid out design and then bring it back the next month when some of the ladies would tie it together with yarn after layering the top with a sheet for backing and batting in the middle. Finally Gloria would take it home and sew the binding on it. There were enough ladies that two tables were working at the same time - one "designing" and the other one tying. Occasionally they met for a special cutting meeting and would cut the fabric that had been donated into the 6-1/2 - inch squares. They had quite an operation going. Then I joined the group.
The ladies made pretty twin and regular size quilts....all with the same design...squares sewed together in a diagonal pattern. They chose prints that looked good with each other, but if they ran out of a print but still needed more in the diagonal, they just changed to a different print. After a few meetings, I asked them if they had ever laid the squares out in a different pattern. They said, "No." but asked for my input. I suggested just arranging them randomly in no particular pattern...kind of a "fruit basket turned over". Well, they loved it and we never made another diagonal quilt again.
Well, ten years later, Hope Circle no longer exists except for the quilting group that we now call Blankets of Hope. There are five of us (Teresa being the only member still in the group when I joined.). We no longer tie the quilts we make because none of us actually enjoyed tying them. We also make lap size now instead of larger ones. Since there are only five of us, we have only one table going now. We still have some of the cut 6-1/2 - inch squares we are trying to use up, but now just as often, we take some of the fabrics and cut them for the design we want to make. We have all sorts of patterned lap throws. It seems to be what keeps us interested (besides loving what we are creating and knowing that our finished quilts are greatly appreciated by the recipients who need a little "Hope"), trying and discovering new quilt designs.
Recently Janice and I visited a new quilt shop in nearby Parkville and saw several sample quilts that we thought would be easy to make for Blankets of Hope. One of them used the Hourglass block. It was all different shades and prints of blues. I told Janice it would be a great way for us to use up some of our old cut squares. The next time we met as a group, Janice (who is great with color and print combinations) matched up two squares that I could use to make the pattern to make our Scrappy Hourglass Quilt. That really saved me a lot of time and it didn't take me long to get the blocks made. (You may not have squares already cut and will just be using your scraps, but I have some tips for you to make it easy for you too.)
Here is the quilt top finished spread out on my bed.
Here is the finished quilt: See update below.
Most of the squares I had were cut 6-1/2 - inches, but occasionally I had a smaller 6 - inch square that someone had donated to us. (It is amazing what we get donated to us ... sometimes finished quilt tops that we just need to finish and sometimes cut squares.) I decided I would recut the two squares/fabrics down to a 6 - inch square.
After cutting several and sewing them together, I realized that if I laid the two prints facing each other before I cut or trimmed them down to the 6 inches...
then when I cut them diagonally across...
I didn't have to do anything but take them straight to my sewing machine to sew down one of the sides. (Not necessary to match up the two pieces.)
I have a piece of tape I placed on my sewing surface that measures 1/2 inch seam (I was also working on a rag quilt for my hairstylist's soon to be born baby boy.) and then 1/4 inch seam for my regular quilting. I watch the fabric move along the tape line and not where the needle is going into the fabric.
"Set" the seams first by pressing on the seam...
then press the seam open...(press the seam toward the darker print)
press on the backside also...
Proper pressing will mean you can "nest" the seams together so that when you sew they will meet perfectly...
pin on one side of the center seam and then work the ends to meet and pin...
Perfect hourglass.
This time when you press, just press either way...
After I had all of the blocks made, I had to decide what size I was going to trim the blocks down to.
I decided I would cut them down to 7-1/2 - inch blocks. I marked with an arrow where I wanted to match the "intersection" and then trimmed them all down.
All of them on my design wall with a space in between where the sashing was going to go. (At this time I didn't have the material picked out for the sashing.)
I sent the other ladies a text and asked them if they wanted to meet me at the church to arrange the squares for the top. (I don't do random very well.) I also had extra blocks in case we didn't like how some of them were looking together for the quilt top.
This is what they came up with...
I picked out some muslin to cut into the 2-1/2 x 7-1/2 - inch cut strips for the sashing.
We had "numbered" the rows at the church, but when I got home, I put the blocks back up on my design wall in the order they had arranged them. One of the reasons I did this was because we had numbered them in "rows", but I needed to sew them in "columns". The tape came in handy for me though when I sewed the strips together.
Since the columns were staggered, I had originally thought I would even them off at the top and bottom, but after I started sewing them, I decided I would add a sashing at the top to fill in. Having it on my design wall, helped me see which block I had to sew a sashing strip at the top and bottom.
Even though the squares and sashing strips measured 7-1/2 - inches, it was necessary to ease some of the blocks to match the sashing strips by matching the ends and pinning them and then pinning as I eased in the block.
I sewed the sashing strip on the blocks for the whole column before I did any pressing (just to save some time and getting up and down)...
This was made easy also since I would put the block with sashing strip on my design wall after I sewed the sashing strip to the block...
The column before pressing...
Finished view of the wrong side... I pressed the strips toward the block so that I could nest the sashing seams together - top of the sashing on one column with the bottom of the sashing on the next column...
This method made making the hourglass block so easy and so fast. The ladies couldn't believe when I sent them a picture the next day of the finished top that I had finished.
I am writing this before I get the quilt completely finished, but when I do, I will come back and add a picture of it so you can see the finished quilt. We meet again the second Tuesday morning in November. I hope to be able to go back over to the church with some of them to pin it together with the batting and backing before then so I can machine quilt it and sew the binding on before the 13th.
Update!!
I called Fran and we went to the church (where we have two tables we can push together) and laid the quilt top out with the batting and backing. I brought it home and stitched in the ditch down the seams where I had sewed the column strips together. This is the easy ones because you can press the seams all the same way which makes it easier to "stitch in the ditch". Then I stitched across the quilt top in a straight line (in the ditch again) just having to go back and forth as the seam was pressed.
Fran thought I should use the backing for the binding. I admit I wasn't sure when she said it, but I respected her decision which was so right!
Have you discovered using the small clamps instead of pins to hold the binding down when you are hand-stitching it on? Best time saving tip I can offer!
You can slide them down as you get close and I especially love how it makes the corners so much easier to hold down. (Okay, I took this picture after I was finished, but I just forgot to take a picture as it was sewing it.😊)
Not sure how well you can see the needle in this picture, but this is how I sew the blind stitch so it doesn't show.
Beautiful! Yes I too have discovered those handy clips !
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dianne. Aren't the clips just the greatest?! Patricia
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