Hey Everyone, welcome back to Cool Tool Thursday.
A couple of weeks ago I started a series on making a memory quilt and am now just getting back to writing up part 2. Going on the road sure puts a quick halt to the blog posts but I do have such a great time when I am on the road visiting guilds, talking about my quilts, teaching and of course visiting quilt shops I have never been to before.
More about all that later – back to the topic at hand – memory quilts.
The person I am making the quilt in memory of wore many hats and one was that he loved to play poker. Of course when I heard this I knew right away that I would have to put the card trick block into this quilt.
In the blog today I used a couple of tools that I have highlighted in the past to help with the construction of the clothing blocks.
Because the card trick block is made up totally of triangles which of course means all the seams are on the bias I knew that I would have to stabilize all the fabrics in order to reduce any stretching and distortion when sewing and pressing. The fabrics I chose to make the blocks out of were knits so for sure interfacing was a must.
I used Pellon Easy-Knit EK130 Interfacing to stabilize all the fabric prior to cutting the pieces. Here they are all the squares ready to be cut into triangles.
Interfacing on back of squares
Then I had to cut all those squares into triangles but with the interfacing on the back there was no stretching and it was easy peasy. Each block needs 24 triangles – that’s a lot of bias seams.
Triangles ready to go
Originally I decided to use the t-shirts and waffle weave shirts for the centre of the block. The outside background I used dress shirts – even these I added the interfacing to. Here are the pieces all laid out in the block ready to be sewn together.
Triangles laid out in position
Upon sewing the first block together I was not pleased with the results – the seams and points were not matching – totally out in left field. This would just not do. You will also note that the block isn’t together just quite right – very easy to get a piece turned around in this block.
Not quite up to par this block
The waffle weave shirts were to heavy and thick for this block so I switched to the bandanas that were in with the clothing and they came together perfectly with the t-shirt material. Now along with being a poker player this gentleman also loved to ride Harley’s – hence the bandanas.
Perfect points and matching seams
In order to reduce the bulk on the back of the block and where the seams intersect I pressed all the seams open.
The back of the block
In order not to burn my finger when I was pressing the seams open I used my finger extender to open up the seams in front of the iron – works like a charm.
Finger extender in action
Now that I have 4 – 12 inch blocks and 5 – 9 inch blocks it’s time to put them together. This is going to require a bit of thinking and designing.
The four 12 inch blocks
Happy Quilting!
