Thursday, April 02, 2009

AUTOGRAPH QUILT

I love autograph/signature quilts. I have two of my own and at least 3 in various other stages, and I have made a few others as gifts. I decided to make a signature quilt for my daughter to have people sign at the reception. I have been inspired by a couple of quilts that I have seen somewhere online through the years. Instead of cutting blocks of various colors, I decided to use batik charm squares I acquired when I was in a batik club from Hancocks of Paducah. Every so often, I would get a pack of 5 .5" squares. They have piled up and I never did anything with them. So, I took the solid colors that were medium to light in color and made circles, which I will applique on the darker, mostly print squares. First I was going to be all traditional and do the basting around each circle, draw it around a template and starch the edge down. My friends gave me the idea to use
I have tried this before, and it worked out okay, but I have a tendency to do things the hard way, so I bulked at the idea. That is until I started the 100+ circles.
Do-sew is easier.
Ta da! I put the fabric circles right side against the do-sew. Then I stitched on the line, trimmed, clipped the curved seams, slit the do-sew and turned inside out.
I trimmed away a portion of the do-sew leaving about 3/4 of an inch from the seam. Then I used a knitting needle to smooth out the edges. And the most important thing. I sprayed them with water and pressed them. That shrunk the do-sew just enough that it pulled the edges under. You can use steam to.
I have about 98 more to do. I'll show you once I start appliqueing them to the blocks.
I just realized that I must have a circle thing going. I'm knitting in circles to!
If you don't hear from me, have a good weekend!

3 comments:

Debra Dixon said...

I just use regular old cheap interfacing and it works great!

Robin said...

I love do-sew for altering patterns for clothes - you are going round and round! The shawl is really coming along!

Unknown said...

Is that a hat? What a pretty pattern. I like the subtle yarn.

Brenda (don't know why my name comes up as Elfhund, but am too computer-challenged to begin to change it)

When I make quilts now I often use old blankets and just knot them. I have way too few years left to handquilt a bed-sized quilt. I HATE the little tufty knot things, so I put them on the underside of the quilt.

Everyone, I am Teri's cousin and I am the one that does it the easy way. She has the standards, I have impulses!