Design Wall Monday - April 2, 2018

The Making of A Doll Quilt

Since I squared up so many "spare parts" hsts lately, I was in the mood to make a new doll quilt.  Here is the finished quilt, and notes on the process:

The picture I used for inspiration:  I liked the four spots of red, and I liked that the center one was not red, and I liked that it used a lot of hst's - which is what I want to use!  I'm not sure what size the vintage quilt is, but I wanted to use the 1.5 x 1.5 cut size hsts on hand.

First, I sorted through my shoebox full of 1.5 by 1.5 hsts.  I sorted out some red and light hst's and made four 4-patches of hsts, and chose a 5th non-red middle four patch.  Four patches finish at 2 in. by 2 in.

Then, I sorted out blue and light hsts to make the rectangles using 6 hsts.  Here's a picture of eight sets on a chair, right next to my sewing machine:

When I sew these, I sew three seams in a chain piecing - sewing the top two together, the middle two together, and then the bottom two together without breaking the thread.  

Then I press them all open, and sew the two remaining seams connecting the top 2 to the middle 2, and then those 4 to the bottom 2:

They nest together without pinning, and the process goes very quickly.  

After the rectangle is sewn together, I found that the last two seams were flatter pressed open.  I had to clip the little connecting thread from the first chain sewing to press the seams open.

Note:  You may notice that some of the original seams on the hsts were pressed open, some not, because they were made at different times, and are in the "parts factory" as is.  It didn't seem to make much difference which way they were pressed, but the last two seams on the rectangle definitely needed to be pressed open.

Then, using the design wall, I put up the parts as I made them.   I didn't pay much attention to which way the triangles were going, as the original quilt maker didn't either, and I didn't want to think too much while making this quilt.

Next, I intended to cut some plain white muslin for the four bigger plain squares.  But a piece of shirting was on the cutting table, and I used that.  With the four 3.5 x 3.5 squares, the setting squares,  the hanging triangles on the back, I found that little piece of shirting was just enough.  I also had to make some partial four patches for edge pieces, at the middle of each side of the quilt.

Here is the layout:

The batting is a small piece of flannel, and I followed the vintage quilter's quilting pattern, keeping it very simple.  

For the binding, I looked through my drawer of bits of left-over bindings from large quilts, and found some dark navy that I could use.  It was double fold, cut 2.5 inches wide and was half as much binding as I would need.  I cut it to 1.25 x 1.25, and used it as single fold binding, and made it work.

For one last step, I made some tea, admired my work, and had a cup of tea. 

Then soaked the little quilt in a pot of tea, to age it just a bit.  The two glasses are on top of the quilt for weight, to keep it under the tea.  The cloth hanging over the edge is muslin with the loose tea in it (a big "tea bag").

Sophia Grace and Rosie are very pleased.  It measures 13.75 in. x 13.75 in.

So what have you been up to this week?  Yesterday was Easter Sunday, so I didn't get much sewing done, but I had a great time with family, and I hope you did too.

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