Trip Around the World tutorial 4....................

 As you read the following paragraph, you may start wondering what you are going to do with the piece you just removed from a loop.  It is just a scrap to be used in another project, or it can be used to create a full sequence of the fabrics into a strip to be used on the back or to replace a problem unpicked loop.  Now that you don't need to worry about that, here are the final directions for the Trip Around the World quilt.

For the bottom half of the quilt, you don’t want duplicate pieces at the center of the quilt (the horizontal center row).  Look at the bottom color of the first, left hand strip.  Unpick this color totally out of one tube segment.  This has created a strip for the bottom half of the first row which you now sew to the top half strip with the fabrics in mirror image and re-hang it on the design wall.  Do this for all strips.

In this post, 4th photo, shows where to unpick.

This post shows progress unpicking bottom half strips.

Here is another post with all loops unpicked and top partially sewn.

One more partially unpicked bottom half.

When all of the top half and bottom half of strips are sewn together you will now sew seams from top to bottom to complete your top.  Take your time and make the intersections match.  If you followed the pressing technique, seams should be going opposite directions at every intersection.  Ease or stretch as necessary to make them match.  You may want to sew groups of 5 -10 long columns together several times and then join them to have less bulk at once at your machine.  All seams are now pressed one direction across the quilt.  Staystitch outside edge before adding border.

The only thing I didn't explain in this tutorial is how to choose the fabrics, and what order to put them in.  I will probably have a post called Trip Around the World tutorial 1 A.  I think I will be able to make it post in order between 1 and 2 or before 1.

I'm happy to answer emails with questions you might have.  My email address is on the right sidebar.

Trip Around the World Tutorial 3

Before you read the next paragraph I want to explain the 'breakpoint position' is the fabric that touches the outside edge at the center of all 4 sides.  In other words, it is the fabric that makes the largest diamond shape in the quilt.

Second, you don't have to decide what fabric is going to be in the center of the quilt at this time.  You will be able to audition a lot (or all) of the fabrics after you have unpicked a full sequence of loops.

I have previously posted photos for what is described in the first few sentences below  Check it out here.

Unpick one seam on one of your loops and place it up on your design wall at the left hand edge (or lay it on your sheet if you are working on the floor).  Unpick the next loop at the seam between the top 2 colors of that first strip.  Place it to the right of the first strip.  Unpick the next one at the seam between the top 2 colors of the second tube segment.   Place it to the right of the second strip.  Continue doing this until you have as many loops opened up as you have fabrics (16 for twin, 20 for double/queen, 22 for king).  If you unpick one at the wrong place, it can be used somewhere else so don't re-sew it.  Now you can move the strips from the left edge to the right edge one at a time until you see every fabric in the breakpoint position.  If you take photos and use 2 mirrors at a right angle you can create the look of the whole center.  The mirrors you can purchase that have a hinge holding them together are small, but you can still hold them up to your actual fabric section that you are auditioning to get an idea of what the center will look like.

Here is a post where I was auditioning colors for the center by moving the strips one at a time from the right edge to the left edge.  (Backwards to what I just described above.)

(At this point what you have unpicked is the left top quarter plus the center row.  You don't want to duplicate the center row so that is why you will unpick one less tube for the rest of the top of the quilt.)

Once you have chosen the order you like, you are ready to unpick the seams for the pieces for the rest of the top half of the quilt.   Unpick the second half of tubes (to the right of these original strips) at the seam between the bottom 2 colors of the previous strip.  This will make your fabric move down one step each time.  You know you are done when the first strip on the left and the last strip on the right are identical.

Here is a post where I talk about that.

Now DO NOT sew the top half of the quilt together.  You will have all vertical seams if you continue with my tutorial, BUT if you sew the top together (vertical seams) and then sew the bottom together (vertical seams), and then sew the 2 halves togehter, you will have one horizontal seam across the quilt.  This may stretch the center and possibly always be visible as a seam going the other way.

Tutorial 4 will continue tomorrow with bottom half designing and sewing the quilt top together.

Trip Around the World tutorial 2

A few facts before I go into the next step of the tutorial.

Don't cut off selvages before you make the stratas.  The first clean-up cut from the strata tube will trim them off....and you may need 1/8" of the selvage area to get the number of loops you need from a strata tube.

I don't pre-wash regular printed cotton fabrics so I will get more loops per tube than those of you who prewash.

Batiks don't have the wide unusable selvages so you can always get more loops from a batik tube.

You are at the trickiest part of the assembly as we tackle this next step.

Sew the last seam to make your strata into a tube, making sure you do not have a twist in it.  The ends of the fabric will not necessarily match at this point.  Move the fabric back and forth until it hangs straight (see below).  Your ends may mismatch by an inch or so.

The way I check for a twist is to fold the strata right sides together as if I'm going to sew the last seam.  I hold it out in front of me (the strips of fabric are running horizontally) and look to see if there is a twist at the fold.  If there is, I slide one of the layers to the left or right to make it hang straight. This is the new match for the end that I will start sewing.  (I'll try to add a photo here when I get to that point on my project.)

You now have tubes to work with.  For larger quilts you will need to fold the tube to fit on your cutting mat and you will want to avoid stacking seams on top of seams.  Re-cut the tubes of fabric into loops by trimming the even end with a clean up cut, and then using the countercut measurement for your quilt, cut as many loops as you need.  If your cut is 2-1/2” you need to get 16 from each tube for the twin and the double/queen size*. (double/queen 2.5", king 3”)  These measurements are here to remind you that not every size quilt has the same size cut.  Refer to the yardage chart for the width of your countercut for the size quilt you are making.

Photos of some of the above are on this previous post.

*If you can't get 16 loops from a strata, you may have to piece an extra half strata.

I mark my ruler with tape for the width of cut I need to make.  Then I cut as many loops as I can out of a strata.  You may not need all of the cuts from the last strata so you might want to save the part you don't need and use it on the back of the quilt.  (To figure out how many loops you need, multiply the number of fabrics you are using by 4 and subtract 2.)

In #3 of the tutorial we will be designing the layout.

Trip Around the World tutorial 1

 Trip Around the World tutorial 1

I will be using parts of my hand out sheets when I taught this class over 100 times, to do this tutorial.

Back in the 1990s, before mattresses were 11" - 15" thick, my measurements were good.  Now if you are actually making a bed quilt, you might have to add 2 or 3 borders to these sizes.  The chart is at the end of this post. To use my directions you need to have an even number of fabrics.

After you decide on the order of your fabrics, take a photo to refer back to before sewing.

Cut the required number of strips for the size quilt you are making.  Try cutting 2 to 4 fabrics at the same time with the lightest color on top.

Referring to your photo of the fabrics in order, sew the number of strata required for your quilt.  If you have a walking foot, you can sew from the same end each time.  Without a walking foot, you might want to sew from opposite ends each time to prevent a curve in the strata. Always keep one end of the strata as even and lined up as you can.  Let the mismatched lengths all be at the other end.

 Press the seams one up, one down all through the strata.  Make sure each strata is pressed identically (with the same fabrics going in the same direction as the first strata).

You can just do a quick press from the wrong side to set the seams in the right direction and do the heavier pressing from the right side to make sure you don't have any pleats at the seam lines.

(Now, before I add a yardage chart, the pieces in my rectangular TAW quilts are rectangular, not square.  It isn't obvious when you first look at it.  Rectangular pieces make it possible to have the same fabric touching the center of all 4 sides. If you use squares on a rectangular quilt, you will end up making extra rows for the top and bottom of the quilt and the top and bottom of the main diamond created won't touch top and bottom edges.)

 All yardages are generous so there is enough to recut a strip if you have a miscut.

Wall quilt  34 ½” square before borders

          12 fabrics, ¼ yard of each,

cut 3 strips 2” wide from each fabric ( across the 44”width)

          crosscuts in sewn strata will be 2”

 

Baby quilt  34 ½”x 46” without borders – border optional

          12 fabrics, 1/3  yard  of each

          cut 3 strips 2 ½” wide from each fabric (across the 44”width)

          crosscuts in sewn strata will be 2”

 

Couch/Lap quilt  54” x 67.5” - borders optional

          14 fabrics, 1/2 yard of each

          cut 4 strips 3” wide from each fabric (across the 44” width)

          crosscuts in sewn strata will be 2 ½”

 

Twin size quilt  62” x 93” without  borders

          16 fabrics, ½ yard of each

          cut 4 strips 3½” wide from each fabric (across the 44”width)

          crosscuts in sewn strata will be 2 ½”

 

Optional twin size quilt 70” x 96 ¼”

          18 fabrics, 5/8 yard of each

          Cut 5 strips 3 ¼” wide from each fabric (across the 44” width)

          Crosscuts in sewn strata will be 2 ½”

 

Double/Queen quilt  78” x 97 ½” before borders

          20 fabrics, 5/8 yd. of each

          cut 5 strips 3” wide from each fabric (across the 44” width)

          crosscuts in sewn strata will be 2 ½”

 

King size quilt          107 ½” square before borders

          22 fabrics, 3/4 yd. of each

          cut 7 strips 3” wide from each fabric (across the 44” width)

          crosscuts in sewn strata will be 3”

If you have questions (and don't have a link to your email address in your blogger account), my email address is on my right side bar (on a phone I think you can click on the title of the blog post to see the right side bar, or scroll down and click on see web version).

 My guest bed quilt.

Coming in Tutorial 2, sewing the stratas into tubes.

Deciding on order...................

I did 4 layouts of order of strips for the Trip Around the World with William Morris fabric.

This is the first one.

It was hard to get all of the strips in the photo and not have them crooked.

This is the second one.

The third one.

And this was the original layout with the folded fabrics lined up before I cut strips and sewed sections of strata.

The fourth one.

As I type this late at night, I'm favoring one and four.  As soon as I make a decision, I can start sewing the 4 sections together into one large strata and then talk about my pressing method.

More sewing......................

 I'm still sewing stratas for the William Morris fabric Trip Around the World quilt.  Normally I lay out the order of all of the strips and sew it as one huge strata instead of sections.  This time since I had 4 different 'runs' of light to dark I decided to sew each separately (there is one more group to sew) and then play around with the order before they get sewn together.  I can't press anything until I have the whole strata sewn together because of the pressing method I use.  I'll show my play time for determining order in a couple days, maybe tomorrow if I get the one million other things done that need to be completed today.

Here is the original order of the strips as I was deciding if I had enough variety to make a nice quilt.

Someone asked if I could post today what size strips I'm using.  These are 3" but I also sometimes use 2.5" or 3.5".  It takes a little math, but if you choose your fabrics first (from your stash), and have around a half yard of each (or sometimes a little more), you can figure out which size strip will give you the size quilt you want to end up with.  In the following week or so I'm going to explain everything as I work on this one, but first I have a busy day today to get past.

Here is a collage from several years ago showing some of the Trip Around the World quilts I have made.

Sewing started.....................

The William Morris fabrics were finally pressed so I could cut the Trip Around the World strips.  My sciatica has kept me from standing for long times at the ironing table.  I got several bobbins wound for all of this strata sewing so I'm all set for mindless sewing.

I got those 3 strips sewn for all 4 stratas.

Today looks to be a beautiful day for all of the Memorial Day events.  82 degrees and sunshine is predicted.