Project #2. Custom quilting using line pattern.

Project #2 - Custom quilting using line pattern. 2021.

1. Making the quilt.

 If you wish to make this project, here are the directions. It is a small 40" by 40" finished quilt. The quilting will show really well on plain fabric, but of course, you can use whatever fabric you please. I just used some from my stash. (The two dots at the top are just pin heads.)

In this project we are using line pattern for the whole quilt.

Cutting and construction. 

The picture shows where the pieces are located. 

You will start in the middle with piece A and work your way out to the edges.

A – cut one 9” square.

B – cut one 10 ¼” square. 

Cut that square in half diagonally in both directions - from the upper left corner to the lower         right corner, and from the upper right corner to the lower left corner – making four triangles.

Sew the long edges of those four triangles to the sides of square A. 

Trim this square in square piece to 12 ½”.

 

C – cut one 13 ¾” square.

Cut this square in half diagonally in both directions, making four triangles.

Sew the long sides of the four triangles to the 12 ½” square in square piece you made in the previous step. (Refer to picture for placement)

Trim to 17 ½”.

 

Sashing - cut two strips of fabric 1 7/8” by 171/2”. Sew them to two opposite sides of the 17 ½” square.

Cut two strips of fabric 1 7/8” by 21 ¼”.

Sew them to the remaining two sides.

 

D – cut four 7 7/8” squares.

Cut each one in half diagonally.

 

E - cut four 7 ½” squares.

 

Sew two D triangles to each E square. (Refer to picture for placement.)

 

The piece should now measure 28 ½” by 28 ½”.

  

Inner border – cut sixty 2 ½” squares.

Sew 14 squares together for each of two borders.

Sew these to opposite sides of the 28 ½” quilt.

Sew 16 squares together for each of the remaining borders.

Sew these to the remaining sides of the quilt.

 

Measure your quilt at this point. If your quilt does not measure 32 ½” by 32 ½”, cut the length of your outer border pieces in the next step to match your quilt.

 

Outer Border – cut two strips of fabric 4 ½” by 32 ½”.

Sew them to two opposite sides of the quilt.

Cut two strips of fabric 4 ½” by 40 ½”.

Sew these to the remaining two sides of the quilt.

2. Loading the Patterns.

This is a screenshot of the finished project. 

We will only be using line pattern and clipping block for this project. All the patterns have been created by me and can be downloaded from this link line pattern project patterns 

The pattern file includes the quilt map, which we will not be using for this project but I have included it because you might like to use it in the future for designing your own quilts.

Once you've downloaded the patterns to your computer, look for the quilt map which has the suffix .iqq. Move this to a folder titled quilts on your usb. If you do not have a quilts folder, just create one with that name.  

The patterns have the suffix .dxf and should be moved into the folder named patterns on your usb. 

I tried out several different patterns before deciding upon the ones shown in the screenshot - all my try-outs are included in the file.

This video should help with downloading the patterns and organising them on your iQ. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Check the patterns folder on your thumb drive - if there are patterns in it, either load them onto your tablet and then delete them from you thumb drive, or simply delete them if you've already loaded them onto your tablet.

3.The quilting begins.

This video instalment shows how to use a presentation clicker when placing patterns, and when changing patterns. If you do not have a clicker, you can, ofcourse, just touch the buttons. Touch 'ok' each time you have placed a pattern, and touch the button labeled 'pattern' when you want to change the pattern. 

I use 'Flip Y' to change the orientation of the continuous curves - I am saying that on the video but I'm a bit quiet.

I find the clicker allows me to be more accurate because I am not running the risk of moving my machine slightly when I touch the on screen buttons. However, I used iQ for years quite successfully before getting a clicker so don't feel you have to get one.

In this video I stitch in the ditch, stitch the top border and part way down the sides, and stitch continuous curves in the small squares.

NOTE: A very good question was asked about how I decided to make one repeat of the border equal 4 squares of the inner border. I omitted counting the inner border squares in the video to show how I decided. There were 16 squares so I knew I could make each repeat of the swag border pattern equal to either 2 or 4 squares. 4 was best for this swag.

 

4. After the first advance.

This is part 4 of the project with the third video. I have advanced my quilt and am ready to stitch all the patterns within my reach. I start with the stitch in the ditch, which stabilises the quilt somewhat. I move on to add more line patterns. 

In the square, 4 swags create a new motif. This could be re-created using a perfect block on iQ as a guide and then saved to be used as a block pattern in the future. Triangular patterns, or any point to point pattern can be combined in this way to make new patterns for blocks.

Marking the block helps in sizing the patterns correctly when I first place them. If my quilt is pieced pretty accurately, I will not need to mark any blocks after this. 

Now, I can hear some of you questioning why I didn't keep the large triangle stitch in the ditch pattern and just convert it to a block for the clipping block. My answer is simply - quilt draw up. Once that stitch in the ditch was sewn, my quilt would have moved ever so slightly - it would have been drawn in. I also stitched several more patterns before getting to the clipping block, which would have also moved my quilt. It was safer to mark-on-quilt the block for the clipping block.

You'll also notice that I didn't pay attention to the heights of the patterns that I had carefully written down. I often just look at the patterns on my screen and guess which one is correct, but I need to get into the habit of referring to my notes in order to place the correct pattern. iQ will remember everything so I need to remove the patterns with the incorrect heights to avoid mistakes or confusion. Let's see if I remember to do that in the next episode.

5. After a second advance.

Another advance of the quilt. This time I place and stitch several line patterns together. It's a test to see if I get good results or if the quilt has drawn up too much. Practice projects like this are very helpful in building knowledge - mistakes are always good because we learn so much from them. I don't usually correct things on practice quilts. If this had been a customer's quilt, I would have picked out the stitches that weren't exactly where I wanted them to be - you'll see some in the ditch work that didn't hit the ditch. To make practice projects really useful for future reference, you can make notes about what you did and and how you might change the way you did things. 

I do not finish the pass in this video because I think you should be able to do that now. After completing this pass, I then went on to complete the next section of my quilt, which included the rest of the center medallion. For me that meant another advance, but those of you with larger machines can probably finish this part without advancing, allowing you to stitch the center motif as one complete line pattern..

Before the next instalment, please stitch everything shown in this screenshot. 

6. The final instalment.

This is the final instalment of the line pattern project. 

I demonstrate a way to set the parallel line pattern in place so that all the sides can be clipped. These screenshots clarify that process. 

I place my needle slightly above the top seam line of the triangle that will become the clipping block.

I move the machine to the center of the long side for one repeat of the pattern and I make sure that the pattern matches the horizontal needle line (the green line) making it perfectly straight. I do not follow the seam line's slight downward angle.

I then move over to the other end of the triangle for the second repeat, again making sure the pattern is straight. If that's not done, the lines will not be parallel.

The top of my triangle was not perfectly straight, so following the seam line would have made my lines crooked and the lines in the second repeat would not have been parallel to the lines in the first repeat, as shown below. 

Making this pattern larger than my clipping block allowed all three edges to be clipped.  

The video goes on to explain once again how to set the border pattern in place with a description of placing the corner lollipop.

I hope this project has shown the usefulness of line pattern. I didn't need to mark any blocks once I had determined the height of each pattern because I knew the piecing was good. If this had been a quilt where I could see that the piecing varied, I would have marked more blocks and changed the height of the patterns as necessary so that they sat correctly in the piecing. 

If the borders had varied in width, I would have marked them all and changed the height of each pattern repeat to suit the piecing rather than keep all the patterns the same height, which would draw attention to the piecing, I look at the space between the top of the pattern and the edge of the quilt and try to keep that consistent. Any slight difference in the height of each repeat will not be noticeable.

There is one last thing to do after finishing the project, and that is to move the patterns into their final destination catalogs. If you want to keep them altogether but not at the top of your library list, simply rename the catalog without the spaces before the name. I will move individual patterns into other catalogs - for instance, I have one named Swags so all the swag patterns will go into that catalog so that they'll be easy for me to find next time I want a swag. Others may go into my P2P catalog, or just into the Patterns by Helen catalog. In the end how patterns are organised is a very personal decision. They just need to be easy to find.