In past posts I have explained about freezer paper and how to use it to size blocks when joining rows…When you come to joining multiple rows the pieceing becomes a little more tricky as you need to measure the width of the underside blocks as well as the upper row…I took photos today, as I joined the top and bottom sections of mum’s quilt, to illustrate how I go about joining the bigger units.
I start by ironing a strip of freezer paper to the back of both rows to be joined, I have the freezer paper strips cut longer than the join, the underside piece a little longer than the upper piece so that I can see both when I put the blocks together.
When I put the halves together I put a piece of fabric between them so that embellishments don’t rub together and after pinning the seam I put additional pins on the other side of the freezer paper to help hold the layers together and reduce drag and slippage.
I spear pin through each intersection taking care to put the pin through the seam right next to the paper on the top and the bottom.
I then pin between the blocks checking with every pin that it is right next to the paper on the underside, weraing glasses makes this a bit difficult, every time I lent forward to check the location of the pin on the back my glasses slipped off.
When I have The seam pinned I Tack the intersections, doing a backstitch around the point where the joins do intersect, before taking the spear pin out…It is also worth tacking any patches of velvet.
I set my sewing machine up on a small table that is slightly lower than my studio table and put a box behind the machine so that I have a level surface for the quilt to move over.
Umm…maybe it is worth tacking the whole seam…because even with all that care in pinning when I checked the back I had some slippage…I unpicked and realigned and restitched these in small sections.
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