Parade Day Sew Along – Outer Borders

Okay last post for the Parade Day Quilt!!!

Congrats if you have been sewing along and are ready for your borders.

Here is my original quilt on the left using 2 1/2 inch inner borders and 3 1/2 outer borders. On the right is the sew along quilt using 2 inch inner borders and 6 inch outer borders.

Those border measurements are the cutting size, not the finished size. So depending on how big you want your quilt, or how much of the border fabric you want to see, you can choose your own border sizes.

Thank you to those who have emailed, and shared your Parade Day progress with me! It has been so fun to see your fabric choices and your beautiful quilts!

Have a great weekend!

Melissa

Parade Day Part 4

Apr3

Hi there friends!

We’re almost done with our Parade Day quilt!!

Today we are going to cut our setting triangles, corner triangles, and applique our buntings.

Cutting for setting triangles.

Cut 2 squares at 11 1/4 inches cut once on the diagonal.

For each setting triangle finger press in half ,

then center the bunting in the middle, pin and applique with your favorite method (machine stitch, blanket stitch, or hand applique.)

I actually love to hand applique and encourage you to try it if you haven’t done it. I always think of it just like hand sewing the back of your binding on. It’s that simple.

My friend Jane, who taught me how to hand applique gave me these tips when I started: use YLI silk thread because it just melts right in like butter, and use straw needles (11, or 10.)

Once you have all the buntings sewn on to your setting triangles you will then make the center portion of the bunting.

1. Use this template: Parade Day Template and trace it on to the dull side of freezer paper. (Or if you are machine stitching you can use a fusible, like steam-a-seam)

2. Press with shiny side down onto the BACK of your fabric, cut out leaving a 1/4 inch seam, and baste.

3. Finger press in half

4. Center on your bunting, pin, and applique.

***Edit: I forgot to add that you need to pull out the freezer paper and basting stitches!

Now we can lay our quilt out into rows paying special attention to the direction your flags are facing.

Sew into rows with a 1/4 inch seam. Press toward flag blocks. Here I am pinning my first seam, see where the over hang of the triangle block is:

Here are the rows all sewn up:

Now sew the rows together:

Once the rows are all sewn, it’s time to add the corner triangles,

Cutting the corner triangles:

Cut 2 squares 7 1/4 inches cut once on the diagonal.

Finger press each corner triangle and center on the corner blocks. Pin and sew.

It looks a little wonky when you have it all sewn on, but we are going to trim the corners to square it.

Using your rotary cutting and a large square ruler ( I used a 12 1/2 inch square) Square your corners.

You should now have a 25 inch square quilt center! Whoop whoop!

From here you can add any sized inner and outer borders you want, but we will discuss the sizes I choose next week!

Here is my finished quilt a long quilt:

cornbread and beans blog 046

See ya next week for borders!

Later Gators,

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along- Part 3

Mar27

YEAAAAHHHHHHHH!! It’s actually sunny today! My spirit is soaring. It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for a light deprived Michigander. =)

With the sunshine it is easy to put me in a summery 4th of July mood.

So lets get started making our little parade buntings made out of dresedens.

Cutting:

If using fat quarters :cut 3 strips of blue 1- 3/4 x 22

3 strips of red 1- 3/4 x 22

If using yardage: cut 2 strips of blue 1 -3/4 x wof

2 strips of red 1- 3/4 x wof

Sewing

Sew the red strips to the blue strips using a 1/4 inch seam. Press toward the blue (we will be pressing half toward the red in later steps.) Your strips should measure 3 inches.

Now using your dresden ruler, line it up on the 3 inch mark. The 1- 1/2 inch mark on the ruler should be right across the middle where the red and blue meet. Using your rotary cutter, trim the side off and make your first cut.

Flip your ruler upside down and make your second cut.

Continue cutting your strips until you have a pile of 20 red on the top blue on the bottom , and 20 blue on the top red on the bottom.

Using a quarter inch seam allowance fold your blades in half at the “fat” end and feed them through your machine.

You can chain stitch these.

Now cut the threads that bind your blades together. For each blade you will trim the corner off with scissors (being careful not to cut into the stitching), finger press the seam open, turn the blade tip inside out, and using a bodkin or something sharp push the tip out.

Now take 10 matching blades to your ironing board and press the point of the blade.

Leave 5 of the blades pressed toward the blue fabric, and press 5 of the blades toward the red fabric. This will aid in butting up your seams when we sew them together.

Here are my first 10 blades ready to become a bunting!

Take two blades and butt up the seams, you can pin if you like. Sew using a 1/4 inch seam back stitching at the beginning and end. Sew together 5 pairs.

Press the pairs and then sew 2 pairs together, repeating until you have sewn 10 blades together.

Repeat until you have made 2 blue at the top and 2 red at the top buntings.

Aren’t they cute?? Love it!

We now have 4 flags, 1 star, and 4 buntings.

I’ll be back next week for part 4!

Later gators,

Melissa

Parade Day Sew Along Part 2- Star Block

Mar20

Welcome back to the Parade Day Sew Along!

Anybody sewing along????

Today I’m thinking about all things summer and Americana; apple pie, baseball, red geraniums, picnics, watermelon, and homemade ice cream!

What goes better with our Dear Old Flag than stars?

Let’s make the star block.

You will need:

4 white squares at 2 1/4 x 2 1/4

1 white square at 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 cut twice on the diagonal

4 blue squares at 2 5/8 x 2 5/8 cut once on the diagonal

1 red square at 4 x 4.

Sewing

Lay our your star block.

Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, make the flying geese blocks that make up the star points.

I have taken a picture of the steps I sew my flying geese in. Press toward the darker fabric:

Trim off the dog ears on the flying geese and you should now have this:

Sew your pieces into rows, press toward the flying geese:

Sew your rows together and admire your cutie tootie star block!!! It should measure 7 1/2 inches square.

This is what we have now, 4 flags and a star:

Don’t sew the blocks together yet.

I hope you will link up so we can all share! =)

See you back here next week for the dresdens.

Melissa

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Parade Day Sew Along Part 1-Flag Blocks

Mar17

Hi Ladies!

Ready to sew along with me today?

Put some flip flops on, make an iced tea (or a long island iced tea depending on how much you want to party,) and pretend that it is summer and you are getting ready for July 4th!! =)

Let’s make some flags.

For each flag you will need:

2 red or blue strips cut at 1 1/2 x 7 1/2

1 white strip cut at 1 1/2 x 7 1/2

2 red or blue strips cut at 1 1/2 x 10 1/2

2 white strips cut at 1 1/2 x 10 1/2

1 red or blue square cut a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2