City Line QAL - Week 6

City Line pattern available here

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

How did the slicing go last week?  This week will be less stressful, I promise!  Well, unless you dislike sewing sashing and borders.   It's not my favourite task, but I still think it's less stressful than cutting apart what I've already sewn.

Add Sashing

Starting at Step 7 on page 6, measure and insert the sashing.  To measure sashing that stretches across the width of the quilt, I lay the sashing strip directly across the middle of the rows and mark the length directly on the quilt.  It's the same technique as I use to measure borders.  In this case I measured on the pieced strips, and checked the measurement against the width of the top and bottom sections.

I forgot to take a picture of measuring with the strips, but the red arrows in the picture below show you where I measured.

Thank you to White Owl Textiles for sending me
 these fabrics from their Fundamentals collections. 
Scroll to the bottom of this post for additional fabric details.

To sew the sashing, I found it easiest to sew both sashing strips to the pieced center strip first.  I matched centers and ends and pinned here again as I shared in the pinning tutorial I shared in Week 2.

Make sure you put the pieced strip back between the top and bottom sections right side up.  When it's oriented properly, the center square at the left end of the strip will be Fabric 1, matching the leftmost fabric in the top and bottom sections.

Now sew the top and bottom panels to the sashed center strip.  To make sure the vertical seams in the panels and center strip align, you can mark the sashing as explained in my "Matching Seams Across Sashing" tutorial.  

Instead of making marks showing the position of the sides the vertical sashing, mark the position of each vertical seam in the center strip.

Match the seams in the panels with those marks.

Here's the quilt center ready for borders.  It's straight, I promise, even if the photo isn't!

Add Borders

Measure and sew side borders, then top and bottom borders, as directed on page 7 of the pattern.  If you're making the alternate sizes, ignore the strip widths in the border instructions.  Refer to the cutting table to identify which widths to use for each border.

I measure borders by laying border strips directly across the quilt and marking the length directly on the strip.  See my border tutorial for details.

Side borders added

Side borders added. Quilt top is complete

I'm always excited to finish a quilt top!  This top will join the queue waiting to be quilted, but I think I'll quilt it the same way as the pattern cover quilt.  Scroll down near the bottom of this post to see how I quilted that version with my walking foot.

I hopw you've enjoyed this QAL adventure.  I'd love to see your quilt, whether on social media or in my inbox.  Please share!

Happy sewing,

Joanne

Fabrics for my version contributed by White Owl Textiles

Matching seams across sashing

In a perfect world, piecing would be mathematically perfect every time, so that blocks and sashing in different rows always line up perfectly, even when there's sashing between rows.  My world is not perfect, and I have to make a little more effort to make sure things line up.

Red lines show alignment of the vertical sashing strips

The trick is to mark the sashing in the seam allowance, then match up seams with the marks.  Let's take a closer look.

Here are two vertically sashed rows of four-patch block.  The horizontal sashing between the rows is already sewn to one of the rows, ready to sew to the other row to complete the sashing.  Here's how to make the vertical sashing in the top row line up with the vertical sashing in the bottom row. 

Step 1:  Make reference marks in the seam allowance of the horizontal sashing.

On the part with horizontal sashing already attached, line up the straight edge of a ruler with one side of the vertical sashing, making sure the ruler is square with the horizontal.  Make a little mark right on the edge of the sashing where it will be hidden in the seam allowance. 

Repeat that for every side of every vertical sashing strip.

Step 2:  When setting the two rows together, right sides together, to sew the sashing to the top row, line up and pin every sashing seam on the top with the corresponding mark on the horizontal sashing. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the pinned pieces, but I did photograph the marks and the stitching being lined up.

Step 3:  Head to the sewing machine and sew with a 1/4" seam.

Step 4:  Press towards the sashing.  If you made your marks small enough, they are hidden in the seam allowance.

There you have it!  You have well-aligned sashing to help your piecing look crisp and tidy!

Happy sewing,

Joanne

The fabrics I used in this tutorial are scraps from my City Line QAL quilt.  White Owl Textiles generously contributed the fabrics for that quilt.  These scraps are from their Fundamentals collections Peppercorn and Stucco.

City Line QAL - Week 5

City Line pattern available here

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Are you ready to slice up a perfectly good pieced panel?  I'm not going to lie.  This is the part where I have to take a lot of deep breaths!

This week we'll be completing Steps 2 through 6 on page 6 of the pattern.

Here's where we left off last week:

Thank you to White Owl Textiles for sending me
 these fabrics from their Fundamentals collections. 
Scroll to the bottom of this post for additional fabric details.

To measure and make the cut all the way across this panel, I cleared everything except my cutting mat off my table.  I spread the quilt on the table, letting the bottom of the panel hang off the side.

After confirming that the top of the quilt was straight and square with the sides, thanks to all my pinning, I used a 24" ruler and the first method described in my tutorial about cutting wide strips to cut away the top of the panel.  Did I double check the required measurement and my ruler position half a dozen times before wielding the rotary cutter?  Yes.  Yes, I did.  Take your time at this step.

Ta dah!  Two haves.

Now slice off a wide strip from the bottom half.  

These two cut carved out a strip from the middle of the panel.

Now slice that strip up.

Flip a couple of those skinny strips.

Sew those skinny strips back together.  If you pressed as the pattern directed, you should be able to nest the seams, as well as spin the seam intersections when you press.  Refer to my tutorial on nesting and spinning seams.  You'll probably want to peek at the one about spinning multiple intersections as well if you're not a habitual seam spinner.

Pressing and spinning after sewing two of the strips together, than adding the third strip, will make things easier.  I'm a big fan of pressing as I go.

Take a peek at my spun seams.  Aren't those little 4-patches in the seam allowances cute.  Enjoy them now before they end up inside the quilt!

That's it for this week.  It's not a lot of sewing, but that gut-check cutting was a little bit daunting so I gave myself an easy week.  Here's where I'm stopping until next week.

We'll wrap up next week with sashing and borders.  I can't wait to see your finished tops!

Happy sewing,

Joanne

Fabrics for my version contributed by White Owl Textiles