Sewing With Nancy

Have you ever wondered why there are so many quilt tops that are stored in closets or sold at antique shops? The creative part of the process is piecing the top. The finishing process? Well, not as much fun, and sometimes intimidating. This program kicks off a three-part series which takes a simple approach to finishing quilt projects. The borders, quilting, and binding. Whether your next quilt project is a small table topper or a great big queen size quilt, the techniques are the same. Let's start with borders. "Fearless Quilting Finishes," that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program

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Then cornerstones whether you have double cornerstones or single it carries through what you've seen in the rest of the quilt kind of a nice finishing touch. It's basic, but if you haven't finished your quilt top maybe one of these quilts ideas will work for you. Now for the fabric. When you've chosen your fabric for your borders do give it a little spray to begin with. We use a spray starch or a spray starch substitute so that it's like having a little extra stabilizer on your fabric. Just press that in, so that it's nice and crisp. Most of the time borders are cut on the cross grain from selvage to selvage. We'd put a ruler on here, no matter what size you'd cut whatever width you determine, you'd cut that width. With the spray starch on there, it is nice and crisp. This is pretty normal. But professional quilters often cut the fabric for the borders if they have enough, on the lengthwise grain. I've cut this on the lengthwise grain to show you that the selvage is still there. You may say, "Why do I do that?" This is so much easier. Believe it or not, the way fabric is woven even though it's woven, not knit in the cross grain, it does have some stretch. Sometimes, when putting borders on you can warp it a little bit if you're very concerned about the shape of your design. When it's cut on the lengthwise grain, that's the most stable. It doesn't have that little give in it. Test that out on your fabric. If you have enough cut the lengthwise grain instead of the cross grain. Truth be told, most of the time, I cut on the cross grain, because cutting on the lengthwise grain takes a little bit more fabric. Some of our samples are small. But it doesn't matter if it's a placemat to a king size bed you're going to use the techniques in the same manner. We'll just show you for the L-shaped quilt border just the basic technique and how we like to work with it. Here's our mini-mini sample showing a quilt top. The borders that we like to put on first are the short ends. The reason for that is it eliminates a lot of the piecing. For an L-shaped border the north and south ends would go first and then the east and west ends. We've shortened this strip up but often, you have to piece the fabric. Here we've used somewhat contrasting fabric with just a slight gradation to show you. When piecing the fabric, what we like to do is create an L-shape piecing technique. You overlap the pieces, like an L and then stitch from corner to corner. After trimming, you can see how that diagonal line is so much better than if you had a horizontal line. It's less noticeable. So, you've pieced and done the north and south. then the east and west side, putting on the border. After sewing the remaining sides you're just going to have that simple L-shape. It's not too difficult, very simple. I told you, it's fearless sewing, the L-shape border. A double border is great. Usually, I make the inside border or the smaller border narrower. You can make them equal sizes, if you'd like. But the two often frame the piece very easily. You can pick out a darker color from the design. It's much like using an L-shaped border but this time, you're going to put it on twice. On our small sample we'll show you that you do the north and south ends the east and west ends or side to side, top to bottom, however you'd like to call it. Then you'd add this final border. One is good, two is better, in this instance because then we can add borders on both sides. I always audition my fabrics laying the pre-cut fabrics next to the design to make sure that these are the colors that I'd like to see. You can see that double borders-- I really am partial to them. They really help set off the design that's in the middle. Granted, you're going to have a much bigger design done than what we have right here. The next idea that I'd like to share with you is a flange. The flange is itty-bitty. It's a really tiny little insert. Because it's so little, to get that minuscule but really nice piping effect added you fold the fabric, meeting wrong sides together and stitch it to the quilt top, first of all. Let me show you on this sample that we have. We cut 1" strips of fabric. It doesn't have to be on the bias. It's just cut on the cross grain or the lengthwise grain. In general, I just do the cross grain. It's 1" wide, pressed in half. It's very small. Then you place this edge on the fabric and pin. Then position the border on top. If you'd like, you can stitch this down first and then stitch the bigger border on top. I've stitched this side. You can see that I've made it a little bit wider just so it was easier to see. That little insert is so much easier to do than a narrow itty-bitty border by having it folded. Let's go back and look at this project again. I think that gives it a very neat finish and you don't have to sew it twice, just once. Topstitch that flanged area into place. Then comes cornerstones. Cornerstones on our big quilt that we have here is a block in each corner. You can have a single border or a double border inner border, outer border, in the same manner. You just place a block in this area. The best way of putting these onto your quilt top is what I'd like to show you next. Sew the borders on the sides, as I mentioned the shorter ends, first of all. Here you can see they're pressed open. I generally always press the fabric seam allowance to the border. Because of the pieced seams, it will naturally want to go that way. Now we have the top and bottom with the borders. Again, measure the length, plus seam allowances of the sides. Add cornerstones, or just blocks. The block is the same set width and length as the border. So if this is a 3" border, you have a 3" block. Then, the borders are stitched to the sides. Here we have it. You can see that you're not putting a cornerstone on one border, or on each border you're placing it on both ends. That way, you will end up with that nice effect as I showed you earlier. I'll get the right end of the quilt... Here we go. Here we have a big border, a large cornerstone. Obviously, this cornerstone is the same width as that inner border. It really carries things through. So, in working with basic borders you just have to measure the quilt, cut the strips. Make sure you starch them first and then choose one of these four options for your quilting enjoyment. Framing a wall quilt is comparable to framing an art print or a painting. The corners are mitered. Careful consideration is given to the colors. But obviously, fabric is used instead of wood and metal. If the term "miter" causes you apprehension there's a fearless way to approach the process. I'd like to share with you my favorite tips. When working with mitered corners cut the borders extra long. Eight inches is usually the gauge that I use. Center the borders. You're going to center them on each side. But before doing any stitching on the wrong side of the quilt top mark a 1/4" from each side, from each corner. There's a little blue dot that I have marked at each of the four corners. Usually, when I put borders onto a quilt top I sew with the borders on top, the smallest part on top. This time, I like to sew with the quilt top facing me so I can see that little dot. I've already stitched two of the four borders on from dot to dot. I locked my stitches at this point. Then you can press I'm going to do that a little bit later the seam allowances toward the borders. Then cut the borders for the side seam the side edges. Again, cut them longer than you need. Center them on the border-- on the fabric, I should say. Then, we're going to sew. When I sew this, I have a straight stitch. You have to get your fabric out of the way meaning what you have just sewn. I'll just place this underneath the presser foot. I have my machine set for a 1/4" seam allowance. Sink the needle in the fabric and then stitch. Let the needle dance a little bit at that spot. Just hit the button so it's sewing in place. And stitch. In short, the long and short of this is that the 1/4" on each corner is not going to be sewn. As I'm reaching my other corner, and I get to the point, I sew a little bit slower so I can stop right at that dot. I'm just going to lock the stitches right at that point. Now comes the measuring part which really is the pressing part. We'll press all seam allowances toward the borders. It will naturally want to go that way. Pressing it toward the borders. Then we'll do some magical folding. We'll shape the borders just the way we'd like it to be. I'm going to meet the raw edge of the top border to its partner, right there, and fold. Let me see if I'm getting that corner just right. A little manipulation has to take place right here. You'd do some pinning. Rather than measuring I just make it look the way I'd like it to be. After I have a nice miter, I press. The pressing is going to be the stitching line for you. It's a press mark, as we so often do in quilting. I'll pin the borders together. Then I'm able to fold back the fabric. You'll see a line. That press mark is where I'm going to do the sewing. I have my machine set at a straight stitch. I'm going to move to the middle position raise the presser foot, and sew. You may want to consider working with a longer stitch length right now just to test it out in case you need to take it out. But as I finger press this open it's not bad. You can see that it's mitered at that point. You'd press this open. Now, another hint if you're working with a double border as I have on my landscape quilt. I have this pressed. As you can see, sometimes it's really tricky to get that point to match when you fold back the fabric. What I've done on this sample, is I used a zigzag stitch and stitched down that fold. It's not going to stay there. I would loosen the tension on that zigzag stitch. What happens when you open this up and you flatten it out you'll be able to straight stitch right down the fold. I've already done that on this sample. You can see how this folds out flat because I loosened the tension. You can maybe see my straight stitch in this area. Let's see if I can find my bobbin thread and pull out the zigzag. As I kind of pull that out I guess it's still stuck there a little bit. There we go. There it's stitched and perfectly mitered I think, at that corner. Borders can easily be an extension of the patchwork design. Using remaining fabric pieces be inspired to stitch a piano keys border a scrappy checkerboard border, or an artistic four-patch border. As you can tell, we're on borders, exclusively during this program of "Fearless Quilting Techniques." These small placemat samples, we made them just so that you would look only at the borders and not be distracted by what's inside. Pay special notice that the width of these border elements will be one inch. That makes it very easy to divide whatever you're working with that's in the interior. For example, is your quilt is 96" x 106" you can get it. It's all divisible by the one-inch strips. So, let me tell you what I mean by this. We've chosen some fabrics. The fabrics are just stacked here the four colors. There are actually four on here. You can cut these in one-inch strips. Let me get this lined up so that I can cut the fabric. Many times, you have to fold the fabric in half. We have fat quarters that we're working with right now. You'd place this over the top whether you're working with a traditional cutting board or a cutting board that can accommodate many strips at once. You don't have to move it. You place the rotary cutter in the teardrop end. Just slice down. I'm cutting 1-1/2" strips, so I'll go from 1-1/2", to 3", to 4-1/2". I shouldn't have moved that! Here we go. It's easier to cut on a flat surface rather than what I have here. Then you have all your strips cut. We've chosen colors that are alternating light and dark. It's not too difficult to figure out why. On the piano keys technique you can see that here that I've pieced together light and dark, light and dark, then making a four section. Then you can subcut this again the width of the border that you'd like. This border width happens to be 2-1/2" so we just cut the strips 2-1/2", and subcut them. If you were making a lot of these you could obviously sew together many more strips so that you wouldn't have to do so much piecing at this time. Then just rotate and sew together so that you have a simple piano key looking border at the top and bottom, north and south. Then add the same thing to the sides. Because they're one inch, they really work out well to fit most sizes of quilt tops or quilt projects. You could also work with two inches or three inches. You get the idea but this piano keys is a nice looking border effect. Keeping in mind this same one-inch strip of fabric that we've been using you could also work with a checkerboard. Now, the checkerboard from the same configuration, you can create a four patch. A four patch is simply this. Let me show you what they look like. You've probably made four patches before if you've quilted. If you haven't, let me share how they're made. You stitch a light and a dark together, of a strip. Then cut the strip in half. It will be a long 45" strip. Turn it so that you have a light going on top of a dark and a dark going on top of a light. Line them up, and sub-cut it again. You know, there's that bumper sticker that says "Quilters never die, they just go to pieces." Well, that happens when you're working with patchwork. I'm going to cut these an 1-1/2", and slide this over. At home, you can maybe cut a little bit more accurately than I'm managing right now! Then you simply stitch these together. They come off as a pair. Take them to the machine and stitch it together. To create this one we just made two different four-patch configurations. A dark and then this one is a litter bit lighter. Alternate these as they go around. You can see, that's a fast way of adding a border just with some leftover fabrics. Last but not least, we have the artistic four-patch where we've just placed as a cornerstone a four-patch in the corner. Then made the border an extension of what would normally be the next color. A little creativity just with one-inch-wide strips to set off whatever you have in the middle of your quilt. Today's Nancy's Corner guest is no stranger to our show. Usually, she sits in the chair next to me to introduce us to her newest book in her "Elm Creek Quilt" series. Today, she'll present us with synopsis from her first historical novel outside the Elm Creek series called "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker." Please welcome back, Jennifer Chiaverini a prolific author and a great person to tell us about an historical item that everyone's interested in right now. Well, that's true. Everyone is always interested in the life of Mr. Lincoln. The heroine of this book was a real-life woman. She had incredible insight into the Lincoln White House that historians and scholars find fascinating, even to this day. And her name is Elizabeth. That's right, her name is Elizabeth Keckley. She was born in 1818 in Virginia as a slave. She was a very, very skilled seamstress however and as the years went by and she followed one owner to another owner traveling around the South, she made her way to St. Louis where her owner finally said that, yes she could earn enough money to buy her own freedom. So with her skill and with her needle she earned enough money to purchase her freedom and that of her son. It gives me goose bumps! Oh, it's tremendously fascinating. I first discovered Elizabeth when I was researching some of my other Elm Creek Quilts novels. Her story just fascinated me. She had such strong will and such talent. She made her way to Washington, DC where she became first the dressmaker to Mrs. Jefferson Davis and then later, she became the dressmaker for Mary Lincoln. I have to say, I haven't read this yet. I'm adding that caveat, because I just received this book. You researched this in many different places. That's right. I always start with my research at the Wisconsin Historical Society which is a wonderful resource a treasure trove of history and achieves. It's very, very close to where I live. But I also relied upon Elizabeth Keckley's own words. In 1868, she published a memoir talking about her life as a slave and how she earned her freedom. But also, giving away a lot of secrets about her years living in the Lincoln White House. These day, we expect everyone to turn out a tell-all book but in 1868, not so. Unfortunately, this did damage the relationship that Elizabeth and Mary Lincoln shared for so many years. When times were good, Lizzy and Mrs. Lincoln-- It was after the assassination and the later on she did, by mail, some dressmaking. That's true. But Elizabeth was more than just her dressmaker. She was also her close friend and confidant. Oh, sure. You might have heard that Mary Lincoln was a little bit difficult to get along with at times. Elizabeth was able to not only tolerate her but also in some ways, bring out the better side of Mary Lincoln in many occasions. Elizabeth was there to see Mary Lincoln through the many tragedies she faced while she was in the White House. The death of a child, the death of her husband, and several scandals. When Mrs. Lincoln left the White House upon Mr. Lincoln's assassination Elizabeth went with her and lived with her for a time in Illinois before returning to Washington to continue her dressmaking business. As you said, their friendship continued through the mail for many years after that until they were reunited later. When she made clothes for Mrs. Lincoln these were not everyday dresses. She did take care of some items like that but what she's most known for and what Mary valued her skills most for was for creating the beautiful gowns that Mary Lincoln wore to balls, and receptions, and inaugurations. As Elizabeth said herself in an interview that she gave to a newspaper when she was in her 80s her hands were the last to touch Mrs. Lincoln before she took the president's arm and was escorted off to some grand occasion. Elizabeth not only sewed her gowns but she fixed her hair and arranged her bouquets and did all of those extra touches, as well. Well, Jennifer, this is a read that I'm looking forward to having very soon. I'm sure those of you who are fans of Jennifer through the Elm Creek series will find this equally as enchanting. I certainly hope so. I loved writing it and doing all the research. I hope my readers enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. With that attitude, I know they will. Thank you for being with us. It was my pleasure. Thank you for joining us on this program of Sewing with Nancy. You can find out more information about Jennifer and her Elm Creek series plus Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker on our website. Go to nancyzieman.com. All things Sewing with Nancy are there. We will definitely direct you in the right direction. If you'd like to re-watch this program you can always re-watch 52 of our shows are online. Just click and watch and join us with social media, as well. As I say with every show, thanks for joining us. Bye for now. 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