Thursday, June 22, 2017
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Putting the Panel together
Now we come to the fun part – putting the quilt panel
together.
Secure the master poster to a worktable or the floor. I have a vinyl cover over my dining room
table, which often gets used as a work area for my quilting projects. I can use
blue painters tape on the vinyl with no problems with removal. Next secure your background fabric over the
poster. Hopefully you can see the outlines of the poster through the fabric.
Now get out your glue sticks and glue each component piece
to the background fabric. Keep things smooth. Let the glue dry. I also used blue tape to ensure the
pieces didn’t shift during the next step – satin stitching around the component
parts. You could also pin the pieces in place.
Take a look at the panel and plan out where you want to do
your satin stiches. I did inside lines before working on the outside. You might choose to
use a decorative stitch in a few places. No rules here! The end goal is to securely stitch the component
pieces to the background fabric. Take your time and avoid puckers. The last step is to remove the paper backing
on the tusks and eyes and, using the poster as a visual guide, glue them in
place and then iron them down. They are now ready for stitching in place.
I used a decorative stitch on the first tusk I worked on but decided it would look better with a satin stitch, so I later just satin stitched over the decorative stitch. You can also see the fabric under the right tusk. I should have added some interfacing to the back of it.
Apply Decorative Stitching
Finally a project that uses all those decorative stitches on my sewing machine! If your machine doesn't have them then a simple zigzag will work. The goal is to further secure the sections to the stabilizer and add a little bling at the same time. I used a Sulky Gold colored thread. This isn't a metallic thread but has a nice sheen and color.
Choose stitches that will secure both fabrics along their join line. If you have small gaps between the two fabrics, often times the decorative stitch will cover it. Work on one component at a time until all are done. Place them back on the master poster.
Choose stitches that will secure both fabrics along their join line. If you have small gaps between the two fabrics, often times the decorative stitch will cover it. Work on one component at a time until all are done. Place them back on the master poster.
I wasn't careful to use stitches that firmly secured both fabrics at the join line. The Heat N Bond will not keep the fabric pieces secure forever, particularly if you wash the quilt. Later in the quilt making process I used invisible thread and zigzagged over every line of decorative stitching.
Working on the componets
Pick a component part to work on and get it's paper section that was cut from the colored poster, such as the ear shown below.
On the other poster (now referred to as the MASTER POSTER), cover the component area you're working on with stabilizer. I secured the stabilizer in place using blue tape.
On the other poster (now referred to as the MASTER POSTER), cover the component area you're working on with stabilizer. I secured the stabilizer in place using blue tape.
I cut each section (template) of the paper component part off one at a time just to stay organized. After picking the piece of fabric for the section, place the paper template onto the back side of the fabric UPSIDE DOWN. Trace it onto the Heat N Bond paper. Write the number of the piece on it and then cut it out. If you are fussy cutting the piece, place the template right side up on the front side of fabric, trace and cut.
Place each section onto the master poster in the proper place. You should be able to read the numbers through the stabilizer.
Once all sections of the component are completed, remove the paper backing on each piece (one at a time), apply glue to the fabric back (Heat N Bond), and place it back on the stabilizer.
Heat up your iron and carefully move the stabilizer piece to the ironing board and iron to adhere the pieces to the stabilizer.
Repeat this process until all components are prepared. Trim off excess stabilizer around each component and lay them back on the master poster.
Preparing the materials
Panel background fabric:
Normally white or a white-on-white fabric. I highly recommend that you prewash
the 1 ½ yard of background material and then iron it smooth. Put it aside for now.
As I mentioned earlier, I broke the elephant down into component
parts and worked on it one component at a time (trunk, left ear, right ear, head,
legs, etc). Cut your stabilizer into several pieces, one for each
component. It should cover that component completely.
Fabric for pieces used on elephant: Take your scraps and material you choose for the
elephant and apply the Heat N Bond to the back. Leave the paper backing on. **If you plan to add a scrappy border like I did, cut some 2 1/2 inch strips off some of our fabric before you apply Head N Bond to use in the border.
You will need to trace a few parts of the elephant onto blank
sheets of paper. Toenails, center
circles on knees, center at tip of trunk, eyes, circle on top of head, part 93A
on the center of the face and the tusks. In general these parts are fused onto
the piece below them, not onto the stabilizer.
Take the first (uncolored) poster and find a place to lay it
out. If desired, secure it with blue
painters tape to it won’t slip around. If you don’t have a work space large
enough to lay it out with folding, then fold away!
Cut the second poster (colored) into the component parts. An ear is pictured below.
Supplies Needed for Elephant Panel
It’s time to talk materials needed to make the quilt
panel. The method used is raw edge
applique and there are almost 100 pieces. It sounds intimidating but is more
time consuming than difficult. Breaking
the elephant down into “component” parts and using Heat N Bond Iron on adhesive
to attach the pieces to some stabilizer breaks the job down into very easy to
handle sections.
Back to supplies for the elephant panel only:
- 2 to 5 yards of Heat N Bond Lite Iron on adhesive (sewable). Amount needed depends on how efficiently you apply it. I went crazy and applied it to lots of fabric pieces so I had a wide selection of fabric choices. You can get it at Jo-anne Fabric, Walmart and just about anywhere sewing supplies are sold.
- Thread for zig-zag, satin stitch and/or decorative stitches. I used a Sulky Gold (ordered at Amazon.com)
- 2 yards of Fabric stabilizer (non-adhesive). This is the foundation that you adhere the fabric pieces too (which have Heat N Bond on the backside). I found a lighter weight works best if you want your quilt to remain soft and drape well. If you plan to hang your quilt like a piece of art, a heavier stabilizer can be used..
- 2-3 fabric glue sticks
- About 1 1/2 yards of background fabric for Elephant Panel (normally white)(44” wide)
- Various scraps for the elephant parts. I didn’t use anything bigger than a fat quarter but I have a large fabric stash and had lots of fabric in many sizes to use.
Stablizer |
Heat N Bond |
How it began
We’ve all been there – browsing quilting posts on Facebook
or the web and suddenly we see a quilt that we love and want to make, but
frustratingly there isn't a pattern or instructions!
Sometimes we can recreate the pattern based on our experience and sometimes
the quilt falls into the “too hard to do” category and ends up on our Pinterest
page along with the dozens of other quilts we’ll never make.
Recently I was browsing the posts at my favorite Facebook
quilt group “Quilt Along with Pat Sloan” when I ran across a post by Jeanette
Silvey that included this picture of an elephant quilt and asking if anyone
knew where she could find the pattern. Group
members suggested several possibilities, but none were the exact same elephant. Finally Jeanette traced a line drawing of the
elephant and used an online site to blow it up to poster size.
My in-laws lived in India for several years
when my father-in-law worked for a U.N. agency.
Their home has several elephant themed decorations. I really wanted to
make this quilt for my mother in law and Jeanette’s plan sounded doable to me.
The first thing I did was clean up the line drawing a little
so I had a crisp black and white image for blowing up. Once the image was ready, I went to
BlockPosters.com to turn the image into a multi-page poster. Posters up to 5 by 5 pages are free and you
download your poster as a PDF file. I choose a 4x4 poster which produced 16 pages
that measure 34 inches
wide and 47 inches high once
taped together, which I will later trim down to 34 inches by 40 inches.
You have to set a few options before you print your poster. This is what I choose:
Here is the picture you need to upload at BlockPosters.com to make your poster. Right Click on the picture and save it to your computer.
Here is the picture you need to upload at BlockPosters.com to make your poster. Right Click on the picture and save it to your computer.
When you print the poster on your home printer, you need to adjust the printer settings to
borderless printing (usually found under Properties) and print actual size. My system for making the quilt requires that you print and tape together
two copies of the poster.
I lightly color one of the posters using colored pencils (or crayons) using about 8-10 colors. It helped me to choose my fabric and not have too much of one color in any area. This step is definitely optional but I'm glad I took the time.
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