Make Time British Sew-along: my favourite machine piecing techniques
- Nicola
- 11 hours ago
- 7 min read
Welcome to week six of the Make Time British Sew-along. Before I introduce you to my blocks, let me remind you of our autumn sewing schedule: -
18th August - Make Time block with Jo Westfoot - explore foundation paper piecing.
25th August - Tulips, Clouds, Let's Chat, Get Snippy and Book Club blocks with Lou Orth - explore curved piecing, snowball corners and foundation paper piecing.
8th September - Sunrise, Sewing Machine, Friendship Heart and Kitty Cat blocks with Victoria Peat - explore foundation paper piecing.
22nd September - Friendship Star, Smell the Roses, A Good Yarn & Bubble Bath blocks, here with me - explore machine piecing, partial seams, strip piecing & simple embroidery.
6th October - Time for a Cuppa, Thread Spools, Music Soothes the Soul & Walk in Nature blocks with Jo Westfoot - explore foundation paper piecing and applique.
20th October - join me here again for my tips on assembling the quilt.
As I mentioned in my introductory post, Jo, Lou, Victoria and I all designed quilt blocks that would reconnect us to our creativity, to the natural world, to our friends and to the importance of self-care and I wanted to share a little more about my inspiration.
Starting with creativity, I'm sure you can imagine that we all came up with ideas for sewing-themed blocks! But A Good Yarn is a little peek into my crafting past, as knitting is the first craft I learned from my granny, Mary Wynn. She was an instinctive and incredibly talented craftswoman and really could turn her hand to anything. Any block that reminds me of her brings back lots of happy memories. But it also represents the joy of trying new things. If knitting had 'stuck' I might not be quilting...
As I work in my studio or sit at my desk in the study, I'm wrapped in views of our garden (and I do spend lots of time gazing out of the window). I've been obsessed with roses since I made my first garden thirty years ago and our local rose growers, the David Austin Nurseries, have proven to be a constant temptation. So I really had to choose a rose to represent the natural world. The block's name, Smell the Roses, also reminds me to slow down and appreciate the each moment of the growing season.
The Friendship Star was a must for me - and I bagged that one early! - as it sums up everything that makes this quilt so special: the four of us working together (and our friends from previous years cheering us on); the friends I've made at my local guild (when I got up the courage to join); the non-quilty friends who encouraged my to follow my dreams and start my business; childhood friends who I whiled away summer holidays with crafting. Honestly were would I be without them? Especially in this past year as I processed the loss of my darling Mum. There are so many difficult conversations that can be had when our hands are busy.
And last but not least, my self-care block just had to be a bubble bath. Another little nod to Mum: when I used to call her (on a payphone!) from University, feeling out of my depth and overwhelmed with work, she'd always recommend me taking the evening off from studying to have a nice bubble bath and I didn't like to tell her that our 1960s university halls only had some rather grotty showers. But she was absolutely right, a nice soak in a bubble bath really does 'reset the clock' for me.
Are you ready to make time to do what makes you happy? You can buy the Make Time PDF Pattern here.
Testing Quarter Inch Seams
Before we begin, how is your quarter inch seam? I almost hesitate to ask, because it's not the most scintillating subject. I'll confess that when I first started quilting I thought the edge of my standard machine foot gave me a ¼" seam and it honestly never occurred to me to measure it. Although my quilts did turn out rather small!
Most of us pop that ¼" quilting foot onto our machines and call it George, but if you stop to actually measure your seam you might find that it's still slightly off. Even tiny inaccuracies can add up as you assemble your blocks, but just half an hour spent playing with your machine settings - go on, break out that manual - will repay you a million times over in time saved unpicking.
My accuracy was transformed when I realised I could move the needle position (or needle drop, as it might be described in your manual) on my Janome from the standard 3.5 to 4: it's a fraction of an inch but it really does make all the difference!
The easiest way to test the accuracy of your quarter inch seam is to make a simple four patch with 1½" squares (a bit like making a tension square when you're knitting). Generally I like to press my seams to the side, so I made my test four patch with seams pressed to the side, too.
If you can accurately join the 1½" squares together - in two rows of two - to yield a 2½" four patch, you can look forward to piecing my Make Time blocks with confidence.
If your four patch is coming up small, then the seam allowance is too big. If it's coming up large then the seam allowance is too scant. Give that needle position a tweak!
Creating Snowballed Corners
You may know this as an Easy-Corner-Triangle or a Sew-and-Flip-Corner. Whatever you call it, it's an incredibly useful technique, simplifying cutting out, minimising bias and keeping the edges of your units nice and square. I like to press my corners 'open' before I trim away the back layers so that I can check their accuracy first.
We are using quite small pieces to create some of the snowballed corners, but please use your standard stitch length. It's tempting to make your stitch length shorter when sewing with small pieces, but if you make a mistake it will be a pain to unpick the seam. Rather, turn down your machine's speed: you are far less likely to make a mistake.
Successful Strip-Piecing
The Good Yarn block makes liberal use of strip piecing to create the stitches on the needle and the balls of yarn. Strip-piecing is a wonderful way of creating lots of tiny little squares without actually cutting & joining them individually. Not only does it save time but the results are neater and more even. Win, win!
The strips we're using are only 1" wide, so the same tip for reducing the speed of your machine, rather than reducing your stitch length, applies. Pinning the strip sets a few times along their length will stop them shifting as you sew, which can lead to a bowed seam. And take care to keep the seam nice and straight when you press it open. I used a wool pressing bar, which definitely helped.
My last tip is to line up the markings on your ruler with the seam to make sure your section cuts are perpendicular.
Partial Seams
Have you sewn a partial seam before? We mostly construct our blocks - and quilt tops - in rows and/or columns, but this nifty technique allows us to join seams that spiral around a central block and make us look very clever indeed. But the truth is, they're really easy to do. We're going to practise the technique with the Friendship Star and use it again when we assemble our Make Time quilts.
I always find it helpful to make a physical mark in my seam allowance to remind me to leave the the end of the seam open. And I take time to pin the final seam carefully.
It's important to sew away from the end of the partial seam rather than towards it to avoid any puckers.
Simple Embroidery
Sonia and I added embroidered words to some of the Make Time quilt blocks - titles on the books, messages in the speech bubbles and labels on the yarn labels - using simple backstitch. We used two strands of Aurifil 12wt cotton thread (the one with the red spool) and a chenille needle. I'll be honest, I usually launch into embroidery without much preparation, but Sonia was working on some of the smaller text elements and prepared her blocks by adding a small section of fusible interfacing to the back to stop the fabric puckering. She also showed me a very nifty way of securing the thread, which I can't wait to share!
Using a light box - or the light shining through a window - mark the words with a water soluble pen, dabbing off any residual marks with a cotton bud and cold water. You could also mark dots at 1/8" intervals to help keep your stitches even. As the name suggests, backstitch is worked...backwards. If you're new to embroidery, make a test piece first, to make sure you're comfortable with the results, before embroidering your block.
Thread the needle with both cut ends - you might need to use a needle threader - keeping the cut ends short and a long loop (top left). Starting from the back, bring the needle out about 1/8” away from the start of the line (top right). Make a backwards stitch then, on the wrong side of your work, pass your thread through the loop to secure it (bottom left). Again, bring your needle out at point about 1/8" away from the first stitch and carry on making back stitches along the drawn line bottom right and below). When you're finished, secure with a knot and press lightly from the back.
I'd love to know how you get on with your Make Time blocks. You can leave a comment, below, tag your blocks #britishsewalong on Instagram or come and join the Facebook group.
I'll be back next week to share a Foundation Paper Piecing template for the strip-pieced portions of the Good Yarn block, a fun hack for replacing the strip-piecing with stripy fabric and showing you a delightful little project I made with one of the blocks.
Until then, make time to do what makes you happy,
Nicola xx