Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Braid in a Day QAL -- Start your sewing machine!

I hope you've got your fabric strips all cut and your braid pieces ready!  The fun part starts today --we start sewing the braids together.

As you cut your strips, I hope you arranged them in right- and left-hand stacks.  This isn't as critical when you're using batiks, since batik fabric has no right or wrong side.  But if you're using a print, be sure your stacks are right side up, and look like this:


To begin sewing the braid, place a right-hand piece on top of a left-hand piece, matching the 90 degree corners:


Stitch a 1/4" seam along the right-hand side.  You can stop stitching when you reach the lower edge of the bottom (left-hand) piece, or continue and assembly-line sew all the braid pieces.  I did mine one at a time so I could choose contrasting colors:


Finger-press the seam away from the right-hand strip.  DO NOT press with your iron at this point -- it's too easy to stretch out the bias edges!

Add a left-hand piece to the left side of the first two pieces and sew all the way down the right-hand side.  Again, finger press away from the piece you just added.
 
Add another right-hand piece with the braid pieces on the bottom.  Finger press seam toward braid pieces.

Continue adding a left, then a right-hand piece to the braid until you've added as many pairs (right-hand and left-hand pieces) as required for the size quilt you are making. Be sure to add contrasting strips (light, then dark).



Carefully press the braid, wrong side up.  Don't "scrub" your iron back and forth or you'll make your braid crooked!

Instruction to square up the ends of your braid are on page 12 of the instructions.  Or you can just do like I did, and cut off each end square!

If you waited to buy your sashing until you saw how the braids looked, it's time to go shopping!

Next week:  Measuring and cutting sashing.



From the desk of your auntmartisignature

4 comments:

  1. That seems straightforward, thanks for sharing!

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  2. looks good, I made ONE braid quilt and hated making it, maybe I should try again- some time

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  3. Love your instructions and pictures. On another note, I've not cut out my braids. :( I'm too scared! I'll email you later. Thank you!

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  4. I am SO grateful for the instruction that batiks have no right side, because otherwise I'd be in deep doo-doo. I've (finally) got my first braid half done -- you made it look easy, but I did a lot of seam ripping before I got the rhythm. It's looking great so far and I can't wait to shop for sashing . . . hopefully before you post the next step!

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