Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tutorial: How to quilt custom shapes

There were these 6" blocks on my sister's baby quilt that were just calling to me to have something special done with them. Since she loves anchors I decided a few were in order. Since I was doing it, I figured I'd take a few pictures and show you my method. There are a ton of ways to do this with whatever you have on hand!
Start with your shape. You could get your shape by drawing, printing, tracing, or whatever method you come up with. I have a Silhouette that I'm trying to use since I don't scrapbook much at all anymore. Get your shape on regular paper to the size you need.

Then figure out how many you need and how you are going to duplicate it. I used Golden Threads Paper which I bought for a class back in the day.  You could probably use freezer paper or paper piecing paper for this. I needed 10 anchors total so I cut 10 pieces of golden threads paper and layered them under the original image. I did 5 at a time.  Secure them however you like (you see I favor food clips).  Put a large sewing needle in your machine, I used a jeans needle. Remove your threads, drop your feed dogs and free motion trace the image.
When you are done all the pieces of paper will have the image on them in dots. Pin your first image to the quilt as you want it. I recommend flat head pins like I have here, they are easier for free motion because they don't get in the way as much.

Go back to your regular quilting needle and put the threads you want back in your machine. Keep the feed dogs dropped and free motion over the image onto the paper.
Once you are done, pull the threads to the back and secure them. Then you can gently tug your quilt to remove the paper. If you pull in two directions at once the paper will start to pop off your threads.
And then you have your finished shape!
What? You can't see it on that crazy patterned fabric? How's this?
Super cute right!? Repeat as necessary.
The question I have is this. The back is minky, will these still show after washing? I've never used minky before. I'm thinking I'll wait to wash it until after the shower.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow...that's amazing! Thanks for showing us how it's done!

Anonymous said...

It looks fabulous! I love how you write up your tutorials. Very easy to understand!

Angie said...

Super Cute - Love it!

Lane said...

Hey, hey. I do it the same way! It's so much easier than trying to mark the fabric quilt top. I usually use regular grocery store parchment paper instead of golden threads because it's so much cheaper, but other than that, we're on the same page. I'm working on some drawings that I plan to implement just this way. Lane

Susanne said...

This is such a GREAT tutorial!!! I'm already thinking about that dino quilt and maybe quilting dino foot prints on it!!!! : D

Lee said...

Thanks for a great tutorial! I never would have thought of this. Your little anchors are super cute.

jessica said...

Great idea! Love the Neptune! Wish I still had some...

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