It has taken me a little longer than I had expected, however, I have finally finished off piecing together the first 14 blocks of my Joseph's Coat. I have broken this stage down into two steps. You can find the first step covering - Joining the first 14 blocks so that they form 2 vertical rows - here. The second step will be covered in this post and will detail Adding the 1/2 blocks to the ends of the rows and finishing off the edges of rows 1 & 2.
This is what your rows should look like so far ...
You will notice that each row finishes 1/2 a block above or below the previous block ... we now need to fill in these gaps!
This tutorial refers to filling in the gaps and finishing the edges of rows 1 & 2 only ... the other rows will be slightly different to this.
To do this you will need 11 petals & two 10" x 12" rectangles of background fabric.
Press the 10" x 12" rectangles. Bring the 10" sides of the rectangle together to find the vertical mid line of the piece - lightly press the fold. Open out the fabric and take one of the 12" edges and fold it over 3 1/2", lightly press the fold.
To complete the 1/2 block that fits at the bottom of Row 1...
Place your Positioning Guide over a light box, if you have one, making sure that the vertical mid-line fold runs through the center of the two vertical petals and the horizontal mid-line runs through the middle of the block. The larger half of the fabric should be positioned toward the lower half of the block ... see below
... lay out 6 petals as shown below.
Once you are happy with the placement, glue and pin in place. Sew the applique pieces in place as you would a regular block, however, with these blocks you can sew down all of the edges including the outer edges.
Place the finished 1/2 block over your placement guide and position the bottom of Row 1 so that it matches up with the centre points of the 1/2 block and the side petal of Row 2 Block 7 frames it's right side ... see below
Once everything is all lined up and you are happy with the placement glue, pin & sew in place.
Trim away the excess block fabric from behind your block leaving the excess fabric around the left side and lower edges of the block that will become the quilt edges.
For the 1/2 block that fits at the top of row 2
Place your Positioning Guide over a light box if you have one, position the 10" x 12" rectangle over the positioning guide - this time have the larger half toward the top of the block. Lay out 5 petals as shown below.
Once you are happy with the placement, glue and pin. Sew these petals in place as you would in a regular block, however, on this occasion you can sew around the entire petals including the outer edges. Position the top of row 2 below the five petals you have just sewn down, matching the points ... as shown below
Once you are happy with the placement glue and pin the pieces in place. Sew down the edges and then trim the excess fabric from the block leaving only the areas around the top edge and to the right side of the 1/2 block.
Now for the outer edges ... I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one that managed to cut away excess block fabric from where it shouldn't have been cut away! If you are one of these people ... you will need to do a little 'fixing up' here ... but it isn't the end of the world .. thank goodness!!!
The excess fabric around the edges of your quilt top, are needed to attach the binding to ... you will not see this fabric at all once the quilt is complete as it will be hidden under the binding. If you need to replace a section or sections that have been cut away by mistake ... all you will need to do is sew a new small strip of fabric in it's place! Then you will need to trim the excess from behind the petal leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.
The last step in this stage is to secure the edges of the petals that lay on the outer edges of the quilt top - the left edge of Row 1 & the top & bottom edges of each of the rows.You do this by simply gluing and pinning the outer edge petals in place then sewing them down. Replacing the missing sections as required.
Carefully trim your binding seam allowance to ever so slightly more than 1/4 " ... and pour your self a glass of champagne girls! You have finished off 27% of the quilt top!!
(I haven't trimmed the seam allowance around the edges in this photo but I will include one with the allowance trimmed in my next post ... sorry)
Once you finish this part ... get to making up blocks and petals again. Our next phase will be to make up rows 3, 4 & 5 ... 21 blocks .... shouldn't take long now we're experts!!!!!
Quilt Dimentions ... the finished quilt will measure 83" x 71 1/2"
If you are planning to make a different sized quilt ... every 2 rows adds 20 1/2" I hope this helps you work it all out.
I also need to update the Mr Linky details from the Jacob's Coat Main Page ... over the next week or so I will remove all of the names without functional links and any of you that have opted out ... please email me and I will take you off the list.
Marielle has also had a great suggestion ... that we use a Mr Linky tool to link to a progress post on your blogs ... I thought that we would do this at the next roundup which will be deadline for finishing off the first two rows so that we can check out everyones progress so far. I have decided to extend this 'deadline' to the end of the second week in February as this stage does take longer than you would expect. All of the incentives for this deadline are listed here.
I am also really enjoying the Flickr page thank you so much to everyone getting so involved! It is so nice to see everyones blocks,colour choices & progress!
I had better be off ... I will be back quite a bit over the next couple of weeks as there is quite a bit going on around here at the moment ... including a couple of new European retailers, a new US store, new Australian shops, some beautiful fabric purchases, workshop round ups and a belated bloggy birthday!l!
Still lots of summer holiday fun going on around here!!!! ... only 6 days until school goes back :(
Happy Australia Day!!!!
Kellie
PS. If you are free on the weekend of the 5th, 6th & 7th of February and would like to join in on what is going to be a spectacular sewing weekend you will want to come to the Sewjourn Don't Look Now! workshop retreat weekend ... one spot has become available so come on ... ditch the housework and the routine and join us!!! I can't wait!!!!!