Learn to sew a quilt as you go coaster
Natalie Barnes here from Beyond the Reef Patterns. I’m going to be joining you today as a Janome maker, with this very quick tutorial on how to make a really fun and easy quilt as you go gift for a girlfriend or a housewarming for anything that you’d like.
Today we’re making coasters, and so you’re simply going to need four or five inch squares of Insalbright, And that is a batting that has a light metallic scrim in it. You’re going to need four, six inch backing material squares. You’re going to need a trimming ruler. And this is a six and a half inch ruler. You’re going to need some straps and some strips, just something that is going to go together, something that’s going to be a theme for the gift that you’d like to make. And we’re going to simply on our HD nine, use two features that are just making quilt as you go so easy. The first one is needle up position and the second one is the little thread clipper. And that’s all you need to add in your settings to make quilts as you go. Really, really simple.
We’re going to start with the backing and put the backing face down. We’re going to add a piece of the insulbright centered on that. And we’re going to look through our little pile of scraps for the first piece that we’re going to put right in the center of that square. The next piece we’re going to add to it, we’re going to go ahead and put right side together. So that those align and take our little scissors and trim those so that they’re both even.
This is not exact work. So you don’t have to be too worried about your preciseness in your trimming and your pieces. You can always trim them later on, we’re going to take them to the machine and we’re just going to start sewing away. We’re going to sew those two pieces together on the long side and with the needle up position, I just pick up my foot, do a little finger pressing on this, and start my quilt as you go. So we’re just going to quilt through all three layers. Again, when I get to the end, we have an automatic needle up. Move this over just a little bit and quilt some more. It makes it really easy. Let’s take a look at that with a little bit of a close up of what’s happening underneath the needle. So I’m going to go through my backing, my insulbright batting and those two layers. Needle up position allows me to turn this any way I like, do a little finger pressing and keep right on going.
Again needle up position makes it a breeze to move this little project around. And when I’m done with that segment, all I have to do is press my little thread clipper. And I’m ready to work on adding the next piece to this project. Once you’re done with all four of these in different stages, but once you’re done with everything, you’re going to trim them down to approximately four and a half inches whatever is at the edge of your five inch piece.
Usually by the time you’ve quilted them so heavily, four and a half inches is about the right dimension. So square them off at four and a half inches, go to your left over binding box or bin that you have. See if you can’t find something that’s going to coordinate nicely with your project, grab that and put some binding around your project.
Just like this. Now that you’ve done your quilt as you go and you’ve got your binding on, you have a nice little project started. And by making three more of these, my neighbor Carolyn, who’s just moved back into the family home, will have a really nice project to say, welcome to the neighborhood, welcome home and nice little housewarming.
What are some of the other things you can do with quilt as you go now that you’ve realized how easy it is with your needle up position and your thread clipper? Well, you can make Potholder a good old potholder. Just be sure that you not only using one layer of insulbright but you’re adding additional layer of batting and maybe even some canvas in there to make sure that when somebody grabs something hot that they’re not going to feel that warmth through your potholder, you can also make these little casserole holders.
You can grab things out of the oven with these, be protected with them if you want to. You can even coordinate your placemats and a set of coasters depending on how much work you want to put into that housewarming for Carolyn because I’ve known her so long and because we’ve remained good friends, I’ll just make her the set of coasters and buy her a really nice bottle of either some homemade something or a nice bottle, wine or spirits.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick little tutorial and make sure that you’re familiar with all of the different things that your Janome machine can do for you. You’ll find some tips and tricks of your own. I know you will. From my home to yours. Nice to see you. Thanks for stopping by.