First, let me tell you that I started with Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial (she of Oh, Fransson! fame) on Sew, Mama, Sew. Instead of creating templates from the design she provided, I purchased an inexpensive acrylic template, making for very fast cut-out time
Since I was home for Thanksgiving vacation, I got to use my mom's Bernina. That may have been the point that really pushed me over the edge to buying a new machine. Helga is a wonderful, trusty old girl and will keep sewing for many years to come, but I loved having the ability to move my needle to get a truly accurate seam and the needle down function helps so much!
Back on topic.
I took a few too many pics of the process of creating the plates and little else. You'll forgive me, won't you, especially since I edited down and made them into a mosaic instead of posting umpteen pics? It's just so excited to watch fabric pile up behind your needle.
If you've never sewn with a buddy before, I highly recommend it. You get to sew while your friend presses - the process goes so much faster that way! Of course, you really should switch after a while. It's only fair. My pressing buddy is generally allergic to cameras, but we managed to get a few pics of everyone while I was home. She may or may not have broken out in hives immediately following the photo session.
Once I had enough blades to make a single plate, I pinned it to the curtain so I could reference it while finishing the rest. If I didn't want them all the same, it wouldn't have made a difference, but since I did, it really was helpful, especially late into the night when I ought to have been sleeping.
For the center circles, I traced around a CD with chalk directly on the fabric, loosely chopped around it, then used a stick of glue to temporarily attach muslin to the back. Really. A glue stick! There were a few of reasons: 1) I'm a bit lazy, 2) I hate to pin, and 3) glue holds better than pins and will wash out when you're done. It really did a fabulous job - I didn't get any puckers or jumps, it didn't gum up the needle, and as I turned my circles right side out, the glue released the fabric with only a little bit of strategic tugging and prodding with the turner tool. The lovely stack of centers looked like this before pressing:
I had a lot of fun putting together the plates and not nearly enough time with my mother.
Back in my own sewing room, I pinned each plate to its sandwich, attaching and quilting all at the same time as Elizabeth suggested in her tutorial, though I may have done it that way, anyway, because, you may have heard, I'm a lazy cuss.
Here's where my picture taking really fell off. I was so busy assembling the quilt that I didn't take many others, though I will verbally walk you through the process. Once I'd sewn down the plates, I attached the circles in the same manner, then laid all the blocks out so I could wrap my head around the next steps.
I pressed two edges of the backing so they would look like a finished edge (stay with me, here), then sewed the top fabrics only using a 1/4" seam. Once all the tops were joined, I made sure there was no overlap of the batting (which would create a bulge, otherwise), and lapped the pressed edges of the backing fabrics over the unpressed edges of the adjacent blocks. Several pins later, I top stitched from the back, not only because I'm lazy and I didn't want to hand stitch, but also because it would add extra quilting lines to make the finished blanket more stable.
My friend loves it, just as I knew she would!
