How to make a rag quilt

How did you make out with your free motion quilting practice? Did you at least practice one square?

Today, I'm going to use the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q to assemble the rag quilt. I love these rag quilts as they don't require a lot of precision so if you're a beginner, they're very forgiving.

Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q

Lay out the blocks

Take your stack of blocks and lay them out in a pattern that's pleasing to you. I had used scraps for my blocks so I had no idea how they would go together. I could have randomly laid them out, but this diagonal stripe pattern seemed to work just fine.

Stack of quilted blocks for the rag quilt

Blocks laid out in 7 x 9 configuration with diagonal stripe

Set up the sewing machine

Setting up the Sapphire 960Q was an easy job. I put the Interchangeable Dual Feed Foot on the machine and left the stitch length at 2.5. I'm stitching through a lot of fabric so a small stitch length isn't necessary.

I'm using the guidelines on the stitch plate as my seam guide. My seam allowance was approximately ½". Remember - this is a rag quilt, we don't need super precision as no one will be able to see those intersections when we're done!

Joining the blocks

Take your first two blocks and place them with the BACKING together. Then stitch the seam. I didn't bother to anchor the stitches at the beginning and end of the seam lines, they'll be anchored when the rows are sewn together.

This next step is a bit tricky when you first start as we're so used to stitching with the RIGHT sides together.

Use the guidelines on the stitch plate to get a consistent seam allowance

The right side of one row with exposed seam allowances

The wrong side of one row with NO seam allowances showing

When joining one row to another, I kept my seam allowances going in opposite directions. Even though we won't be able to actually see these intersections on the front, lining them up helps to keep the rows lined up. Keep those seam allowances going in opposing directions throughout the quilt.

That's a lot of thickness to sew through, but using the Exclusive Sewing Advisor which I set to Woven Heavy and the Exclusive Sensor System which senses the thickness of fabric when stitching and sews over it smoothly and evenly with perfect fabric feeding, I had no issues whatsoever to sew this quilt together.

Sewing over multiple thicknesses

At last in this photo, you can see my squarish/roundish spiral. None of them are the same.Save...

Seam allowances going in opposite direction

Whenever I sew a quilt top together, I start by sewing each row together and then I sew the rows together in pairs. Next, those pairs of rows get sewn together and lastly, I sew the two halves of the quilt together. 

This is a good practice for several reasons. The first reason is that until the last seam, you don't have a very bulky quilt to work with and secondly, there's less wear and tear on the rows and less chance of stretching if all rows are handled equally. If you start with row one and then add row two and then row three, that means that row one gets handled every time, while the last row only gets handled once. On a regular cotton quilt, that can add the potential for stretching to that first row. Sewing in pairs makes a lot of sense!

Rows are now sewn in pairs

Pairs of rows are now sewn into two quilt halves

Quilt top is now sewn together

Yeah - I was so proud of my quilt. I was happy with the free motion quilting, the top went together just fine, but when I flipped it over to get a picture of the back, I almost died laughing!

Have a look at the next picture. Do you see what I see?

Where did that odd color come from?

When I was quilting the blocks, I had my fabrics in two stacks - the same fabric for all the backs, different fabrics for the front. When I got to the last square, only two squares of backing were left. This project was cut many years ago and I figured I must have run out of fabric for the top and just substituted the missing top fabric with backing. Who would have thought I made a mistake and used the top fabric on the top and bottom of one block!

Well, when I turned the quilt over and saw my missing fabric, I was laughing so hard I thought I would fall off my stool. It was pretty funny.

The thought of fixing the error ran VERY briefly through my head. Then common sense kicked in. This is a rag quilt - it's not an heirloom and besides - the quilt has way more of a story this way than if everything was perfect!

I did run one seam line around the entire perimeter of the quilt to secure all the ends of the seam allowances.

Running a line of stitching around the edge of the quilt

Stitching around the perimeter of the quilt

Clipping the rag quilt

We're almost done the rag quilt. It gets its name from the seam allowances that are encouraged to fray. In order to encourage them to fray, all the seam allowances have to be clipped.

Now here's a very valuable lesson - actually two lessons.

The first one is to always put your tools back in the proper location. As I mentioned, this quilt had been cut many years ago and look what I found in the project box.

AHA - so that's where those scissors have been hiding

Getting ready to clip the rag quilt

I like a nice fuzzy edge to my rag quilts so I clip often. 

Seam allowance is clipped

The second lesson is to always use the proper tool. I know these are NOT the proper rag quilt scissors. I started to clip the quilt and remembered from another rag quilt project that the points are way too sharp and keep catching on the fabric. It's hard to clip with these scissors, although the spring action in the handle is awesome. Who knows why I left them in the project box.

Where could my rag quilt scissors be? Do I even have a pair? I may have borrowed a pair of proper rag quilt scissors last time I made a rag quilt or they could be stuck in another project box somewhere.

In the essence of time and my sanity, I purchased a pair of rag quilt scissors. Using the right tool made clipping those seam allowances a snap. I watched a movie with my husband while I was clipping and several times, he asked me if I was watching and I was able to give him accurate information about the movie every time! Phew! Goes to show that quilters can focus on two things at the same time!

The PROPER scissors for clipping a rag quilt

The last step was to throw the quilt in the washer. No time to get to the laundromat so I washed it at home. The quilt is not that big and there really wasn't a lot of fluff in the washer or the dryer. And now I have a gorgeous fluffy rag quilt to enjoy!

Completed rag quilt

With frayed exterior seam allowances

Wasn't that a fun project! I have loads more flannel and stacks of narrow batting strips, I should get myself busy and prep another rag quilt. If you make a rag quilt, send us some pictures so we can see!

I hope you enjoyed this week of fun with the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q. It's been a great week and I even got to finish a project or two which is always exciting.

The Sapphire 960Q is a fabulous sewing machine that tackles any job with great ease. It's going to be tough to give it back. If you're looking for a general purpose sewing machine, I'd give this one some very serious consideration. Loads of great accessories, ability to handle everything I threw at it. Yes - if I needed a new sewing machine - I'd buy it! Have a great day! Ciao!

Tips for using the free motion foot

Today, we start a new project. It's a rag quilt and a perfect opportunity to practice free motion quilting. Here are tips for using the free motion foot you don't want to miss.

The Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q is a fabulous sewing machine for free motion quilting. If you want to learn more about this sewing machine, you can check out this QUILTsocial post when I first introduced the Sapphire 960Q.

Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q

Supplies for the rag quilt

You can make the rag quilt as big or as small as you'd like. I made mine 7 x 9 blocks for a total of 63 blocks.

For each block, you need a 7" square of backing, a 7" square of fabric for the front and a 6" square of batting.

I used flannel for my backing and my top. Flannel is very forgiving when it comes to free motion. The nap and the slightly extra thickness help to conceal a multitude of sins.

Supplies for one block of the rag quilt - backing, front of block and batting

This is a great project to use up scraps. I used up a lot of batting scraps by joining them together. If you'd like to learn how to do that, you can check out this QUILTsocial post.

I didn't have enough of the backing fabric to make complete squares, so I pieced some of them. Same thing for some of the squares for the top - I simply pieced a couple of pieces together and then trimmed to the correct size. No one will care and no one will likely notice either!

Backing squares and batting squares were joined when necessary

Setting up the Sapphire 960Q for free motion

There are a number of features on the Sapphires 960Q that will make free motion quilting very easy and it only takes a minute or two to set it up.

To set the sewing machine for free motion quilting, I simply touch the Free Motion Technique icon (the bottom left button with the squiggly line).

Choose the Free Motion Technique icon (bottom left)

A pop-up screen appears allowing you to choose between Free Motion Floating and Free Motion Spring Action. I've explained the difference between these two in this QUILTsocial post.

I chose the Free Motion Spring Action mode because the thread that I'm using is heavier and the spring action works best for that kind of thread. The feed dogs are lowered automatically. I love that!

Choose the Free Motion Spring Action for heavier thread

This is how the screen looks once you have chosen the Free Motion Technique. The presser foot diagram changes and the Free Motion Technique icon is highlighted in green. The tension is also automatically adjusted and the stitch length remains at the default setting of 2.5 because once the feed teeth are dropped, the stitch length has no bearing on the actual stitch length.

Stitch length is determined by how fast you move your piece of fabric and how fast the sewing machine is sewing.

Settings for the Free Motion Spring Action technique

The Free Motion Technique remains selected even when you turn the sewing machine off and back on again. The Sapphire 960Q will remain in this mode until you turn the Free Motion Technique feature off which is easy to do, just hit the Free Motion Technique icon and deselect the free motion techniques.

Pop up message to remind you the Sapphire 960Q is set for free motion

Taking as many variables out of the picture as possible is one way to achieve great success with free motion quilting. The next variable we're going to remove is speed. Adjust the speed of the Sapphire 960Q so when you start quilting, the sewing machine will only go as fast as you have set it for. It's a good idea to mess around with the speed to find one that you're the most comfortable with.

It's amazing how many people are afraid to mess around with their sewing machines. Even worse is they think they should know all this stuff.

The more I play with different techniques, the more I learn and I can use that knowledge base to take things to the next step. I just recently read somewhere that if you don't make mistakes and try new things, you're not learning. So get some scrap fabric and batting and check out the various speeds. Which one do you like best?

Adjust the speed

Another good tip is to always use your Needle Stop Up/Down feature. If you need to stop for whatever reason, the needle will stop in your quilt sandwich which prevents it from moving when you take your hands off and you won't end up with a big giant stitch.

Needle Stop Up/Down function is NOT selected (on the right)

Needle Stop Up/Down function IS selected (on the right)

You also want to make sure that you attach the Free Motion Spring Foot to the sewing  machine. I prefer the one with the wide open toe so I see my work clearly.

Choosing Thread

One of the things I love about the Sapphire 960Q is that no matter what thread I put on it, I got excellent tension and very nicely formed stitches. I can't stress how important this is. While you can mess with the tension control on all sewing machines, I would much prefer to not have to.

I usually choose thread based on the color, not on the weight or the brand. In this case, all my backing fabric was the same, so I used the same 50 weight thread in the bobbin for the entire project. That's the thread on the left. Then I chose heavier weight threads for the top - but only because that was what thread I had in the colors I wanted.

Two different weight threads were used for the bobbin and the top

I decided to be very adventuresome and use the same bobbin thread for all the blocks, but I changed the top thread depending on the color of my top fabric. I used three different brands of thread on the top with three different thread weights: a 30 weight, a 35 weight and a 40 weight. Only one of the threads required that I make a slight adjustment to the tension which I'll show you in a minute.

Being able to use this variety of thread brand and thread weight is very exciting and so stress-free. The less I have to mess around with tension, the more quilting I do and the happier I am!

50 weight thread was used consistently for the bobbin, top threads varied from 30 to 40 weight

Top threads were all used in the horizontal position

I also love the fact that the stitches are very nicely formed and well defined. That makes the project look awesome even if the stitches aren't super consistent. We really need to get over that fear that everything has to be perfect!

Nicely formed stitches on the front

Nicely formed stitches on the back

Let's have a quick peek at that slight tension issue that I had. It occurred when I was using the yellow thread on the top. Keep in mind that in this sample below, I used PINK thread in the bobbin. I don't see any pink thread - do you? This is the sign of an excellent sewing machine that is able to handle different weight threads (35 weight in the top and 50 weight in the bobbin for this example) and gave me absolutely no thread pops on top.

No sign of the pink bobbin thread

In the example below, you can see that some of the yellow thread came through to the back of the blocks. Mostly when I went around the corners. I could probably have left it like that as it only occurred in one or two spots, but I knew that I could make a slight adjustment and get the tension correct. In this case, I tightened the top tension slightly and it worked like a charm. 

A little bit of a tension issue

Corrected by slightly tightening the top tension

Starting and stopping

When you start free motion quilting, you must bring up that bobbin thread to the top of your work. If not, you're going to get a mess on the underside that is nasty to get rid of. If you have no idea how to bring up that bobbin thread to the top of the work, check out this QUILTsocial post where I've explained it.

Always bring the bobbin thread to the top of the work

I'm using the Open Toe Free Motion Spring Action Foot so I can easily tuck those two threads to the back of my work.

Use Needle Stop Up/Down and tuck the threads to the back of your work

Ugly thread nest

An even uglier thread nest

Start by anchoring the beginning of the line of stitching with a few very tiny stitches. This is very easy to do since you're completely in control over the length of the stitch. Slowly start the sewing machine and move your fabric slightly while you take a couple of stitches.

Once you have your anchoring stitches, you can bring the machine up to the speed you're comfortable with and stitch to the end.

Just before you get to the end of your line of stitching, slow the sewing machine down and take a couple of small stitches to anchor the end of the line of stitching. Then use manual scissors to clip the top and bottom threads. Scissors can be used on the sewing machine, but I really like to control the length of those threads and I'll always have a long tail on the bobbin to bring to the top if I cut those threads manually.

The end of the line of stitching is anchored with a couple of small stitches

What to do when the bobbin runs out

You know it's going to happen. The bobbin will run out at some point and it won't be at the end of a line of stitching. The question is 'What to do?'.

The first step to clip all the loose thread ends on the top and bobbin of your work as you don't want to have loose threads that cause unsightly messes.

Trim any loose stitches on the top and bobbin side

After filling the bobbin and placing it back in the bobbin case, I again bring that bobbin thread up to the top (sometimes this is hard if you've cut the bobbin thread short when inserting it into the bobbin case). I often leave that bobbin thread long so I'm in control of the length at all times.

I start about ½ʺ over the previous stitches. I take one or two tiny stitches to anchor the end, then go into my previous stitches to secure the beginning of the new line. This is best done manually to get the new stitches to follow the same stitch length as the old stitches. Then finish the line of stitching.

Restarting after the bobbin ran out

One last piece of advice

To quilt the rag quilt squares, I started at the outside of blocks and worked my way to the center in a squarish/roundish spiral depending on how I felt. No two blocks look alike - the more consistently inconsistent you are with your quilting, no one can tell which one is the right one! You'll see the quilting motif tomorrow. Since there wasn't a lot to hold onto, I did pivot my block for the first row. Normally this is a NO-NO when free motion quilting, but these blocks are small enough that it's OK to pivot and easier to maneuver. I also used the guidelines on the stitch plate to keep the lines of stitching the same distance from the edge of the block.

Using the Needle Stop Up/Down, the needle would stop in the fabric block at each corner, making it very easy to pivot.

Once I had that first row of stitching, I just moved the block around without pivoting to get the quilting design.

Use the Needle Stop Up/Down to pivot on the outside stitching line for these small blocks

That's a lot of information to digest, but the bottom line is that using the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q to quilt these rag quilt blocks was so easy that I was kind of disappointed when I ran out of squares. 

Not to worry as I have a couple of other projects in the wings that I can pull out. But quilting these small squares is a great way to try a new design or perfect your stitch length and it's a rag quilt. These quilts are meant to be loved, used as a car quilt, used for the dog. It's a super quilt to practice on and uses up a lot of scraps. Tomorrow, I'll show you how I used the Sapphire 960Q to sew the rag quilt together. Have a great day! Ciao!

Tips for sewing Y seams

Today, we're going to look at a different presser foot and features of the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q that will make sewing those Y seams a snap.

People shy away from Y seams and yet, there's nothing to them when you know what you're doing.

Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q

I recently made some cube pillows and I thought I would share them with you as I show you how to sew a Y seam.

Cube pillows - couldn't just make one!

materials

I made my cube pillows 12" square so you need a variety of fabric to make SIX 12½" blocks.

I made my blocks slightly larger than 12½" and once I was done quilting them, I trimmed them down to 12½".

• Some of my blocks were made with 3¾" cut squares (16 squares per side), some were made with 4¾" cut squares (9 squares per side), some were made with 6¾" squares (4 per side). The fabrics I used are from Northcott's ColorWorks Premium Solids and ColorWorks Concepts (prints) collections.
• 13" squares of batting (six in total - one for each side)
• 13" squares of muslin (six in total - one of each side)
• 12" x 12" x 6" foam pieces (two in total)

Variety of fabric squares to make quilt blocks

Make SIX different quilt blocks that measure roughly 12½" square. If you used the measurements above, the squares should all be slightly larger than 12½". That's OK as you need to quilt them and there might be some shrinkage.

One of the 6 quilt blocks needed to make a cube pillow

Quilt the blocks

I layered each of the blocks with batting and the muslin backing. I didn't bother with basting - these blocks are small enough that they don't need basting. But you could always put in a couple of pins if you feel the need to make them more secure.

I used the Interchangeable Dual Feed Foot on the Sapphire 960Q to stitch in the ditch on all of the 6 blocks. You can see a picture of the stitch in the ditch quilting if you check out this post from earlier this week.I used a cream colored thread in the bobbin and invisible thread on the top. Make sure that you use the Changeable Zigzag Foot on the Dual Feed Foot so you can see where you need to stitch. Or quilt them however you wish. 

Then you want to trim the blocks to 12½". I didn't get too fussy with this process and certainly didn't worry if the squares were evenly spaced in the trimmed block. It's a cube pillow that's going to be thrown around. No need to get too fussy with the details!

Once the blocks are trimmed to 12½", I sewed a basting seam around the edge of each block using a ⅛" seam allowance. This will hold the loose edges together which will make it easier to sew the Y seams. I must have been in a hurry the day I basted those edges together because I didn't use a longer stitch length - just in case you're wondering when you see the picture!

And now we're ready to sew those Y seams.

Colorful scraps from trimming the blocks

Baste all three layers together after the blocks are trimmed.

Sewing the Y seam

Before we get started, let me show you a picture of a Y seam so you can understand what I'm talking about.

You can see in the picture below that there are three different seams that come together and they look like the letter Y, hence the name - Y seams.

A Y seam

Setting up the sewing machine

This time, I'm going to use the Quilter's ¼" Piecing Foot. This foot has red lines on it that mark the pivot points and in the case of the Y seams, the start and end of each seam. I love this foot. No guesswork is needed. I can easily snap that foot onto the presser foot ankle of the Sapphire 960Q.

I'm going to choose a straight stitch and make sure that my stitch length is set to 2.0. I don't want those seams coming apart.

The FIX function makes it easy to stitch these Y seams. A normal seam runs right off the edge of our quilt blocks and in most cases, another row of stitching will close off the end securing that line of stitching. When sewing a Y seam, you start ¼" in from the edge of the fabric and no other seam will touch it to lock the end of the seam in place. Using the FIX function will essentially tie off the ends of the stitching, both at the beginning and the end of the seam. A very useful function!

The FIX function will tie off the beginning and the end of each seam to secure the ends

In the photo below, I'm about to start the first seam. I've taken two of the blocks and placed them right sides together. Keep in mind that the line of stitching you see in the photo is the basting to secure the three layers of the block.

I'll use the red lines on the presser foot as a guide so I can start my seam ¼" in from the top of the fabric and using the edge of the foot as my ¼" guide, I'll be sewing a ¼" seam. I hit FIX and the Sapphire 960Q will tie off the beginning of the seam. 

I'll then sew the remainder of the ¼" seam until I get to within ¼" at the end of the seam. Again, I can use the red lines on the presser foot to guide me. I'll use the FIX function once more to tie off the end of that seam.

I now have the first seam for the cube pillow that starts and stops ¼" away from the top and bottom of the blocks.

Use the FIX function and the red lines as a guide to start the seam ¼" from the top of the block.

Use the FIX function and the red lines as a guide to end the seam ¼" from the bottom of the block.

Sew four blocks together in a row using the same technique as outlined above. Then join the first and last block together using the same technique to get a square with your blocks. Now we have to add the top and the bottom. 

Adding the top and bottom of the cube pillow

For this next part, I found it easier if I removed the extension table from the Sapphire 960Q. It just gave me more room to maneuver the project. I'm going to place the right side of one of the remaining two blocks right sides together with any one of the blocks in my loop of four blocks.

Match up the corners. I'm going to sew the exact same seam (beginning and ending ¼" from the edge of the block) as I did to join the first set of four blocks. Because the seams don't extend all the way to the edge of the blocks, this is an easy task.

Adding the top of the cube

You can see below that the ends of each seam are just touching, but they're not overlapping each other. Remember that that line of stitching right at the edge is the basting stitch which holds the three layers of each block together. Without that basting stitch, it would be very difficult to stitch these cube pillows.

Ends of the seams are touching, but not overlapping

Start and stop on each of the four sides of the bottom of the cube pillow and then repeat with the last block for the top of the pillow. This time, you're going to sew one complete side and then two half seams leaving half of the top open so you can insert the foam.

Leave half of the top open so you can insert the foam.

You can now turn the pillow inside out and admire those Y seams from the outside. There's no need to push them out too far. There's a lot of bulk at the corner and these are fun pillows. They don't need to be perfect.

Y seam from the outside of the cube pillow

Cube pillow is almost finished

It's time to insert the foam. I happened to have 2" thick foam that I was going to use for another project that never happened. It just so happened that I had already cut it into 12" squares so I decided to use the foam to fill the cube pillows. I had enough foam for 2 pillows. Then I found foam at a mattress store that was 6" thick. They cut the foam for me and I only needed two pieces that measured 12" x 12" x 6". I used the 6" foam on the remaining three pillows.

If you buy the 2" slab of foam, you can use an electric knife to cut it. Works like a charm!

Foam cut and ready for inserting into the pillow form

It was easy to get the first 5 pieces of the 2" thick foam into the pillow form. Notice that I started by filling the "bottom" or the sewn part of the pillow. I knew that last piece was going to be tricky as the foam wasn't going to slide very well on itself. 

 

Inserting the 2" pieces of foam

I decided to try my rotary cutting rulers to help slide that last piece of foam into the pillow and they worked like a charm. I ended up using two rulers so the piece of foam that I was inserting wouldn't touch the foam already inside the pillow and I had no problem to get that last piece in the pillow.

Use your rotary cutting rulers to allow the foam to slip into the pillow

I used the same process with the thicker pieces of foam. I placed the first piece in the pillow. Then I placed the rulers on top of that foam piece so I could slide the second piece of 6" foam into the pillow. I pulled the rulers out and the foam was in the pillow.

Last step was to hand stitch the opening closed.

Hand stitch the opening to complete the pillow

You could use any fabric to make the cubes. Why not use a children's fabric book, photos that have been transferred to fabric, embroidery images or anything that works for you. You just have to adjust the sizes accordingly.

Despite the fact that all the seams were Y seams, these cube pillows were a snap to sew together. And let me say that we've been having a blast playing with them in the office.

The features of the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 960Q and the Quilter's ¼" Piecing Foot made it so easy to sew them together. I couldn't stop with just one!

I've got another foot to chat about tomorrow and then I've got another great project for you to make. Have a great day! Ciao!