Happy Jacks--Quilting and Adding Faces

Are you ready to keep going? I had a lazy morning sleeping in and reading a bit, but I finally got into the Sweat Shop around noon and pinned the quilt.

Once you're ready to start quilting, just outline stitch around the pumpkins and just inside the sashing. Free motion quilting is fastest, but if you're not comfortable with it, a walking foot will work just fine on this part.

After that, I stitched outside the star points and around the edge of the sashing. At that point, I felt ready to start the Jacks faces.

First, I cut a piece of felted wool into the size and shape of a mouth and tried it out on one of the pumpkins.

Then I cut "teeth" into the top and bottom edges.

Eyes were also cut and placed in position. Yep, I think I like it!

Now I'm ready to sew the mouth and the eyes on.

For this, you will need to use free motion quilting. I like a foot with an open toe so I can see where I am. Now, just stitch along the edge of the wool. Nothing fancy--just a straight stitch. And because the thread color matches the wool and sinks down into it, your stitches really don't need to be perfect because they won't show up.

Since the wool tends to stick a bit to the cotton, you shouldn't need to pin it in place--just go slow and make sure the wool stays where you want it.

Once my faces were done, I added some stitching lines in the pumpkins similar to those in real life.

At this point, only the borders remained to be completed. I stitched a straight line just to the inside of the outer border and then I quilted some free-form star shapes in the border to finish it.

I have my binding cut, so while you get started on this, I'll go back to the Sweat Shop and get this one done!

Happy Jacks, More Cutting and Piecing, Part 2

Did you see THIS story today about how you can clean your house in 19 minutes? I think they're talking about 19 minutes a day, although I admit I haven't read it completely. Too busy cooking, cleaning, working, and sewing, I guess. But I figured I'd pass it on since we could all use a little help to free us up for more quilting time!

Are you ready to continue on with your Happy Jacks project? So here's where I left you last night--some pumpkin blocks done. (Sorry the photo's a bit dark.)

And, of course, you can set your blocks any way you want--but I'll give you directions and cutting instructions for the way I set mine. I like working on a design wall but if you don't have one, just lay out your blocks on the floor or a handy bed or other surface where you won't knock them off while sewing.

First, the cutting instructions for the next step, the sashing.

If you're making a quilt with FOUR PUMPKIN BLOCKS, cut from your main sashing fabric (black for mine):

Four 8" by 2" rectangles
Two 17" by 2" rectangles

Two 20" by 2" rectangles

From the fabric you'll use for the center star (yellow for mine):

One 2" square

Eight 1-1/4" squares

If you're making a quilt with NINE PUMPKIN BLOCKS, cut from your main sashing fabric (black for mine):

Twelve 8" by 2" rectangles
Two 26" by 2" rectangles

Two 29" by 2" rectangles

From the fabric you'll use for the center star (yellow for mine):

Four 2" square

Thirty-Two 1-1/4" squares

Here are all my cut pieces placed into position on the design wall:

The piecing directions I'll give you below apply to the version with four pumpkins. If you're making one with nine pumpkins, refer to the photo of the quilt in my sidebar to determine how many sashing strips will need star points and where to place them. I believe you will need to put star points on both ends of four of your sashing strips and one end of the others.

For setting four pumpkin blocks--making the center star:

First of all, take those little 1-1/4" squares and your four 8" sashing strips over to your sewing machine. Place four of the small squares on the upper right hand corners of your sashing strips and sew on the diagonal as you did with the pumpkin stems and pumpkin corners yesterday.

Press them back.

Now take your remaining four squares and place them on the upper left hand corner. Sew on the diagonal.

Again, press them back. Take your pieces back to the design wall and put them in place.

If every thing looks fine, start sewing your rows together.

I pressed my seams in the "pumpkin rows" toward the pumpkins and in the center "star row" toward the center of the star. Then attach the three rows to one another to make the center of your quilt.

Now add the top and bottom sashing pieces. And then the side sashing pieces.

Are you ready for the borders? Here are cutting measurements for the borders. The first measurements will be for the 4 pumpkin version; in parentheses are the cutting measurements for the 9 pumpkin version.

Inner Border (I used yellow):

Two 1-1/4" by 20" strips (1-1/4" by 29")

Two 1-1/4" by 21-1/2" strips (1-1/4" by 30-1/2")

Outside Border

Two 4" x 21-1/2" strips (4-1/2" by 30-1/2")

Two 4" x 29" strips (4-1/2" x 39")

First stitch on the inner border strips; then the outer border strips. At this point, your top should look something like this (ignore those applique blocks to the sides of the quilt!):

Congrats on finishing your pumpkin top! While you're waiting for the next set of instructions, you may want to select a backing fabric for your quilt or piece leftovers to make a back. Tomorrow we'll pin the quilt and add the "faces" while quilting it. See you back here then!

Happy Jacks--Piecing, Part I

I hope you've decided to sew along with us because otherwise, this might be a very boring post!

First of all, I cut fabric for and pieced five blocks this evening, and it went pretty fast. I dug into my scrap bag for much of the fabric. I know some of you may be wondering about how much fabric you'll need, and of course it depends on how many pumpkins you want in your quilt. The pumpkins and stems are scrappy, so you'll need a fairly small amount. You can make your background scrappy too, but if you want to make it all the same, as I did, then figure on a 2" x WOF (width of fabric) strip for each block. In other words, if you make nine blocks, you should only need about a half yard (18"), although you might want to get 2/3rds of a yard just to be "safe."

I'm pleased to be able to say that the cutting measurements I gave you are correct. Whew! I was soooooo afraid I'd make the blocks tonight and find I had miscalculated something! But, so far, so good! And just for time reference, it took me about 45 minutes or so to cut my fabrics for five blocks and another 1-1/2 hours to piece the five blocks. Four of those will go in the giveaway quilt and I'm using the fifth block for a mini.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that if you don't "do" Halloween, you can always leave the faces off the pumpkins and add wool leaves using the same method I'll show you. Something to think about.

So, here goes. Here's my pile of cut fabrics. I matched up the stem pieces I wanted to use with the pumpkin pieces.

Next, lay your two pumpkin pieces side by side and place one 1-1/4" stem piece on each of the two inner, upper corners as I've shown here:

Now sew on the diagonal of each as shown. You may want to first draw a diagonal pencil line on the backs of the squares so you have a line to follow.

Next, press the corners back along the seam line as shown:

Line up your two pumpkin pieces and sew the center seam. Press open.

Now place a 2" background square on each of the four corners. Sew each on the diagonal as you did with the stem pieces earlier.

And press those corner pieces back:

Time now to work on the rest of the stems.

Sew a background (2" by 2-3/4") piece to each side of a 2" stem square and press.

Now sew the stem strip to the top of the pumpkin. This can be a little tricky because the stem strip doesn't always line up perfectly with the rest of the stem. The best way to get a good result is to line up the centers of the pumpkin and stem strip rather than trying to line up edge to edge and corner to corner. Don't worry if you're a little off on the edges.

Add the bottom background strip--the one that measures 6-1/2":

Then the two side strips (9-1/2"):

Voila! A pumpkin! Now you want to make your pumpkin dance. Sometimes it's hard to make a pumpkin dance. Here's how I do it. And I hope this is clear enough--it's a little difficult to explain.

At this point, your blocks will measure 9-1/2". We want to trim them down to 8". I place my ruler so the intersection of the 1" marks are in the lower right. Now it really doesn't matter that you cut the blocks all at the same angle, but if you really want to--well, see the right edge of the orange pumpkin part? The first "corner" closest to the bottom is on the 2" grid line and it's 1-1/4" in from the edge. The second "corner" up is at the 5" grid line, and it's 3/4" in from the edge. (Sounds a bit like algebra and plotting the x and y axis, doesn't it?!)

Then along the bottom edge of the ruler--the "corner" to the right of the stem is on the 3" grid line and it's 3/4" in from the edge, while the "corner" to the left of the stem is on the 6" grid line and is 1-1/4" in. Does that make some sense? In any event, whether you're precise about the angle or not, you'll want your pumpkin centered in a block that's trimmed to 8". Also, you will probably want to reverse the angle of "dance" in the next block. To do that, assuming you're using my fairly precise method, position the 1" ruler markers at the left side of the stem. See how my pumpkins are dancing at opposite angles?

Tomorrow night, we'll add some sashing. I'll give you directions for making the star intersections I used, but a simpler sashing is just fine too. Until tomorrow . . . .

Happy Jacks!

I have a name for my new Jack O'Lantern quilt--Happy Jacks! What do you think? When I was making it, I thought some of the Jack faces were kind of scary, but when I look at it now, they seem pretty happy to me. And why wouldn't they be? Just about everyone seems to like them!

So, yes, I'll give you directions to make the quilt. In fact, I think I'll make a four-patch version along with you and have a giveaway when it's done. This is my 600th post, so that seems like a good reason to celebrate--don't you agree?

But don't start leaving me comments to enter the giveaway just yet--I'll ask for those in a few days. In the meantime, since only one of you can win the giveaway and I know there are more than one of you who would like your own Happy Jack quilt, get out your scraps and sew along with us.

The way I'm going to do this is I'll first give you instructions for making the pumpkin blocks. The cutting and sewing instructions will be for ONE BLOCK. If you want a nine patch, like I made, you'll need to make nine blocks. Of course, you could just make one block and make it into a pillow cover or a treat bag. Or make a four-patch (like I'll be making this time) and have a small wallhanging or table topper. If you make 25 blocks, you'll have a decent sized lap quilt. Clear? So for one block:

Cut:

From orange (pumpkin) fabric:

2 pieces 6-1/2" by 3-1/2"

From green (stem) fabric:
2 pieces 1-1/4" square

1 piece 2" square

From blue (background) fabric:
2 pieces 2" by 2-3/4"
4 pieces 2" square
1 piece 2" by 6-1/2"

2 pieces 2" by 9-1/2"

Of course, you can use something other than blue for your background fabric--cream, black, or golden yellow are a few suggestions. I liked the blue because I like the orange and blue combination and I plan to use mine in my kitchen--which has a lot of blue.

I'm going to stop here tonight to give you time to cut your pumpkin block pieces. Tomorrow night I'll give you directions and a few photos on piecing the pumpkins. The next night, I'll talk about sashing and tell you how I set mine and give you measurements for that part. Also, either that night or the next, I'll show you how I made the faces and sewed them on as I quilted. I DO hope you'll make a Happy Jack quilt project and either post a photo on your blog or, if you don't have a blog, send me a photo and I'll share it on mine.

Happy quilting!