Hand Piecing Tutorial: homage to our quilting roots

I know a lot of people don’t make quilts by hand anymore, but there some projects that can be done easier that way: set in seams, small pieces, triangles, or if you want something portable while waiting in the carline at the end of the school day or during soccer practice.

I mentioned last week that my mom is doing the Midnight at the Oasis quilt along with me and she hand-pieces pretty often. She hand-pieced the center triangle star and demonstrated her skills for me while she was visiting.

1. start by cutting templates out of paper or plastic. Do not include seam allowance on your templates.

trace templates on fabric and cut out with added seam allowance

use a pencil to trace around your templates on the fabric you wish to use. Cut out the shapes, adding a quarter-inch to the outside of the pencil line (as above, visible on the yellow fabric)

2. position the fabrics and place them right-sides facing:

pin through the marked lines

pin the fabrics together by piercing the fabrics at the marked sewing lines (through both fabrics). This is how you will keep the sewing lines lined up so that you make sure you are sewing on the template line of both the top and the bottom fabrics.

2. begin sewing by piercing the needle through both layers at one end of the drawn line:

start at the marked line

3. make three stitches back and forth at the starting point. This secures your seam:

back-stitch to secure the seam

4. sew with a small running stitch along the length of the drawn line:

then backstitch at the end as you did at the beginning of the seam:

backstitch a the end of the seam

5. sew the triangles in rows, sew the rows together until you have the completed pyramid unit. Press.

back

front, make four of these for star

This is the finished center medallion. My mom is a hero: she managed to set-in both the center black square in one piece and all four polka dot background triangles and make them lay flat.

I will be back on Friday for our first official Quilt Along post to show my finished center star, along with how to appliqué those perfect circles in the center. Be sure and visit Jess to see her progress, too.

happy stitching,

Sharon