Welcome to the Wyld Whirl Quilt Along! My name is Tawnee, I am the owner of Wyldwood Creative, and I’ll be taking you through each step of making the Wyld Whirl Quilt. We’ll break it down into 7 parts and cover every single step of the process from selecting fabric to labeling and binding your quilt.
Week 4 Quilt Along Task
This week, we're focusing on the all-important 1/4" seam allowance, which plays a huge role in ensuring your quilt pieces fit together perfectly. I’ll walk through testing your seam allowance and piecing your blocks to set you up for success as we continue building your quilt. Let’s dive in!
1/4" Seam Allowance Test
Before we begin, it’s crucial to check your quarter-inch seam allowance. You’re machine may have a ¼” piecing foot or you can buy one. If you don’t have a ¼” foot you can use a piece of washi or masking tape to mark off the ¼” line.
Setting up ¼” seam
- Using an acrylic ruler, line up the needle directly on the ¼” line
- Ensure the ruler is square with the machine
- Place a piece of tape right along the edge of the ruler to mark the ¼” line (your machine may already have markings for ¼”)
Test your seam
For quilting, we’ll actually be using what is called a “scant” ¼” seam. A scant ¼” accounts for the thickness of the thread and the fold in the fabric after the seam is pressed. Most quilt patterns are written using a scant ¼”. It is important to have this accurate to ensure all of your pieces come together correctly.
- To test your seam allowance, cut 4-8 3” squares of quilting cotton.
- Sew them together in pairs leaving ~ a thread width gap between the fabric and the edge of the tape.
- In this image, the squares on the top were sewn using a full ¼” seam allowance and the squares on the bottom were sewn using a scant ¼” seam allowance.
- This is a very minute difference but it does add up!
- Once sewn press your squares. Press some to the side and some open to see if it makes any changes to the result.
- The pressed square sets should measure 5.5”
- If your square set is smaller than 5.5” that means your seam allowance is too big
- If your square set is larger than 5.5” that means your seam allowance is too small
- You can see in this image that the square set we sewed at a full ¼” is just slightly smaller than 5.5”, while the scant ¼” set pictured before is exactly 5.5”
Fabric Placement
You can plan out all of your blocks before sewing if you would like but this can take a lot of time and mental energy! Our favorite is to lay the pile of pieces we’re attaching next to the machine and just grab the next one on the pile. This requires minimal thinking and ensures a scrappy random look! When doing this we may jump to the next piece to avoid having the same fabrics touching but if they do it’s not a big deal! We’ll be able to arrange our blocks to get a more even distribution of value before sewing the quilt top.
**Grabbing the next piece in the pile is a great way to practice letting go and focusing on enjoying the process vs the finished product.
Sewing a test block
When sewing a block-based quilt it can be a good idea to start with one block before chain piecing everything together. This will give you an opportunity to make any adjustments to your seam allowance and it’s exciting to start to see your quilt start to come together! It can also be good motivation to continue working on your quilt.
** A quick note on layout, you can easily change up the design of the quilt by arranging your HSTs differently. Below are a few options. You are the boss of your quilt! Make it what you want!
For this pattern, you will sew your pieces together in this order:
- Sew 2 sets of 2 HSTs together with the diagonals aligned press seams open
- Sew HST sets together aligning diagonals in the center (tips for point matching below)
- Sew piece “B” to the bottom side of the HST square, press seam to the side
- Sew piece “C” to the left side of the HST square, press the seam to the side
- Sew piece “C” to the top of the HST square, press the seam to the side
- Sew piece “D” to the right side of the HST square press the seam to the side
Congrats! You’ve made your first block!
Piecing Tips
Matching points
- Get in close to align the points together
- Use a pin on a diagonal to pin the pieces together at the point match, the diagonal pin will help hold the seam allowance flat as you sew
- When sewing pieces together the needle should intersect through the “X” created by the two seam lines
- When attaching pieces B, C, and D feed them through the machine with the piece you’re attaching on the bottom and the block on top. This will make it easier to ensure your seam allowances stay open as they go through the machine.
**If your points aren’t matching up, don’t sweat it! As long as your pieces are securely sewn together that’s all that really matters. Point matching is a skill that takes a lot of practice and time to learn. And NO ONE matches all the points on the first try, if you see a quilt with all the points perfectly matched you can guarantee a seam ripper was used.
Chain piecing
- You can create all of your blocks at once by chain piecing. This is the same method we used in Week 3 when we made the HSTs.
- Start by sewing all HSTs together into pairs
- Then sew pairs together to create the center of the block
- Then sew each rectangle piece on each side, working your way around the block
- Be sure to press well after each step!
Congrats! You’ve sewn all your blocks. Once you’ve assembled all your blocks, you can start to enjoy the random, scrappy look of your quilt. Remember, quilting is a creative process—have fun with it and try not to stress too much about what it’s going to look like when it’s done. We can guarantee you’re going to love it!
Stay tuned for next week, when we’ll assemble the quilt top!