Quilt Pattern Tips and Tricks: Mosaic Ornaments Quilt Part 5

Welcome to Part 5 of the tips and tricks series for the Mosaic Ornaments Quilt! This post series is partly to provide extra insights into this pattern and partly to function as a sew-a-long. This is the final week of our sew-a-long! What fun it has been to write these posts and share extra tips. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here. You can buy the quilt pattern from the patterns page on my website. If you're following along for the sew-a-long, this is the schedule:

WEEK 1: Fabric selection, cutting fabric, labelling and storing fabric

WEEK 2: Making all our starter blocks - HSTs, flying geese, cat's cradle (or shaded four patch)

Week 3: Making Ornaments 1 and 2

Week 4: Making Ornaments 3 and 4

Week 5: Putting it all together!

We are up to Week 5. It's our final week together. You made it this far - well done! This week we're putting all our blocks together and creating our beautiful quilt top - woohoo! All of our hard work will pay off very soon. And once again - apologies for the photos in the post, most of my sewing these days is done at night after the kids are in bed.

In this blogpost:

1. Getting Started

2. Sewing

3. Storing your quilt-in-progress

Getting Started

First, let's get all our fabric cuts together and organize it. If you have wait to cut your corner and side triangles, now is the time to do that.

One of my favourite methods to add sashing to a quilt is to add sashing tiles - this truly is a personal preference because I dislike working with long strips of fabric. But in all seriousness, I do also like the effect created by the sashing tiles. Plus, as a bonus if you pin at the seams of your tiles to "nest them". Tiles are a great way to keep fabric from scrunching up or morphing in other ways as you sew them together - long strips of fabric are particularly susceptible to "suggestion", shall we say; this can help to remove some of those issues.

Now that we have all our blocks, it's the perfect time to finalize the layout for the quilt. But before you begin, give everything a good press! The cover quilt has an idea of how the blocks are sewn together, however, in practice you might prefer things to look a little different - that's okay! It's important to make the quilt your own. For my cover quilt (and the scrappy baby version I made), I decided to stick with the layout of the quilt given in the pattern - makes life easier. I find it best to take a photo of your blocks once you've settled on a layout to avoid confusion - bonus if you can leave the blocks as they are while you finish sewing up. But let's face it, we don't all have the room required for this. So, a photo will have to do!

Sewing

I like to sew my sashing rows first, then my block rows, and store them separately. Then I work from top down. Because this quilt is set on point, we'll add our rows diagonally. This is a fantastic point in the quilt - it's just sewing! Put on your favourite audiobook/podcast/tv-show/movie and spend some quality time with your sewing machine.

Chain Piecing

Using Pins

Chain piece where possible, and don't forget to use your pins! Pin at ALL seams, and check for seams folding over on the bottom - this will help your points align better. Try to leave longer gaps between your blocks as you chain piece - this will help to prevent threads from unraveling from your block. Where possible nest your seams (that's covered in an earlier post) - keeps bulk from building up. I also always sew with the sashing or sashing rows on top. This keeps my seam allowance consistent throughout my quilt. Watch out for the weight of the quilt dragging your quilt. You can tell if your stitches are suddenly smaller than normal, or you find it is difficult to get your quilt rows through the machine - fabric can get quite heavy.

When sewing your rows together try to keep everything laid out in the right order on a bed or other large flat surface as much as possible. It might mean that everything goes on your bed and you're needing to go back and forth between the bed and your sewing space - but it is so worth it to avoid some quality time with your seam ripper!

Storing your quilt-in-progress.

Much as I would love to finish this part in one go, it's simply not possible! Depending on the size of your quilt, even if you don't have limitations like me (young children who need you), it can take a couple of days (or more!) to finish up your quilt top. But it's also crucial that threads don't come undone, or your beautiful, pressed blocks don't get scrunched up. I like to hang my quilt strips on a hanger and hang them up in the closet (short term only) or lay them flat on our guest bedroom bed. If you need to store them for longer than a few days, I recommend storing it flat (remember, fabric can warp with time!). Make sure you press your blocks and strips before storing.

When you sew your rows together, press as you go or as often as you can or press at the end - it is completely up to you. I always leave pressing till the end and then regret it! This time, my husband very kindly pressed my quilt for me. Such a sweet gesture.

Finally, as this quilt is set on point, there will be some trimming that is required at the end. I recommend doing this once your quilt has been quilted to limit how much the fabric stretches on the bias. You may also consider doing a "victory lap" around the quilt - sewing a line about a 1/4" away from the edge all around the quilt to prevent stitches from unravelling.

And that's it! Take lots of photos of your finished quilt and take some of you with your finished quilt - you deserve it! Great job.