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A LESSON FROM JOHN FLYNN

The following images and text are copyrighted by John Flynn, 2001 - 2003. All rights reserved.

There is more than one Free Lesson here. Scroll all the way down to see all of the lessons and then visit "Archives" back on the home page to see more.

Our friends at Superior Threads have a great article on Top Thread Tension, often a problem when machine quilting. I learned a lot and hope that this is useful to you. Thank you to Bob and Heather Purcell of Superior Threads!>

Click here to print the Thread Tension article

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A Rag Quilt, Weed Whacker Style

Aren’t Rag Quilts fun? They are quick, colorful and practical. Our family thinks they are great for gifts.


We make rag quilts a little differently. Instead of making little packages of backing, top and batt, we use pre quilted fabric, cut it up into the different size squares and sew them together. Because there is batt in the edges of the squares, just washing the rag quilt in the washer doesn’t make it fluff up, though.
John’s solution is the Weed Whacker Quilt. To fluff up those edges, he tacks the clipped quilt down to a sheet of plywood, or sometimes, just tapes it to the concrete floor and whacks the edges with an electric weed eater. The fluff really flies then!

Start with four 36” x 44” pre-quilted panels, two of each color makes a nice quilt. We have lots of quilted demo quilts left over from demonstrating the Multi-Frame at quilt shows. If you have a Multi-Frame, you can use four of your little practice fabric sandwiches this way.


Kate is cutting one of each color of the 36” x 44” panels into six 11” squares and fifteen 6 ½” squares. She has one of each color stacked up to measure and rotary cut.
Anyone working out in the shop has supervision from Patch the cat.

The other two quilted panels are cut in to three 11” squares and twenty 6 ½” squares, in this case one of the panels is blue and one is green.

click on images for larger views








The other shop cat is a Siamese we call Anna. She is also referred to as Princess because that is what she thinks she is. She doesn’t want her picture taken, thank you.

Sew the 6 ½” squares together in four patches, alternating the back and front and the colors too. In this example, the back is white and the four patch is white/blue and white/green.

Use a 1” seam allowance. John uses a piece of moleskin 1” from the needle for a seam guide.










Four 36” x 44” panels make a rag quilt about 45” x 63”. Stay stitch an inch in from the edge all around the quilt, sewing the seams allowances down all in the same All the raw edges need to clipped.
The easiest way to clip is with a pair of spring loaded craft shears like Fiskars brand. Clip to within 1/8” of the stay stitching and ¼” apart









After all the seams have been clipped, it is time to whack. You can tack the quilt down to a sheet of plywood or tape it to a clean concrete surface. Unless you have a big open work area like we do, you’ll want to do this outside.
Use an electric “Weed Eater”, not the more powerful gasoline model. Just angle the head of the tool so the plastic cord whips the quilt’s edges to fray them. You can see how well you are doing as you go. Keep after the edges until they are all fluffy.

Wash the finished quilt and dry in the dryer. Just what the doctor ordered; a warm, fluffy, colorful quilt to see you through the winter. Whack away!

The Story of the Diagonal Seamed Back

or John’s Formula for Joan’s Trick

John’s sister, Joan, called him one day because she had a piece of fabric which wasn’t quite long enough to cut in half and sew back together with a vertical seam to get a quilt back. Her idea was to cut the fabric in to two big triangles along the diagonal, offset the triangles along the diagonal cut to get the width she needed and then sew them back together. It worked great!

There is a mathematical formula involved, and that’s where John came in. Try the example and study the diagrams and images. This is a cool trick to know.

DIAGONAL PIECED BACK

Here is why we like to use diagonal seams on our quilt backs. First of all, it saves fabric! Then, instead of having a straight seam with the bulk of the seam allowance all in the same spot as everything rolls up, the seam allowance rolls up diagonally along the back and isn’t in the same spot every time. Sometimes, with a really busy print, a diagonal back seam will be almost invisible.

Before Joan came up with her trick, John sometimes just cut his back fabric diagonally and sewed in a wide contrasting strip to make the back wide enough. That’s one solution.

WHEN IT MAKES SENSE TO USE A DIAGONAL SEAM ON THE QUILT BACK

John’s method for diagonally piecing a quilt back, from one piece of fabric, is the most efficient way to make the back whenever the width of the quilt back in one and a half times, or less, than the width of the fabric you plan to use. For example, if the width of your back fabric is 44”, use John’s method whenever the width you want your back to be is 66” or less. If you are using fabric that is 60” wide, use John’s method whenever you want your quilt back to be 90” or less.

HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BACK FABRIC YOU NEED

It’s easy. John has calculated a simple formula to figure the yardage for you. Work through his example to get familiar with the formula and you will be able to figure the yardage for the diagonally seamed back of any quilt.

Ready? Here is the formula and example.

Example 1 Quilt top measures 48” x 60”.

For this example, assume you want your quilt back to be 51” x 66”. The desired length of the back goes in to the formula as LQ=66. The desired back width goes in to the formula as WQ=51.

For this example, the width of the fabric is 44”. This goes in to the formula as WF=44.

Solving for LF (yardage required)

or (462 divided by 37) or 12.5 + 66. For the length of the back fabric you will need 12.5 inches + 66 inches which equals 78.5 inches, let’s just say 79”!

WHAT IF YOU NEED A BACK MORE THAT ONE AND A HALF THE WIDTH OF YOUR BACK FABRIC

For backs wider than one and one-half of your back fabric width, you’ll need two lengths of fabric. Simply cut two pieces of back fabric the length of your quilt plus 6”. Stack them one on top of the other, both face up. Cut a long diagonal slice off the side of the stack through both layers. Rotate the top fabric 180 degrees and sew the two big pieces them together. John uses a 1/2” seam and presses the seam open.

Now, here are images of a quilt back John just put together. Take a look at the steps, this isn’t hard, you just have to be careful of that long, long bias edge.

Here’s to nicer quilt backs!

Here are the steps to putting the diagonal pieced back together. First follow the steps in the formula to get the right length of back fabric. Then fold carefully from a corner on one end to the opposite corner on the other end. Carefully lay the fold out on your work surface and, keeping everything smooth and without losing your diagonal fold, keep folding the package up along the diagonal fold until you have a manageable (about 24" wide) package.

This is one of the fabrics from John's "Artifacts" collection for Benartex. Isn't it good looking? Again being careful, cut 1/4" away from the fold with your rotary ruler and rotary cutter. You will end up with two long triangles. Find the point where the two triangles' widths added together equal your desired width (remember to allow one inch for a 1/2" seam) and carefully pin the two triangles together.

Pin and sew the triangles together. Use a 1/2" seam. Carefully press the seam open.

Square up the back by cutting off the extra triangles at the top and bottom. Your back is ready, isn't that a great trick to add to your repertoire?