Round 9 ORBC...Sewing your Four Quadrants Together....Finally!:)

I sure am loving these wonderfully creative Ticker Tape projects showing up on the ORBC flickr page....you all rock!! For those of you who are making a larger project I guess you want to know how to sew the pieces together!!:) Deep breath.....Ahhhhhh....ok...here we go!
First lay your four quads face down on the bed or floor and if you have directional backing like I did make sure the pieces are lined up correctly. This is how they will be sewn together.
Starting with the center vertical lines formed by the four quadrants, pin the backing and batting over the the left and to the right exposing only the back of the top fabric.

Starting with either the two top pieces or the two bottom pieces put right sides (fronts) together, pin and sew using between a 1/4 -1/2 inch seam allowances ...remembering that this is the flap you left on the edges where you didn't sew any scraps...right?!:) If you have done a lovely design on your quadrants like I know some of you have please check the layout in the front while it is still pinned....then sew!:)

Once you have done that you can unpin those edges and pin the horizontal backing and batting over and then put right sides together matching the center seam, pin and sew these two sections together....now the top of your quilt is DONE!:) If you want you can now iron those seams from the top.

It should look like this....

....and like this.

Now this part might be easier to understand from the photos...I'll try my best to explain....starting with either horizontal or vertical seams put the batting from one side down like I did with the batting on the left side....

Then trim the right side so it butts up to the left side....you can see there at the top of the photo they meet up (just under the scissor blades)....at the bottom of the photo I had just pushed the left batting up and out of the way so I could cut easier.

See...batting to the left in photo down and you can see where it was trimmed on the right.

Next I laid both left batting and backing down, meeting up with trimmed batting on the right side....see at the top? Unfortunately I cropped this photo too much at the top so I hope you get it!:o

Then I took the right backing flap and folded it in half and laid it down going to the left. In this photo I just have it pinched between my fingers.

See, fold the remaining flap in half and over and pin in place.

This is a photo of the horizontal and vertical joint.

Now it's hand sewing time....using your favorite blind stitch.

In this photo you can sort of see where the vertical seam is because of the birds that are missing their faces! But you can't hardly tell where the horizontal seam is located. Once you finish the back seams you can bind the edges like you normally would do it.

I made this quilt with nine sections sewing the scraps on one square at a time then doing the above process to sew all nine squares together. See how nicely the seams in the back are hidden when you don't have a directional fabric for the backing?:)

Making this quilt in 12" wide strips was the easiest of all, nothing needed to really match up in the front!:)

I hope this made sense...what's in my head doesn't always convey to the keyboard! If not please don't hesitate to email me or ask on the flickr thread.

I have really had a great time leading this Round 9 of the Old Red Barn Quilt-Along ...it has been an honor and a privilege. I thank you all for your wonderful creations and kind comments!!

Now I can finish this!!

~d