What to do with heart blocks that have been hanging around for quite some time? Well, make a Valentine’s wall banner jam-packed with technique and fun creativity. In fact, so much technique, it will not be possible to cover it all in one post so watch this spot as more will be published over the coming weeks.
What did I do? Broadly speaking this banner involved the following techniques:
- Completion of all blocks: all were machine appliqued using a variety of stitch options: zig-zag, satin stitch, applique/blanket stitch and decorative stitching. This particular project does not (amazingly) have any applique-in-the-hoop blocks. But wait……there’s more……..that comes later on another post!
- Design wall planning – positioning the blocks for a pleasing and workable arrangement
- Piecing the blocks, sashing & border. Naturally I used a the 1/4 inch piecing stitch and our Janome 1/4 inch foot.
- Sandwiching the quilt using the spray basting method. I am so not a safety pin girl…..and stopped hand basting many, many years ago …..that is just plain crazy & very hard on the knees & back not to mention the loud complaints from family who have to step around the quilt taped to the living room floor until I finally managed to get that back-breaking chore done!
- Now for the quilting…..this is where it gets even more interesting! I used no less than 4 different machine quilting techniques with over 10 variations. It ended up being a wall banner with loads of technique and variety AND it was a lot of fun to do!
- As usual, the last part was the sleeve & binding. I secured the sleeve with machine basting using water soluble thread & then applied the binding using the JANOME QUILT BINDER SET.
Next time: What quilting did I do on this Valentine’s banner?
Janome Life 
