Project of the month: Scrapbuster project >>>Granny squares

This project is an ideal way to use up scraps of fabric …….. a STASHBUSTER using leftover  Christmas fabric or any other fabrics you may have to bust from your stash!

                                                           Requirements for this project:

• Janome Sewing machine  – it could be a Janome with 7mm or 9mm wide stitches or a high or low shank model ……this project can be done with almost all of our sewing machines. I used the Janome Continental M7. 
• 1/4 inch piecing foot for your Janome sewing machine.
• Ditch quilting foot: This could be the S foot which clips onto the ankle or foot holder or it could be the Acufeed flex Ditch quilting foot SD. Both will work.
• Janome Free motion foot for your machine. 
• Janome Blue dot bobbin case for your machine.  This is an optioal accessory and does not come standard with any of our models. Please see this link for more information.
• Basic sewing kit including: scissors/thread snips; rotary cutting equipment (mat, ruler and cutter); fabric marking pen (blue or similar for light fabrics, white for dark fabrics); Spare sewing machine needles – we recommend janome blue or red tip needles; pins or clips; tape measure, seam ripper ,etc.
• Can of fabric adhesive spray: we use Artistic Tack spray as it has less than 30% VOC.
• 100% Cotton sewing thread to blend with your fabric colours (beige or grey)
• Bobbin wound with the same thread.
• A few spools of decorative thread for embellishment – 40wt polyester embroidery thread to co-ordinate with the fabric or varigated cotton quilting thread such as our Madeira Poly neon or Cotona…ask your Janome Canada dealer about these threads – Janome Canada is the distributor of these fabulous quality threads.
• Four 7 inch squares of 100% cotton quilting fabric: I used contrasting prints but you can make it totally scrappy if you are serious about stashbusting! Please try to choose fabrics with subtle prints or the embellishment we will do on the Granny Square will not show up well.
• One  9 inch square of batting. I strongly suggest using a cotton or 80/20 batting rather than a high loft poly batting as the finished project will be more successful.
• 4 inch square contrast scrap 100% cotton quilting fabric for the appliqué.

INSTRUCTIONS:

•  Cut your scrap fabric into7 inch squares. It does not have to be 7 inches.
  
  

  Here I have 7 inch squaresIt could be a little smaller at 5 or 6 inch squares but the finished block won’t be as big and if you are going to join them together, you will need more blocks.

   

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• Sew two 7 inch squares together using the Janome ¼ inch foot.  Repeat with the other two 7 inch squares.  Press the seams to one side so that when the 4 squares are put together the seams will go in opposite directions.  Press 3^rd seam to one side. Take care not to stretch the fabric.
• Spray the one side of the 9 inch square of batting with Artistic Tack spray adhesive. Position the batting glue side down on the WRONG side of the 4 squares just pieced together so that the corners of the batting are matching up with the seams on the fabric, ie the batting will be positioned diagonally on the fabric as in the pic below. 
• Fold this “sandwich” in half, RIGHT sides together: “think mountains” –  the batting will point upwards like a mountain peak.
• Sew the 2 sides seams with the Janome ¼ inch foot.
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• Fold the open  raw edges together (right sides together) and sew from each side leaving about 3-4 inches open in the middle.

 

• Turn out to the right side and poke the corners carefully so as not to stretch the edges of the granny square. The straight edges are now on the bias and could stretch or pucker out of shape if you pull the fabric unnecessarily. 
• Press the edges of the opening under to the wrong side. No need to sew this opening closed as this will be taken care of in the next step.
• Thread up the machine with a poly embroidery thread or cotton multicolour – such as our lovely Madeira thread for our next step:decorative stitching.  Remove the ¼ inch foot and attach the Janome Acufeed  or clip on Ditch Quilting foot.
• Select a decorative stitch of your choice and test sew first in case you wish to alter the default settings (Stitch width & length). Using the guide on the Ditch quilting foot so that it runs along in the ditch, stitch one or 2 different decorative stitches diagonally across the block.  Make sure you “caught” the open edges on the reverse side into this stitching.
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• Attach the Acufeed flex foot or walking foot to the machine  with  the  Quilting  guide  bar

• Now stitch rows on some of the blocks using either the edge of the foot or the quilting guide bar as your guide.  Make sure you use the tie off button to secure the ends of your stitching. And/Or bury your threads in the batting afterwards. 
• You may be able to program the thread cutter and tie off into the memory of the machine  – follow instructions in your manual if you are not sure how to do this.
•  Remove the Acufeed foot and attach the Janome free motion foot of your choice/ recommended for your machine.
• Set up the sewing machine for Free motion quilting. The pic below shows our Sewing Applications menu on the screen of Janome Continental M7 but quite a few other Janome models also have the Sewing Applications menu.                                                         Notice that I chose to use the QC  foot which attaches to the regular foot holder. I could have selected the PD-H darning foot or hopping foot but in this case I used the QC (closed toe) just because I like using it!
• Please insert the blue dot bobbin case as THIS quilter’s bobbin case is what we highly recommend for free motion quilting as well as hand look quilting.
• Bring up the bobbin thread as usual  > use the needle up/needle down function.
• You will find the extension or quilting table will help you a lot to achieve the best results as will quilter’s gloves for holding the quilt or fabric more easily.
• Switch the needle plate to the straight stitch plate – this is SO super easy on the Janome Continental M7 and it releases and resets the needle plate totally automatically with a magnet! However, many of our Janome models have the one step needle plate removal button and on others you need to unscrew the screws to switch the needle plates – but it is possible and recommended that you do this step for the best free motion results. Seriously…..you should not complain if you are dissatisfied with the quality of your stitching or you have thread breaks if you free motion quilt using a zig – zag plate. 
• Select the straight stitch.  Do free motion stippling or other free motion motifs on the remaining areas of your block.
• Make as many of these blocks as you have time and fabric scraps to make!

• You may use this one block for a mug rug or pot holder but you may prefer to sew a bunch of them together to form placemats, table runners, knee rugs, bed quilts, pillows. The pic at the top of the post is a rather lovely Christmas throw which gets pulled out during the Christmas holidays every year. 
• To join granny squares together,  simply attach the Acufeed ditch quilting foot, butt the 2 blocks together and use one of the decorative stitches to sew the blocks together. Take care NOT to stretch the fabric as you sew as these edges will be on the bias and could stretch a lot. A wider stitch like a zig- zag, bridging stitch or other decorative stitch should do a good job of attaching all your blocks together. See pics below.

 

 

Note the scrap of fabric with the decorative stitch I chose to use to sew my granny squares together. I altered the SW and SL settings – see pic of the screen on the Janome Continental M7 below although this stitch can be found on some other Janome models    This is an ideal way to use up scraps of quilting fabric and it is so easy to do as it is quilt-as-you-go.

 

 

 

Are you using up your fabric scraps for useful projects?

What are you currently sewing or are you too busy dealing with turkey left-overs?!?