Sunday, July 8, 2018

Wonderland Quilt Along Block #10: The Hookah

Welcome to the latest installment of the Wonderland Quilt Along. I've enjoyed seeing everyone's blocks in the Facebook Group and at #WonderlandQuiltAlong on Instagram. Some genius ideas have cropped up including glow in the dark fabric for the Cheshire cat's mouth and embroidered labels for the bottle and cake. This month I'm bringing out a few new tricks to push your skills including curved piecing and turning a tube.

Grab your free pattern for the Hookah. If you've just arrived, check out the previous posts for the other blocks. It's not too late to catch up! There's going to be a grand sharing of finished quilts with a chance to win incredible prizes. Hint: Aurifil thread! 💕 Stay tuned for more awesomeness. Don't worry, you don't have to make every block just as I have. Feel free to make it your own. Swap some of my blocks for those of your own creation, design you own layout, or use one of the blocks to create an entirely unique project (such as the mushroom as part of a gnome quilt, or the flamingo with lawn chairs and flip flops).

Now, about those curves; line up just the very top part. Take a few stitches and stop with the needle down.


Lift the presser foot while leaving the needle down.


Guide the bottom fabric with your right hand. Lift the top fabric with your left hand. Realign the raw edges of the fabric, and lower the presser foot. Take a few more stitches. Continue alternating between realigning the edges and taking a few stitches until you finish the seam.


Snip the seam and press.


Now let's talk some strip piecing. There are two sets of identical rows (rows with C & D and K & L) in the hookah, so I've given you instructions to make the process faster by cross-cutting. Cut two background pieces 5" x 4" for C and two background pieces 3" x 3" for K. Cut a 1 1/2" x 4" piece of a different fabric for D and a 5 1/2" x 3" piece of another non-background fabric for L. Sew a C piece to both 4" sides of D and a K piece to both 3" sides of L.


After you sew the pieces together, you will have the makings for two rows per unit.


Cut the CDC unit into two 2" sections and the KLK unit into two identical 1 1/2" sections. Use the pattern diagram to locate where these rows are positioned.


Sew together each row, and then connect the rows.


For the hose, cut a 2 1/2" bias strip.


I cut two strips from a fat quarter and connected the ends, making sure to overlap so the edges met at the quarter inch mark. Then I folded the strip in half so the long edges meet and stitched 1/4" from the edge of the long side, pressed the seam open, and stitched one of the short ends.


I used a Dritz Quick Turn to reverse the tube. You put the big tube part in the open end.


Push it to the closed end.


Poke the end of the fabric tube into the plastic tube using the wooden stick.


Keep shoving and scrunching the fabric tube onto the plastic tube until you can push the sewn end of the fabric tube through the open end using the stick.


After pressing the tube flat, I used a glue stick to position it how I liked on the background fabric, which i cut oversized. I machine appliquéd it down using Aurifil clear monofilament thread with a 50 wt thread that matched the top fabric in the bobbin. Here's what the stitch looks like from the stabilizer side, as you can't actually see the stitches on the top.


Don't sew the two parts together yet. You'll need to attach the Mushroom block to the left side of the Hookah body first. Then stitch the hose part to the Mushroom/ Hookah Body unit.


Thanks for joining me. Sorry I haven't been very responsive to comments. I hadn't realized they weren't coming to my inbox. Thankfully, that's fixed now.

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3 comments:

  1. You have such a great repertoire of tools. The quick turn looks super handy! It has been very fun seeing all the blocks shared in your Facebook group. :)

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  2. Fun to see this quilt-a-long. I like your technique for the turning the tube; it seems easier than a lot of the other ones I've seen. Having a good summer? or are you sweltering in the heat, too?

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  3. Your hookah fabric selection is purrfect!

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