Zig-Zag or Chevron Quilt trimming Tutorial

I had big plans for these two weeks but life took a little detour.  She doesn't have a name yet.

It is such a crazy story.  She wandered into my yard yesterday.  I let my dog out and they played awhile.  I checked later, and she was under my tree resting like she lived here.  We couldn't get her to come close enough to pet.  When she finally came close enough we realized how malnourished she was.  She had quite a  few ticks like she had been running for a while.  After removing the ticks, we gave her a bath and cleaned her up.  We called around and searched for the owner.  We checked, and she was not chipped.  The shelter felt she was between 8 and 10 months old.  Last night, she was still hanging around the house...So....she now has a collar, and she is going to the vet this afternoon.  We are still hoping to find the owner, but we are caring for her.  The main trouble is, my kids are getting very attached to this sweet little girl.

My 2 weeks of an empty house and getting a lot accomplished have been changed to caring for this puppy (who is still nameless)

The only thing in the sewing room I have accomplished is trimming my zig-zag (Chevron) quilt.  You may think this is extra work, but I think it really helps to stabilize the quilt and and keep everything square.

There are tons of tutorials on how to make a chevron quilt online, so I won't go into those details.  I used the rail method, and set the blocks on point.  The quilt on the left is how the blocks look when they are set on point.  The first thing I do is take all those leftover scraps of fusible interfacing and cut them into 1- 1 1/2" pieces.  Start by fusing them all the way around the edge.  They don't have to be perfectly straight.  I just line up the top of the interfacing strip with the indention.  It really doesn't have to be perfect.  Next I put the 1/4" line of the ruler on the intersecting seam lines.  The goal is to trim the quilt 1/4" from the seam line.  I also look at the 45 degree line of the ruler and try to line it up with the row seams.  Do the best you can.  Sometimes mine lined up better than others.  Continue to trim all the way around the quilt.

After the quilt is trimmed all the way around, it will look like the quilt on the left.  The back of the quilt will look like the photo on the right.  All the edges of the quilt are stabilized with the fusible interfacing.  I don't plan to add borders to this quilt, but either way, it will not stretch out of shape with all the bias edges.

If you need more detailed pictures of how I cut the edge, or if you have a question, just leave me a comment. 

Rescued Scraps

I wanted to make a quilt out of the scraps from my rescue mission. I hope the recipient remembers some of the material. Most of the materials are not to my liking, and almost all of them have some poly in them. Last week I sewed the squares into 2 patch units, and Monday I ironed them while my girls were dancing. I organized them last night, and to my surprise (more like shock) they don't look too bad. I MUST finish this quilt as I can't add another project to my unfinished pile. This picture is for Sharon who thinks I need to add my dog to my blog. His collar actually matches the quilt. Since he is sleeping, I guess he approves.