Australian_Homespun_December_2014

Scottie dog appliqué

in from either end and then at 5in and

2in intervals for the fl ower placement,

as shown in Diagram 1. Repeat this

step with a second 30^1 ⁄ 2 in ecru strip.

12

Snip the knots, unpick the

tacking and remove all the

cardboard/papers from the

hexagon fl owers.

13

Pin a hexagon fl ower in

the fi rst 5in space, ensuring

it is straight and centred, and

hand appliqué it in place on the

background with neutral-coloured

thread.

14

Repeat Step 13 to appliqué

all eight fl owers on the two

marked background strips. Remove

the pencil marks by gently rubbing

with a clean eraser.

Scottie dogs

15

Press a centre crease lightly on

the remaining three 8^1 ⁄ 2 x 30^1 ⁄ 2 in

ecru background strips. Peel the

backing paper from the Scottie dog

shapes you prepared in Step 2.

16

Using the photograph of the

quilt as a guide, pin six Scottie

dogs down each strip, alternating the

left and right facing ones and mixing

the colours as desired. The point of

the ears on the top dog will be about

11 ⁄ 2 in from the top edge of the strip;

the feet of the bottom dog will be

about 1^1 ⁄ 2 in from the bottom edge of

the strip; and the head of one dog

will sit about 1in from the feet of the

next one. Check that you’re happy

with the colour arrangement and

positioning before fusing them in

place.

17

Set up your sewing machine

for a narrow, reasonably short

zigzag stitch and thread it with ecru

thread. Lynelle’s stitches are roughly

the same width and length, not satin

stitch. Set the machine to stop with

the needle down if you can. Lynelle

tested her stitch fi rst on a sample dog

shape and wrote the length and width

of the stitch on the background so

she could return to the same machine

setting at later stitching sessions.

18

Sew around all the dogs,

pivoting with the needle

down at the corners. Have the stitch

covering the edge of the fabric and

just falling onto the background on

the outside of the shapes.

Centre panel

Triangle sashing

19

Lay out the triangles you cut

in Step 5 in four rows of 41

triangles each, rotating every second

triangle by 180 degrees. When you

have an array of colour and prints that

you like, sew the triangles in each

row together: begin by pairing two

triangles, right sides together, and

sew along one side. Lynelle chain

pieced her triangles in pairs fi rst, then

chain pieced the pairs into sets of

four to speed up the process, pressing

all the seams as she went so they lay

as fl at as possible. Take care not to

stretch the edges as you sew.

Assembly

20

Referring to the photo of the

quilt, lay out three vertical

strips of Scottie dogs with the two

strips of hexagon fl owers between

them. Put a row of triangle sashing

between each pair of strips.

LYNELLE’S

TECHNIQUE TIP

PRESS AND PIN! Yes, it’s in capitals

because I really mean it. The finished

quilt is much better for it. I once had

a well-known machine quilter look

at one of my quilt tops and she said,

“Now, there’s a quilter who pins and

presses as she goes.” It does make

a diff erence.

Diagram 1

Step 19

5in

5in

5in

5in

2in

2in

2in

12 ⁄

4 in

12 ⁄

4 in

84 Homespun