Bow Tie Block, Page One

(Go to bottom of page for link to Page Two)

Here is a set of instructions for the Origami Bow Tie Block, which is being used for the Pre-1900 Blcok Exchange. If you can get Katrina's video instruction, I think that is better, but I know that many are not set up for video. Katrina's instructions are at:

http://homepage.mac.com/kworley/TreadleOnBowtie/iMovieTheater24.html

 

 

While I'm not sure final decisions have been made as to the block size, it seems that 8 1/2" is currently the favorite, so that is what I shot for. Here are the steps I followed, (and a problem I encountered).

 

 

Begin by cutting 5 squares of fabric... 3 print and 2 background. The final block desired is 8 1/2", so I cut 4 1/2" squares.

 

Fold one square of print so that the print, or good, side is out, and lay it on a background square, as shown here.

 

Lay another square of print, good side down, on top of the previous step. Here I show the added square of fabric folded partly back, to show how it should be.

 

Here is the added square set fully on top of the folded piece and the background piece. Stitch down the right edge. so that you are stitching the folded piece into the assembly.

 

Here the seam has been made and the assembly opened up to show what it should look like.

 

Here is another shot of the assembly at this point.

 

OK, this one is a little harder to follow. The assembly has been turned over, so that the sewn seam is now at the left. The folded section has been set on a background square... same as in the third picture above.

 
Now the last piece of print fabric has been layed on top of the background and folded piece... same as in the third and fourth pictures above. Stitch the pieces together at the right hand edge, the same as you did previously.

 

Here the assembly, stitched on both sides, has been opened up. I probably should have used a contrasting piece of print for the folded center, for visual purposes, but I think you can still see the folded piece...

 

Here both sides have been folded back to make the construction more obvious...

 

 

Note: At this point I ran into a problem in building the page... I had forgotten to take this picture and the next one. I had to rip a seam to return to the point shown in the previous picture. Don't let the obviously ripped seam bother you...

OK, open up the pocket at the top of the folded section, as shown here. Bring the seams together...

 

Here you can see the two seams about to be aligned. This will create a triangular pocket out of the folded section.

Assembly closed up... the pocket is between the two sides. At this point, when you sew the seam at the top of the assembly, you will have completed the block.

 

Katrina, in her video, didn't pin... I pin. Lay the seams over toward the darker pieces, as shown here. Obviously, I have opened the assembly up to show this. Close it again, so it looks like the previous picture, and sew the seam.

(Note my "helper"...)

 

 

And here is the finished Origami Bow Tie block... except mine wasn't.... If you look closely at this block, it isn't terribly even or perfect. In fact, when I measured it, it was not a full even 8 1/2"... at some points it was more like 8 1/8". This is pretty normal for my sewing, and is why I almost always find a way to make exchange blocks oversize and trim to to perfect before mailing them off.

 

This block was purely for demo purposes, so rather than make another, I pretended that it had been my intention to end up with an 8" block, and trimmed it down. This is an easy block to make oversize and trim. I simply put a square on it, with the four inch lines running on the two seams, and trimmed back, ending up with a perfect 8" block.

If you want to go this route for the exchange, I would cut my basic squares to 5", rather than 4 1/2", make all my blocks and then spend a little time trimming them to 8 1/2". You would use the 4 1/4" lines on your square for the trimming. In my own case, I would make a clear plastic square 8 1/2", scribe the 4 1/4" lines on it, and use that as a quick trimming aid.

 

 

 

Here is the finished block. I have attempted to pull up the little origami center piece to show that is a fold rather than a seam.

 

 

OK... that is how you make the Origami Bow Tie block. It is kind of fun and several people have said they consider it easier than the regular bow tie block. Having made both, I kind of prefer the non-origami one. I don't care for the three dimensional effect here, but that's a matter of taste.

Some Supplemental Instructions on Handling the Pocket Seam

The biggest single problem I found with this block pattern was handling the "third seam", i.e. the one across the pocket fold. On this seam, at the center, you are crossing 8 thicknesses of fabric. I found I had to reduce the foot pressure on my machine (1892 Singer 28) and be prepared to give it a little finger help or it might hang up on the thickness jump. Some people have suggested sewing to the center, ending the seam, turning the work around and then sewing in in the other direction. Probablly a good idea, but not what I did. Being a guy, and sewing on a male sewing machine, we just bulled our way through.

The real problem with the pocket, though, is that there is a natural tendency to try to stretch it out flat, to pull its corners out all the way. This causes troubles! When you pull the pocket corners out, the bottom folded seam (which should NOT be sewn) tends to pull upwards and then, when you sew that long third seam, you catch part of it and end up with what I call a "pinched block", which lookds odd and which I considerred rejects.

I made up some supplemental instructions to help you avoid this problem. Since this page is getting so big, I put them on a new page, with a link at the bottom of this page. Be sure to check these supplemental instructions out before you tackle the project. They should really help.

Dick

 

Some More on Bow Tie Quilts

On my own bow tie quilt, which I am making with feed sack fabrics, I am using the "flat" bow tie pattern... you cut your background squares (in my case 6 1/2"), then you cut 3 1/2" squares of the print. You put the small square on one corner of the background square, then sew a seam across the small square, corner to corner. You trim that seam so that it ends up 1/4", cutting the points off of both the small and large square. When you fold the small square open again, you have a full 6 1/2" background square, but with a print corner. You combine two of these background squares with two print squares, and you end up with the bowtie. The print corners on the background squares make the center of the bow tie. It's all flat, and, at least for me, went pretty easily.

The pattern I am using for the quilt assembly uses four 6 1/2" bow ties to make up a 12 1/2" block... for a large quilt, that means making a lot of small bowties, but with assembly line practices, I think it will go well.

Here is a picture of what I have in mind:

 

And here is a picture of another bow tie layout, kind of a furrows effect:

I think these two pictures give an idea of what different effects can be achieved with the bow tie block, however you make it.

Captain Dick

Instructions for Standard Bow Tie

 

I should have known better! Almost as soon as I posted the page, I had a couple of requests for intstructions for the bow tie I'm using. Here they are:

 

 

For this version, cut, per bow tie, two background squares and two print squares, plus two print squares that are half-size. In this demonstration, I am making a VERY large block... 241/2". It happens we needed a pad for where the cat sleeps. Anyway, the total block takes four bow ties, and will be excactly like the block I am using for the feed sack quilt, except that the feed sack quilt will use 12 1/2" blocks.

So, for this large block, I need to make four12 1/2" bow ties. I will need 8 background squares 6 1/2", 8 print squares 6 1/2" and 8 small print squares 3 1/2".

In this picture, you see my 8 background squares layed out, with the small print squares laid on their SW corners. You can also see up above them, a stack of 8 large print squares. At this point, I am ready to roll!!

 

Using any straight edge, I am drawing a thin pencil line from NE to SW cornger of each small square. This will be a seam line.

 

I've drawn all the lines and here are the background squares lined up ready to be continuous strip pieced. However, being a cautious soul, I will run one alone for test...

 

Here I've sewn the seam...

 

Using any convenient ruler with 1/4" lines, I line up the first line right one the seam...

 

I roller cut the excess, leaving a neat 1/4" hem...

 

Here is the background piece, seam ironed to the dark corner, and turned over. The dark corner will become one half of the bow tie's center.

 

OK... here we go... strip piecing all of the backgrounds. I will have to do a hundred or so of these for my big quilt, so strip piecing techniques will be valuable...

 

Not shown, but after the strip piecing of the background corners, all were trimmed and ironed and became background squares like the one two pictures back...

OK, here background squares have been carefully laid on top of print squares and I am strip piecing them together. They are then clipped into individual two-square units and the seams are ironed down, hems to the dark side.

 

Here are four two-sqsuare units layed out to be sewn into bow ties. I sewed each of the top units to the corresponding bottom unit, resulting in two bow ties. I repeated with the remaining units to get the four bow ties I wanted.

 

Here is one finished bow tie.

 

 

And here are the four finished bow ties, layed out as if they were going to be assembled in a furrows pattern. Actually, since I am going to use the other pattern, as in the feed sack quilt picture, I didn't join them this way.

 

 

OK... here is what I was after... I re-set the blocks above to produce this design, joined upper blocks to lower blocks, then joined the top strip to the bottom strip, to produce this giant version of the block I will us for the feed sack quilt.

 

 

I have given the correct, exact measurements required for this block pattern. However, here, as I recommended when I did the Origami version above, I actually cut oversize and trimmed down.

Sewing this entire structure took me 1 hr. and 8 minutes. This included getting the fabric out, lining up my cuttin tools, ironing the fabric, cutting, laying out, all sewing, the picture taking, and having to rip out one seam that went awry and correct one bad cut discovered after I was well started. Given the huge size of this one, and the fact that I will be shooting for 6 1/2" bow ties rather than 12 1/2", I think the actual project will go much faster than this did.

I plan to have 30 12" finished blocks in my quilt, and I think I would get the print pieces for a full block out of a fat quarter (my feed sackees, of which I have 30, are much larger than a fat quarter). Anyway, i thought that rather rough fabric estimate might be helpful.

I am not sure whether I want to arrange my colors such that each four block setting (12" block) is one fabric, and all 30 blocks different, or if I want to totally randomize and use four different fabrics in the same 12" block, as was done in the quillt above.

 

Captain Dick

Link to Page Two of Bow Tie Quilts