Adding prairie points

Prairie points make a nice textural touch, especially to the table runner and pillows. Cut eight squares from the backing fabric the size of your unfinished left-over Log Cabin blocks. (You should have eight left-over blocks). You will sew these, right sides together, to your blocks to have a finished backing for the prairie points. Sew using a quarter-inch seam allowance on two sides only.

Important : determine which direction your blocks will go for the points. This will determine how you sew the backing fabric to the points. Keep in mind you will be trimming the blocks when you add your backing. Arrange your prairie points as you want them around the border. You can then determine which two sides need to be sewn. Turn the blocks right side out and use a blunt edge to sharpen the point of the block.

Place and pin the prairie points (right side of the point to the right side of the quilt) to the border of the top, with the corners of the prairie point aligned with the edge of the border. Sew across each prairie point with a scant 1/4" seam allowance. You will be sewing over this short seam when you sandwich the quilt and sew the backing.

You will have one prairie point centered over the top and bottom of the quilt. Three prairie points will be spaced evenly along each side of the quilt.

For two pillows: arrange the blocks as you want, keeping in mind you will be creating two tops (pillows) instead of one top (quilt hanging). You will have four prairie points on each pillow, spaced in the center of each edge. Follow the above directions for backing and attaching the points.

Sandwiching the top

Quilts are by definition three layers, much like a sandwich. The batting goes in the middle and is held together by additional stitching. For our purposes, you will be making a different kind of sandwich because you will sew three sides together first, before turning to complete.

For quilt hanging/table runner :

Lay the quilt hanging/table runner on a table, right side up. Cut the backing fabric two inches larger than the quilt top/runner and place it with the right side against the right side of the quilt top. Cut the batting the same size as the quilt top and place it on top of the backing. Baste/pin into place. You can hand-baste, using a different color thread and sew long lines across the quilt sandwich to keep layers from shifting. You can use safety pins and pin across the sandwich to keep layers from shifting. The important thing is to be sure layers do not shift while you are sewing the top together.

If border your edges ripple, then hand baste through all three layers along the edges. Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance on three sides of the quilt sandwich. Trim any excess edging, including the excess of the prairie points. Turn right sides out and use a blunt end of a pencil or seam ripper to get the corners nice and pointed. Press, and then hand-stitch the remaining side closed.

For the pillows :

Lay the pillow sham on a table, right side up. Cut the backing fabric slightly larger than the pillow and place it with the right side against the right side of the top. Baste/pin into place. Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance on three sides of the sandwich. You will want to continue sewing from each corner about a quarter of the way into the fourth side of the pillow. Be sure to leave a good opening so that you can turn the top to the right side. Trim, turn right sides out, press, stuff with a pillow, and then hand-stitch the remaining side closed.

You can choose to add batting, but once in a pillow form, you probably won't want the extra padding.

Quilting

If you are a long-time quilter, then go ahead and quilt your table runner as you would like. If you are new to quilting, you can hand-quilt this quilt, or you can use simple machine quilting to finish it.

For this pattern, the only quilting I did was to "stitch in the ditch" around the border. This means I carefully sewed around the quilt in the seam between the border and the design (the "ditch"). This is ample to hold the top and batting in place and keep them from slipping. You can also stitch in the ditch around any of the design elements. You can use thread that will blend with the design, or use a fancy decorative thread that will show when the light strikes the quilt. For the bobbin, you may want to choose a thread that will blend with your backing fabric.

Feeling adventurous?

Below are some ideas you can try to modify the original design:

Make your strips larger in width.
Piece border strips from all your solids.
Make your first center block a totally different color.
Use a variety of print fabrics that blend colors.
Use the same solid all the way through the quilt.

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