April 17, 2023: Vine Tutorial

Greetings dear readers! After my last post showing the vine I’m making for the donation quilt, a reader wondered how I’m making those vines so I’ve decided to do a tutorial since others may be interested as well. For this project, the vine doesn’t need to be perfectly symmetrical – “organic” (like in nature!🙂) is fine. (If you want a vine with perfectly even undulations, e.g. for competition, you may need to draw it out on paper first.)
First, prepare your border strip(s). I like to add an extra inch and a half on both ends because there can be shrinkage with appliqué and I fold the extra under (the extra will eventually be cut off):

Fold the strip in half and iron a crease at the fold. Fold in half again and iron creases at the fold; then fold in half a third time and iron again. What you’ve done is divided the border strip into 8 roughly equal sections:

Here’s the back side of the strip so you can see the creases better when you open it up:

On the right side, I’ve marked the creases with a Frixion pen so you can see them better:

Prepare your vine. My vines for this project are 3/8 inch wide so I cut BIAS strips 7/8 inch wide:

You need bias (rather than straight of grain) strips because you want to “curve” the vine. Sew your strips together and make sure your vine is long enough – the length of the border plus several extra inches. I use a Clover bias tape maker and, because I want a 3/8 inch wide vine, I need the #9 size tape maker. After sewing the strips together, cut your vine seam allowances narrow so they will go through the tape maker easily:

Fold the fabric together at the tip to get it started and then feed it into the tape maker, ironing it down as you go; I dab the strip with water as I go so that it holds its folds better:

Now you are ready to pin the vine to the border strip. Turn under the vine tip about 3/8 inch and pin or glue it. Start in one corner about 1 1/4 inches in and shape the vine – just by eyeing how it looks! – so that it reaches its peak and depth at every other crease, about 1 1/4 inch from the edge:

Pin as you go, shaping the gentle curve as you go:

Once it’s pinned, I like to look at it on the design wall to make sure I’m happy with it. Curves can be adjusted, smoothed, redone as needed.

My next step is to glue it down before sewing it down – it’s nice and flat and I don’t need to sew over pins. I love White School glue (given to me by Barb Vedder at “Fun With Barb” – see link on rt side) with a narrow tip applicator – you just need little dots. You can glue a bit at a time , unpinning and carefully lifting the vine as you go, but you have to be careful to keep the curving in place. I find it easier to mark along one edge of the pinned vine with a Frixion pen so I know exactly where to glue the vine:

After gluing, ironing it down creates a strong hold and then I stitch both edges and tips down by machine. The next couple photos show the vine stitching and the blanket stitch I use for appliquéing the fused “raw edge” leaves down.

I’m arranging 2 leaves in each curved area and here’s how the project is looking with 2 borders ready:

I plan to design some type of flower for the 4 corners. I hope the vine tutorial was helpful to some of you! It’s pretty easy and sometimes a vine border can add so much extra interest to an otherwise somewhat bland quilt!

I’ll end today’s post with a couple Earthly Delights:

I got good news this weekend – 2 of my quilts, “Golden Glow” and “The Inner Reaches of Outer Space “ will be showing at the Vermont Quilt Festival this June! Looking forward to an in-person festival this year for the first time since the pandemic!

Be kind, be grateful, and cherish each day, Gladi