Hi Readers.
I don't usually write tutorials but I am going to attempt to write out a tutorial on how I made the cowbell handles. I used the Missouri Star small tumbler template to make this quilt on both the bell fabric and the handles. I had seen a quilt made by Robbie Wise at the Fall Gathering in Starkville a few years ago, and my friend Lauren and I both thought we would like to make it. I looked at this quilt, and realized she had hand appliquéd all the handles. I don't do hand work, if I can avoid it, so I decided I would figure out how to machine piece the handles. This is a picture of her quilt.
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| Robbie Wise's Cowbell Quilt |
The Fabrics:
I used all the different Mississippi State fabrics I could find and added grays, maroons, light maroons, white with maroon prints, blacks with bones and anything with a bulldog or paw print. Since I had some of that in my stash it is hard to say exactly how much you should buy, but I wish I had thought to add some pirate fabric in honor of Mike Leach, but I didn't think of that. Lauren suggested that a khaki for the background would make the white bells stand out. I have also thought about using a black as a background, but then the dog bone fabrics would blend in. I used about 3 yards of background, but a throw would take less.
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| My Quilt |
The Bells:
The Missouri Star template is designed so that it can be used on charm squares. It is 5 inches tall and almost 5 inches wide at the bottom. So I cut 5 inch strips of the various bell fabrics and if the fabric was not directional I would cut bells, flipping the tumbler upside down on every other cut. That way there would be very little waste. On the State fabrics, it was directional so it could not be flipped and there would be a bit more waste, but it wasn't too bad. I had a thought later that a charm packet might give greater variations but I haven't seen one that is primarily maroon.
The Tumber Handles:
I cut 1.5 inch strips of black and 2 inch strips of background and and used the strips to make a width of fabric strip set of background, black, background ironing toward the black.
I then cut these strip sets into 3.75 inch sub cuts. I could get 11 pieces out of one strip set. I then cut a bright piece of scrap fabric into 2 x 5/8 inch piece. I used a bright piece so I would not lose it in my sewing area. This was to be used as a spacer (not to be sewn in) so I would not line the handle block either too close or too far apart on the top of the tumbler strip. So I took another 2 inch strip of background and put one of the handle on it right sides together and sewed it down. Then when I got to the end of the handle part, I put my spacer down then another handle part. I picked up the spacer and sewed my quarter inch seam across the top part and onto the next handle.
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| (These are not actual handle pieces, they are end of strip sets that were a bit short or uneven. I am just showing how I laid them out.) |
I repeated this across the whole strip. I ironed this to what would be the top of the tumbler. I could fit 8 handle piece on one strip of fabric. I then used my template to cut the handle tumbler. Click here to go to MSQC
Layout:
I wanted my cowbells to float so I put tumblers cut out of background (without handles) on the each end of each row and between the handles on the top row. I also put one background tumbler between each of the bells on the bottom row. I also put a two inch strip on the bottom the give the bells some space from the borders. I trimmed the sides two inches out from the side of the last bell. I did 16 rows of tumblers. I kind of wish I had done an odd number of rows and alternated rows of 9 and then 8, beginning and ending with 9, but hind sight is twenty-twenty. In my layout I did 144 handles and 144 bells and 50 background tumblers. To cut the background tumblers I cut a 5 inch strip and then cut one up and one down on each strip. I forgot to count but I think you can get 10 or 11 per strip. I sewed two 2 inch strip pieces end to end and put it under the cowbells, trimming to width of quilt. I cut strips 5 inches x 15 inches out of the left over bell fabrics and put them around the edges so I could use most of the left over fabrics and not have too much more in the stash. Here is a quick sketch of a smaller version, if you made the same number of bells in the top row as the bottom row.
Finishing:
I used a gray and maroon plaid on the back. Thought it looked like a man's shirt. I put a piece of MSU fabric across it where I had to seam it together to make it big enough.
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Options:
This technique could be used to make Christmas Bells or as my friend Naomi suggested that they could be chimneys of houses or if you turned them upside down you could make popsicles. So rethink how you use your tumbler templates! The options are endless!
Sew on,
Terry
Update: Jim loved the quilt!! His praise was over the top!