Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Doris’ No Sew Blanket…

OK…I promised to show you how to make Doris’ NO Sew Blanket.  I call it this because Doris fiddled with how to make this blanket…tried a variety of tools before she came up with a genius (and easy) way of ‘doing it’!

You will notice that this quilt is not tied like the other more traditional fleece quilts..yup no knots here…that’s where Doris’ technique comes in… and where this flat braid is formed.

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Hopefully I will be able to explain how to make this quilt…

You take two pieces of SAME SIZE fleece…It looks better and is easier to do if one of the pieces of fleece is a plain solid colour and the other is a print. Pin them together into a flat sandwich…wrong sides together. (much like you would for getting a quilt ready for quilting).

Lay your sandwich with the plain side up and draw a three inch border around the PLAIN side. See picture…

Cut your fringe (I think they were 1 inch strips) up to the line.

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Cut out each corner section…

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Ok…we are now ready to ‘tie’…take a sharp tool and make a tiny hole through BOTH pieces of fleece just about the slit mark…make sure it is VERY tiny!! 

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This is the hard part…and is tiring on the hands!

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Then you take these surgical scissors…called Hemostat Scissors (I need to find me a pair!!)

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Put the nose through BOTH holes…

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Hold your mouth just right and find that COLOURED PRINT strip and gently pull it through the tiny hole…

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Then holding the coloured strip down, carefully go back through the same hole for the liver..I mean the solid colour strip…;o}

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And pull it tight…

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That’s IT!!  Done!!  You have formed this wonderful braid…AND no lumpy, bumpy knots!!  It looks like a flat braid!  And look at how that plain colour pops the braid!

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This is what the back looks like…

 

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And front…

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The hard part is making the wee hole…and finding some Surgical Scissors!!

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So thank you Doris for sharing your technique and thank you, Heritage Judy for sharing your quilt and hands for the demo!  Now that’s what I call a TEAM effort!

I have the fleece…I am now on the hunt for surgical scissors…how about you?

Have a Wicked Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P

11 comments:

  1. Somebody gave me a pair of those, love using them for stuffing. Nice way to make a simple and soft baby quilt or blanket.

    Debbie

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  2. This is a great way to finish the blanket, does it hold up well in the laundry?

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  3. wow, that's so much better than the knots! thanks

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  4. Neat idea! May have to try that. I have 2 pair I have had for many moons! They come in handy for so many things! Yes find you some!

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  5. Have a pair of these and they are wonderful. You should be able to find them at a good quilt shop. I know that sounds strange but it's true as I have seen them.

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  6. What a great idea! We have a pair of those awesome little grabbers! When my son fell off his bike and split his chin open, the doctor who stitched him up gave him the hemostat that he had used! they come in handy for all sorts of things!

    Love that nice trim on the blanket...very clever!

    MGM

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  7. What perfect timing....I was just going to make a couple of these! Fortunately I am married to a surgeon, so have easy access to these little hemostats. :)
    What size do you make your blankets? I saw on pinterest to use 2 yards of each fabric, but that sounds like it would be very large! Just wondering.

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  8. Paulette,

    You can get some haemostats at Walmart! Go into the fishing tackle area and take a look. They use them for tying flies for fishing.

    Also if you ever go to Sewexpo in Puyallup there is a guy who sells all sorts of surgical instruments and you can get haemostats in different sizes and shapes. You can get straight or curved blades depending on what you want to use them for.

    I have different sizes for when I used to make mohair teddy bears. You can also get needle drivers, they have a shorter length and are grat for grabbing broken needles when you hand quilt.

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  9. Harbor Freight (a national chain hardware/tool store) has a great selection of sizes of those 'hemostats'--and at much better prices than a quilt store! Also when we were in the desert around Quartzite almost every flea market had some guy selling tools and there were lots of them there, too.

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  10. What a neat way of making these blankets - I love the no knots look!

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  11. Paulette..you can get those at Pioneer Quilts for 9.95 I think.

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