Cathedral Window Quilts. Lynne Edwards

      Fig 8

      TIP

      If you run over a pin with your rotary cutter, the blade will be damaged and will never cut completely cleanly again, and rotary cutter blades can be expensive. So before laying the fabric in place on the cutting board, sweep your hand over the surface of the board to move aside any rogue pins that may be lying in wait there. If you use a smaller size rotary cutter, which will easily cut two or three layers at a time, the replacement blades are half the price of the larger version!

      Making Templates

      For the overlying square windows I use rotary cutting equipment to cut as many as I need speedily and efficiently. If I want to cut a specific section of fabric such as a flower or star, I make a template for the window shape from template plastic so that I can place it exactly in position on the design and draw round it. I still use a rotary cutter and ruler rather than scissors to cut the window out, but you use any method that suits you. Oddly shaped windows that occur in some of the complex designs must be made as templates and drawn around individually in the usual way.

      When making a template from those printed in this book, trace the desired shape on to good quality tracing paper, including the arrow that shows the direction of the grain or weave of the fabric. Cut out the traced shape roughly, keeping about ¹⁄₄in (6mm) outside the drawn outline. Stick this on to card and then cut out the exact outline through both tracing paper and card. Try to cut just inside the drawn lines as this keeps the measurements accurate as you draw round the template on the fabric. Alternatively, make the templates from clear template plastic.

      TIP

      Try using freezer paper as an alternative to tracing paper (available from most quilt shops). Trace the shape on to the non-shiny side of the freezer paper. Cut the shape out roughly as described above. Place the cut shape shiny-side down on a piece of card and iron it with a medium-hot iron. The freezer paper will bond on to the card and you can then cut out the template in the usual way.

      Using the Sewing Machine

      When I first explored Cathedral Window I treated it as a hand technique from start to finish. I used to construct the folded squares by hand using a steam iron, but over the years I have switched to the envelope method and to stitching by machine, although all the stitching may be done by hand if preferred. I like the machine for this part of the job because it is more secure and speeds up the tedious preliminary processes, giving me more time for the delicious hand-work with the windows.

      I have always joined the folded squares together by oversewing or whip stitching the folded edges by hand, much like English patchwork over papers. This is a process that I really enjoy, finding the gentle oversewing very restful and therapeutic. I am very aware, however, that such activities are not everyone’s pleasure. I realized that if I wanted Cathedral Window to have as wide an appeal as possible, I needed to find alternative ways of doing the preliminary stages more quickly by machine – that way both the hand workers and the machinists can explore the technique in the medium that they most enjoy. Although I believe that the final stage of stitching the rolled edge over the added window fabric is essentially a hand process, I know that clever machinists will enjoy themselves perfecting it by machine. Well, they would do, wouldn’t they? Meanwhile what I have done is take the stitching together of the folded background squares or rectangles and offer a machined method as an alternative to oversewing by hand (see Joining Square Blocks by Machine, page 20). For the machining, a basic straight stitch with an accurate ¹⁄₄in (6mm) seam allowance is all that is required, so even an ancient hand machine would do. Use a new 80/11 size needle for medium-weight cotton fabrics or a 70/9 for lightweight fabric.