Inch by Inch, Row by Row

Here are all the completed squares.  All 120 of them.  Now to figure out how they will be assembled to form a lap throw.

A few simple calculations and a quick sketch to give myself a visual double check and I settled on putting the squares together in columns made up of 9 squares that will then be connected in 13 rows.  Again, let me emphasize here that the person who asked for this throw wasn’t interested in a blanket or cover size completed product.  She wanted something to throw around her shoulders or over her lap.  So, these dimensions should work out just fine.

Depending on the size of the squares you have decided to make, the number of them you have made and what kind/size of finished piece you’re creating you may come up with several options of how to use the squares you have completed.  Your throw could be long and narrow, meant for a single, tall person to completely cover themselves head to foot or it could be a large square made for two to snuggle under!

Working from left to right, I connected 9 squares, adding them one at a time.  This photo shows me adding square number 7 to squares 1-6.  Working left to right means that the length I’m creating stays to the left of my sewing machine and doesn’t fill the throat area of the machine.  This gives you a clear working area on the bed plate of the machine , the pinned pieces lay flat and you can see the seam you’re making very clearly.  There will be a photo later in these instructions that illustrates this well.  This is another point in the assembly process when you want to always be sure that you’re putting your squares together with the nap of the fur all going the same way.  It is also a time when you’ll see the results of careful craftsmanship so far in your process.

The more accurate the size and shape of your original squares were; if your fur and twill squares were matched up carefully; the more accurate your two bisecting lines of stitching on the squares are; the more closely these lines of stitching will meet at these straight connecting seams and form a continuous pattern of Xs across your column of connected squares.  I used a ½” seam allowance.  This will give me a good amount of the material to snip and allow to fray to form the “ragged” standing seams on the finished piece.  I am matching up the squares and pinning them together for each seam with the fur faces together.  This will result in the standing seam being on the twill face of the finished throw.  The fur side will be uninterrupted by seams.  This will give a soothing, “pettable”, face to the finished throw.

And so, you continue to assemble the columns created with 9 connected squares.  Always be sure that the nap of the fur and direction of the twill on the other side of the squares are all going in the same direction as you sew them together.  In this close up shot you can see how the light shines on all these squares and gives the same “look” to the fur nap.  If you look closely you can see how the stitching lines have met to make the continuous Xs from square to square.