Quilting

Planned Improv: Creative HSTs with Scrappy Slab • 6 Comments

sarah • December 15, 2020

I use the descriptor "planned improv" loosely. Sometimes the improv comes in the piecing. Sometimes it comes in the design work before piecing starts. In this case, the improv had to do with having no idea where I was going when I started piecing scraps together. And the plan was that HSTs would be involved, and I was working with a limited amount of scraps (at the beginning) with a limited color palette (that I'd curated for the bag of scraps).

This quilt has been a long time coming. The scraps that were the start of it predate February 2016 when I took Jeni Baker's Creative HST workshop at QuiltCon in Pasadena. (We won't discuss how these are scraps from another project that is not yet finished.) This three-hour evening class was a chance to play. I finished my first four blocks for this quilt that night and eventually went on to create 140 more!

As with many of my quilt projects, I worked on this one intermittently over the years. It had no deadline or destination. The quilt top was finally finished at a quilt retreat in September 2018. I mailed it away to be quilted (by Jess Zeigler) in December 2019. No rush on this one. ;-)

I finished the quilt with a faced binding in order to submit to it PIQF in October for their Online Quilt Festival.

It's 59" x 59". I plan to hang it in my entryway.

Unrelatedly, check out the new short film, Canvas, on Netflix.

Sewcialites Block 1 • 4 Comments

sarah • December 13, 2020

Fat Quarter Shop is currently hosting the Sewcialites quilt along. With 3", 6" and 9" size options, there are 36 blocks being released one week at a time on the Jolly Jabber blog. One block a week on top of my other sewing sounded like a lot, but I dove in on week one and made this 3" block.

I didn't really have a plan other than to make a few blocks, but I haven't made a second one yet. Someone recommended that I use this block as a rug in the dollhouse we are (very slowly) building. I think that's a lovely idea. Or maybe I'll finish it into a bed quilt for the dollhouse. We'll see.

This tiny little block has 45 pieces in it! And these are the tiniest HSTs I've ever sewn at 1/2" finished.

I think there's more fabric in the seam allowance than in the front!

Scrappy Slab Rainbow Fabric Book • 6 Comments

sarah • December 11, 2020

Two years ago, my son I started making these 8 1/2" monochromatic blocks from my scraps. As with many of my projects, these were set aside in favor of other projects... to be worked on from time to time over the last couple years. I finished it up in October just in time to send to my niece for her 2nd birthday. (I also finished her "baby" quilt.)

The project consists of twelve 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" scrappy slab blocks in monochromatic primary and secondary colors. I prioritized fabrics that had animals and other items, fussy cutting when possible.

I made each page by joining a piece of 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" batting with two blocks by stitching around three sides with blocks right side together. After turning the page right side out I topstitched around those edges, leaving open the edge that would go into the spine. I opted not to quilt the pages.

Then I machine stitched pages together two at a time, then combined those. Four pages (that's four layers of batting and 8 layers of fabric!) was the thickest my machine could handle so I hand sewed the two halves together.

I was just making it up as I went from there. I chose the last of my favorite rainbow print from Timeless Treasures for the front and back covers and finishing the spine. I opted for hand stitching and a little hot glue to cover the corners of the spine, then used a hand binding to cover the spine. This spine is a little more than 1/2" thick.