BLOG 391

Blog 391

 

I was at the Gresford craft group this week and they have already started to hand out the forms for items that will be on display at the Gresford show in June!! Gulp! This means that I have to get a wriggle on with many of my exhibits as they need to be (started and) finished. Now that I have completed all the Linus quilts, I feel quite liberated and happily able to move forward again.

Scrap Quilt. (I will have to find a suitable name for it; one of the hardest parts of exhibiting your work in my opinion!) I met up with quilting friends recently for lunch and took samples along from this scrap quilt. I laid out one sample with a black centre and another with a coloured centre and asked them for input. Without hesitation, they both said the coloured centres looked the best and so the decision has been made; coloured centres it is.

Each constructed strip measures 8” x 3 ¼” and I worked out that the centre square needs to be cut at 5½”. Here is a practice construction. I laid out the block beside the machine. The first strip has to be part-sewn to allow for the rest of the sides to be added, in full, working in a clock-wise direction. Once the final strip has been added, the rest of the first strip can be sewn to complete the block. I ironed these joining seams towards the middle because that was the way the heavily seamed strips were pushing it.

              The block

 

 

                 Part seam

 

 

 

            Next side

 

 

               In sequence

 

 

              

 

 

 

 

 

            Complete first seam

 

            
             Wrong side

 

               Right side

 

 

I wanted to add a border to this block and then put it onto wadding and a backing square. This quilt is going to be constructed using a ‘quilt-as-you-go’ technique. I trialled a couple of fabrics, ones of sufficient length, and quickly plumped for the brighter of the two. Once the borders were added, the square measured 13 ½”. I still have a lot of scrap strips so I will continue making blocks until I have sufficient for a single quilt to hang in the Gresford show!.

 

 

               Bright border

 

           Dark border

 

 

               Bordered blocks

 

It is very satisfying to be able to get rid of scraps and create something beautiful in the process.