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Okay. It's Wednesday and I haven't posted anything since Sunday. I PROMISE I have been diligently sewing at my machine since my short hiatus last weekend. 

I FINISHED ALL MY BLOCKS! Yes, I finished sewing 210 blocks last night; my 6 1/2 inch babies.

This is a few more than I need for a queen-sized quilt but this will allow me to swap out a few blocks if they are just not working. I might also make a matching wall hanging if I have enough extra blocks. 

Now that I have all my blocks, you might be wondering HOW MANY blocks I need for this quilt. Here is the math.  Using my EQ5 software makes doing the math super easy.

I knew my blocks were being CUT at 6.5 inches so I told the software the size AFTER accounting for a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

So these blocks will finish at 6 inches square. They will sit 13 across and 15 down, so I will need 195 total.

Note: on the bottom right of the previous picture you can see that my total quilt size is 92.5 inches by 103.5 inches, making it a queen size quilt. Like I said, EQ5 does all this complicated math for me :D

Around the blocks I want three borders. The first border is a simple border that measure 2.25 inches (FINISHED) on the left/right and 1.75 inches (FINISHED) on the top/bottom. This complicated math is necessary to make the second border work. (Note to self: when cutting the border, add 1/2 inch to the measurements for the seam allowance.) The third border is also similar and measures 2 inches (FINISHED) on all sides.  

Now, the second border. I had a bunch of these scraps left and felt bad not inviting them to the party. 

So, I added the second border to incorporate them. They are cut 3.25 inches square. Because of the size, I can cut them out of scraps, or cut a 6.5 inch block in half and get 4 of these bad boys, depending on how many scraps I have in the end.

I will need a total of 128 of these mini babies to complete the second border.

Ffeww. I am tired of typing already! Next post: How to cut the blocks.

Status Update

As far as the weekends goes I was pretty productive!

Friday:
--Work
--Family Dinner

Saturday:
--Day boating on the lake. B-E-A-utiful!
--Family Game night

Sunday:
--Laundry
--Dishes
--Nap (to recover from the lake)
--Sewing

Now If only some of they productivity could have been towards my latest project! :D I have have 80 blocks made, about 120 more to go; back to sewing for me. Have a wonderful Monday!

Step 3

Now that all my fabrics are cut, it's time to sew. With all the strips in a bag, I decided to close my eyes and choose two random scraps. Not only does this add an element of surprise, but I believe it will help me from trying to plan out this quilt top. I don't want to subconsciously have a block with one of each color, I want each block to be unique. 

A little bit of thought does go a long ay, though. To save fabric, one needs to be strategic about which direction the strips are segn together. For instance:

                                                                        Poor Choice

                                                                        Good Choice

 

I think the concept is pretty simple, but in case you don't see it I'll explain. If we have the "fat side" of each strip on the same side the "fat side" will end up being, say, twice as wide as the "skinny side." And, in my book, there is never an excuse to waste fabric! ;) 

A note: My terminology may not be prefect or widely used, but I never claimed to be a professional. I quilt in my free time and come up with most of my designs, and terms, on my own. For me, quilting is all about the thrill of the process.

The number of strips it takes to make a 6 1/2 inch wide strip will depend on which fabrics you use for the block and how wide they are. I continued adding strips until the strips were more than 6 1/2 inches wide :D.

Well, it's back to sewing for me. To make a Queen-sized quilt that measures around 90 inches by 100 inches (I am still working on the math for my final quilt top - will share soon) I figure I will need about 200 of there bad boys. 

Happy Quilting!

 

And Sew It Begins

Step1
 
To start out I took all my fabrics and cut strips out of them. There was no rhyme of reason to the way I cut the strips; I just cut them in 2-4 inch strips. The only thing I did worry about was keeping them abotu the same length. To do this easily, I recommend folding your yardage in half when cutting. Most of my strips are around 20 inches long. 
I also did not worry about having an even number of each color of fabric. This quilt is all abotu using up the scraps I have around in a randomly-fun creative way.

The more variety in the shape and width of the strips the better. That's because this is where the uniqueness of each block will come from. The more variety you add now, the more interesting the end product will be.

I have not yet decided what size quilt I will be making. All I know is that I want ti to be BIG. This pattern is great for that because I can start making blacks now and add more fabrics later if I want to make the quilt bigger or if I ran out of fabric. The blacks will all be mixed up in the end to make the top of the quilt to no one will ever know the difference (our little secret).

Step 2

Throw your strips on the floor! You heard me right! Throw them on the floor and mix them up. 

Think of it like making cookies. You want all the ingredients evenly mixed up. 

After this, I put my strips on a paper bag. As I sew my strips together, I'll randomly pull them out of the bag.

Spoiler Alert!

Before I embarked on this quilting journey, I wanted to make sure my idea was solid. No point in spending hours on the sewing machine if I don't know if it will turn out, right? So last night I grabbed a few random scraps to test out the project. Here is the result.

I am absolutely excited about the sample! Here we go...

It's been a while.

I haven't quilted (or blogged for that matter) in a loooong time. Well, the day has finally come. I'm eager to quilt and ready to blog my heart away.


THE BACKGROUND: A few weeks ago I discovered this fabric in my scrap stash.

I absolutely love the design and the colors. So for the past few weeks, I have been trying to dream up a quilt to use this fabric. After searching the remainder of my stash, I was able to find 20-30 coordinating fabrics to accompany this lovely pattern.

THE PROBLEM: I only have 1/2 yard of my inspiration fabric. Also, I do not have very much of some of my coordinating fabrics (one as little as 1/4 yard). So, the pattern I choose for this quilt had to be extremely  forgiving in terms of yardage of particular fabrics. No patterned blocks for this one.


THE SOLUTION: I came up with a design that solves my 1/4 yard fabric problem! I will be taking strips of varying widths and angles and sewing them into strips. From the strips, I will cut 6 1/2" squares. The squares will then be sewn together to make the top of the quilt.


THE PLAN: A little lost? So am I. To make this all less confusing, I will be documenting my progress on this quilt with step-by-step pictures to clear away the fog of my idea. Over the course of this project I will be posting my progress; a post today, three tomorrow. I will have to see where the stitch takes me.