Braiding It

Today was the day that six of us got together to experiment with the French Braid piecing technique I mentioned yesterday. Each if us came with different expectations. From one of us with a full size quilt to be built to the exact specifications of a quilt in the book to myself with the goal of seeing if I could put together a straight run of blocks and everything in between we had all types o french braiding going on.

Here is some of the work that was produced:

This run is going to be the middle of a lap size quilt with two other braids with darker blue strips of fabric. This was made from fabric in Ms. J.'s stash!

This run is going to be the center of a table runner for another Ms. J.'s daughter's new kitchen in her first house. The kitchen is painted red so I bet this will look smashing. The strips are from a jelly roll.

This run is being made by our over-achieving Ms. L. who is making a full size quilt from the book. She actually spent a couple of months gathering the right fabrics to get the correct shading. It will be fabulous!

These three bits will be made into placemats by Ms. R.. She had a very hard day today. For someone who makes absolutely perfect quilts she found she had a hard time cutting a straight line today. To top it all off she spilled a cup full of soda all over her work space. Some days the stars just are not in alignment and she packed up early.

This was my experiment from jelly roll I picked up a couple of months ago. I didn't use up a lot of it so I will coninue playing around with this technique with this jelly roll. This little sample will probably become a little table topper for the guest room.

This one was made from scraps by our very productive Ms. B. from scraps in her stash. I really like the middle of her braid as it was peiced rather than a single square of fabric as the others used. Once she finished with this braid she began working on another quilt top for one of the charity sewing bees. I love the dollar bill fabric!

I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We had a lot of food including birthday cake for one of us. Yum! I did leave a little early as my head was hurting again but I don't think I missed anything.

There are just a few things to know before you begin this type of project. One is that you will have a lot of itty, bitty scaps when you are finished,also, the braids will produce a narrower quilt than you think it will be (so borders are definitely necessary) and the books are a pain in the butt . The last point is that half of the information you need to complete a specific pattern is included in the general instructions so you can find yourself flipping back and forth in the book to work a specific pattern ... confusing!

The actual sewing in easy and once you get started good results can be had quickly.

I think the next project will be a pieced background that will look solid with appliques quilted onto it. Should be interesting.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!