We gather to sew projects that use pre-cut strips and/or squares of fabirc. The projects must be interesting and easy to make in a day. Both of these requirements were met yesterday when we tackled the Random Reflections Quilt from the Moda Bakeshop designed by KarrieLynn at Freckled Whimsey. Check out her blog to see what else she has been up to recently.
But I digress.
Yes this project looks interesting and it is an easy sew BUT it is a boring sew.
Let me explain..
When you make a pieced quilt top it is is typical for you to take little bits of fabric and keep sewing them together until you bigger bits which eventually become a quilt top.
In ths case you sew long strips of fabric together at their short ends, cut out where they join in the middle, sew the short ends together again and cut out the middle and again and again and again until you have used up all the fabric. At this point you have a bunch of 10 1/2" strips of two tone fabric which get sewn together to make rows then the rows together to make the quilt top.
The pattern uses 80 strips of fabric, 40 for the background and 40 for the reflections. Doing a bit of quick math, you end up sewing 160 little short seams, stopping 4 times to cut out the middles and them you can get into block construction.
BORING!
BUT, if you are a creative soul like some of my colleagues yesterday, you will use the pattern as a starting point and end up with the following quilt tops:
Joyce used 14 strips for her crib sized quilt that Kimora likes so much.
Janetta used 16 strips on ths quilt top that will go to her grandson Tanner. Alex liked it so much he started rearranging the stips!
Two other quilt tops were almost completed in the time we had but I didn't get pictures. One was all lovely florals for the reflections and different pastels for the background, while the other used scrappy reflections and a solid beige for the background.
I, on the other hand, got a headache, went home for a nap and brought Alex and the Girls back with me to close up. This is all I got done:
I hope your weekend is going well and that your projects are generating some creative excitement for you. I'm still working on it!
2 comments:
I can see how some could get bored...but I enjoyed the process! I especially love how little waste their was! wow
I'm a strip piecer. It's what I do.
In the end...I was sewing a print to the 'solid', flipping the end of the solid around and sewing another print to the other end of the solid (same way I sew binding and border strips together)...that made it go faster, and I think it made it actually go faster (for me) to cut one strip at a time (to 10 1/2") (which I started doing towards the end too) I also found a 10 1/2" omnigrid ruler at JoAnns last night...and got it for 50 percent off with a coupon, so score...and that will make it go faster too! :)
"strip club" - love it!
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