Category Archives: Machine Piecing

Third Scrap Class

For the third scrap class, we were supposed to bring scrap strings (narrow strips of fabric). As usual, I came with nothing and used some of the instructor’s scraps. She said to grab random ones, but I’m not so good at that, so I grabbed blues and greens. We sewed them together the long way, then used a 60 degree triangle ruler to cut six triangles. She said to do the same thing again with new scraps. I chose reds and oranges and ended the class with this:

Each of those is a stack of six and I love love love them.

The class project was the make a star out of them with a white fabric background, and I bought the white fabric for it, but I didn’t love it. When I put the pieces on black to take this photo, wowza! I fell in love with it.

Now I just need to get up the courage to attempt (AGAIN) to sew straight 1/4″ seams and get this put together. It’ll be too big for a pillow cover, so it’s going to be a wall hanging–I even know who it’ll be for.

Pumpkin Block 2

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This one, I like. The little stem still reads “apple” to me, but I think this pumpkin is loads cuter than the first one. It can live on the front of Sec’s toddler bed quilt.

I realize that I like a print for the pumpkin body way more than the solid I used on the first one. This block is a little smaller, but still close to 12″ square. I’m planning on making a few more in this size, and then a bunch half or a third of the size, and then floating them all in a scrappy white-on-white background.

I still haven’t decided if I want to quilt it myself. It’ll be small, so maybe, but I think (hope) it’ll turn out nice and I don’t want to ruin it by learning to free motion quilt on it. I also don’t want to put it off until after the possible whole-cloth toddler bed quilt for Ter.

The local quilt shop gave me a local long-arm quilter’s number. Maybe this is the quilt I have her work on first to see if I can go local or if I’ll have to send my big quilts away to get quilted. That can get expensive, though.

Do you quilt your own quilts? Use a local long-armer? Use someone states away? Let me know in the comments!

First Pumpkin Block

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With all of the orange fabrics on hand now, I couldn’t put off starting Sec’s pumpkin quilt (I’m calling it “Pumpkin Patch” because, really) any longer, even though I’m a little intimidated by the piecing (and pressing) I’ll need to do for each block. They’re improvisational and forgiving, but I like to feel I have a handle on what I’m doing.

I don’t like it. And I couldn’t get it to lay flat for the picture, even after pressing the heck out of it. That bottom right corner just keeps flipping up.

The pumpkin itself reads too small to me (even though this block is well over 12″), likely because of that HUGE leaf hanging over the edge. It looks like an orange apple. I should unpick those seams and cut the extra part of the leaf off, but I just can’t find the energy to do it. I like the way the scrappy white-on-white background looks, though.

Bleh. I worked so hard on it and it’s my first real quilt block. I guess I can just put it on the back of the quilt. Since it’s a bed quilt, the back won’t show much.

I guess I learned what not to do. Now, only a bazillion more. I exaggerate. I only need half a bazillion more, since it’s a toddler bed quilt.

First Scrap Class

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The scrap class was a lot of fun. I had to attend with my baby, which was less fun, but he stayed quiet in his stroller through most of it. Well, about half of it, but I’d not planned on staying the whole time anyway. Kid’s gotta nap.

The instructor had scraps for us to use, so I didn’t have to buy and fabric, which was awesome. I was there for all of the first project, which was sewing the 10″ blocks together around the perimeter, then cutting them into non-equal ninths, then opening them and pressing and flipping them into new combinations and sewing them back together. I do’t have progress pictures, but here it is finished:

Scrap Block 1 Front HP

I learned that my seams are TERRIBLE. Nothing matched. I don’t think it’s the machine, but I can’t imagine it was me. I was going super-slow and it should have worked. I need to practice a lot more. Here’s the back:

I got my second sewed together and immediately cut it wrong, which is a shame because I really like the fabrics. I suppose I can cut it more and use the center pinwheel and the half-square triangles for something and the rest can go in my scrap bin.

The instructor told me to dip back into her scrap piles and try to make another block. I managed to measure right this time for the cutting, but my seams were still awful.

I have a picture of the back, but I’ll spare you. I chose fabrics I thought Prim would like, but I have no idea how to use this in anything, short of cutting it up and salvaging the owl on the bottom right. I guess these two blocks will form the beginning of the “orphan blocks” pile.

The second project was English Paper Piecing. She gave us each a 3″ paper hexagon (3″ for one side, 6″ from point to point) and some fabric to loop over the shape and baste closed through the paper. Then we were supposed to sew them together on one edge to make a needle book (or something? I dunno). I had to leave before really working on this, but I did take some very cool fabrics and cut them to size. Who has time for hand sewing anyway?

And if I really wanted to make a needle book, I’d make it more like a rectangular book so it would be more stable.

See, super-cool fabrics. Now I’m thinking I need to use them for something and they’re already cut so much that if I cut them more, I’ll lose the interplay of shapes in the fabrics. <sigh> Well, these’ll go in my “I just don’t know and even if I did, I need more skills” pile. I have a feeling a lot of things from this class are going to end up in that pile.

Bonus front of onion fabric picture:

Handcrafted Precision

Just kidding. Everything's wonky.

Category Archives: Machine Piecing

Third Scrap Class

Pumpkin Block 2

First Pumpkin Block

First Scrap Class