My Eclectic Mess

Operation Use It or Lose It continues. This project is all about using up all the little bits and pieces of quilting cotton I’ve collected over the past few years. Most of this came from bolt ends and remnants left of fabric from the store. Some are scraps left from previous projects.

There are lots of string quilts on Flickr and Pinterest to look to for inspiration. I made a similar smaller quilt at work out of Amy Butler fabrics in blues and teals. It is a simple process that can produce some pretty impressive results.

I started by pulling out all my fabric and cut it into strips that varied from 1.5” to 3.5” wide. Some are the full width of the fabric and others are shorter depending on what I started with of course. I also cut several 1.5” wide strips of the dark brown print for the center strip on each of the squares. I chose the dark brown because my bed is a dark wood and I thought it would set off the other mixed colors nicely. Also, I had a lot of the brown! I also cut 80 13” squares from a light colored cotton that has very small dots in light blue and green. Normally I would use a good quality muslin for my foundation squares but I didn’t have any and this project is all about using up what I have so I chose the lightest fabric I had and went with that. I could have also used paper for my foundation pieces but I wanted finished 12.5” units and didn’t have any paper that large. Plus I really didn’t want to have to pull off all that backing paper when this was all done! This is going to be used on my bed and the extra durability that the foundation fabric gives the finished quilt will come in handy with dogs sleeping on the bed too. I wash my bed quilt at least once a month, sometimes more depending on the dogs so it has to stand up to a lot of wear and tear.

All of the strips went into a big hamper and got mixed up like a fabric casserole! This just sits next to my chair and I reach in and grab a random strip for each step.

 

 

 

Because this quilt is going to be king size when it is finished I wanted to start with big foundation squares. String quilts made with smaller units are very striking but I’m all about getting this project done in as little time and effort as possible. Each unit starts as a 13” square and gets trimmed down to 12.5” after all the strips are sewn on.

Place the center strip diagonally across the foundation square.

Place next strip face down on center strip, aligning edges. Stitch, using a 1/4” seam allowance along edge of strips, attaching it to the foundation piece.

 

Flip strip open and press. Continue adding strips on both sides of center strip until the entire foundation square is covered.

 

 

Align 12.5” square ruler up on top of completed unit with the diagonal centered over middle strip. Trim all the way around.

Completed, trimmed unit.

Four units make up a full block. In my case a block will be 24” square. My plan is to make 80 units or 20 large blocks and configure them in a 5X4 pattern to make an extra large king size quilt. I’m pretty sure that for the first time I will be sending this one out to be quilted on a long arm. However with my new machine on its way, I could conceivably quilt this on it. But I have a feeling there will be so many other projects that I will want to do on it that it will be better to let someone else finish this quilt for me.

Not only am I using this project to use up all my miscellaneous fabric scraps, I’m taking this opportunity to empty all my bobbins and use up odd colored threads. With the way this is pieced and the variety of colors and patterns in the fabrics, the thread color really doesn’t matter. I have so many random bobbins with weird colors wound on them that I just set this holder next to my machine and when one runs out I just grab the next one in line and use it until it is gone. There are a few on here with rayon or decorative threads. I won’t use those, I’ll just have to remember to pull the old thread off those someday.

This is my set up when I work on this project. I have a stack of foundation squares next to my machine. On the other side is my ironing board. Usually I lower the board to be level with the table and all I do is swivel my chair from machine to iron between each strip, press, cut and add next strip. I keep the basket of strips next to me and just reach in and grab whatever I need. The pile of brown center strips is on the end of the ironing board. I can quickly move through the sewing of one unit without getting up from my machine with this set up. When I finish a unit I get up and take it to the cutting table and trim it. My goal is to make at least 4 units, or one big square every time I’m up in my sewing room. It would be great to have this quilt on my bed by the holidays.

In related news, I am working with a friend to get a Modern Quilt Guild started in our area. If you are interested in joining us please like our Facebook Page and join us for our first meeting on September 27 at 6pm at Sew Generously, St. Charles, IL.

I accomplished yet another of the projects on my priority list today. The dogs now have some nice mats for their crates. They are even personalized! They were very quick and easy to make.

Materials:

One yard each heavy denim and polar fleece. This is enough to make two mats approx. 35”x28”. I just cut each yard in half down the middle to make two pieces 36” by 30”. My two fabrics were quite the same width so I did a little trimming to match everything up. If you want them to fit perfectly into the bottom of your crate just measure the bottom pan size and add an inch to get a 1/2” seam allowance all the way around.

 

How To:

If you want to personalize it, hoop your denim and stitch out the name. Because this denim was so stiff I didn’t put an stabilizer in the hoop with it. I did Maizey’s first and some of the stitches weren’t as nice as I’d like them to be so when I did Cas’ I slipped a piece of Heavy Cut-Away under the hoop before I started stitching and that worked great.

 

Lay the denim piece out flat right side up and place fleece right side down on top of it. Smooth everything out, matching edges, trim any edges that aren’t even.

 

 

 

 

Round off the corners. I marked them with a chalk wheel and used my magnetic pin cushion as a guide. I chose to round them off to make turning them right side out easier. Pin both fabrics together. Stitch around edge, leaving an opening for turning. I used my walking foot because the fleece likes to stretch under the foot while stitching. I also lengthened my stitch length and made sure I had a jeans needle in the machine.

Turn right side out and clip excess fabric from curved corners and notch seam allowance. (I forgot to take a picture of this step.)

Topstitch approximately 1/2” from edge. Be cure to tuck in the edges of the opening so they get caught in the topstitching.

 

 

 

 

All done in a couple hour’s work. I like that they are lightweight and easy to wash. No stuffing for the dogs to chew apart and get all over the house. The fleece gives a little cushioning and the denim is durable.

 

Miss Maizey looks a little less than thrilled with her new digs but that is partly because I moved her crate today from one corner to another and now Cas is in the same room. She doesn’t like change.

In reality the dogs don’t spend a lot of time in their crates. Just while we are out of the house. They are still spoiled and get to sleep on our bed at night. And with my part-time hours and how early the girls get home from school they are rarely crated for more than a few hours at a time. But Cas does like his crate and will just go hang out in their for periods of time. He is also a bit of a hoarder and we will find random things hidden in there. Like the time my friend stayed over to dog sit and after we got home I was cleaning it out and found her bank card still in the envelope from the mail in his crate.

Also, does anyone else think it is weird that two Michigan State Spartans have a dog named MAIZEy? I didn’t ever realize the awkwardness until I embroidered her name in bright yellow on a blue background.

Yesterday I spent some time making blocks for Missy’s quilt. I took some pictures of the process I’m using for making the blocks. Each block is unique but I use the same basic approach to make them and will outline it here for you today if you want to use this technique too. For the first entry I wrote about this quilt and how it came to be go here.

Step 1:

Start with a smallish (2”x3”) trapezoid shape. The more irregular the shape the more skewed the finished block will end up.

 

 

Add the side pieces to opposite sides. I usually pick a piece of fabric that is longer than the side I’m adding it to to give me plenty of room for trimming later.

Sew (1/4” seam allowance) and press with seam allowances toward outside.

 

Step 2:

Trim excess fabric. I line my ruler up with the edge of the original piece and trim off the excess fabric. You can also trim at a new angle if you want to skew the edges even more.

 

 

Step 3:

Add the next round. Again choosing a piece that is a bit longer than the edge it is being added to. This round goes on the other edge of the first piece and the seam crosses the ends of the seams of the first round. Press open with seam allowances toward the outside.

Trim overhanging fabric like in the first round.

 

 

 

Step 4:

Continue to add fabrics to opposite sides, pressing and trimming as you go. I typically add a total of 7 rounds, the center square counting as “round 1”. I planned this quilt so that the 6th round will be white fabric and the last round (7th) will be the darker green.

Step 5:

I want my finished squares to be 11” square so I make sure the last two rounds (white and green) are plenty thick enough to give me room to trim them down to the finished size.

 

Lay a square ruler on top of the finished block and make sure your finished dimensions fit on the square.

 

 

Trim right and top sides.

 

 

Line trimmed sides up with the 11” marks on ruler. Trim remaining two sides.

 

Your finished block should be square with opposite green edges and opposite white edges. You can vary the width of the inner rounds to make the outer rounds wider or thinner. You can also add more rounds. The bigger the angles you use to cut the edges will skew or square you block more or less depending on personal taste.

 

 

Step 6:

Putting the finished blocks together.

Line the blocks up so that a green edge is touching a white edge (turning each block 90°)

I am pretty sure that this is how I’m going to assemble the finished quilt. But I may experiment with adding a narrow green sashing between blocks. But right now I like how the green edges make the rest of the block “float” in space and blur the lines of the finished blocks.

NOTES:

For a while I was making the blocks so that the 3rd round was always white but then I thought that made the finished quilt look too white all over so I started eliminating that round of white and varied the fabric placement to make more darker blocks. I’m also trying to make more blocks with thicker green edges. I think the overall effect will be very cool and modern looking. I love the fresh clean look of this simple color palette. Right now my quilting plan is to just straight line quilt with lines going across the quilt in different directions. I just don’t know what color thread to use. I think white will show up too bright on the green parts but green or blue will muddy the white sections. I’ll have to do some test blocks to see what I like best. Of course I’ll post results here to get your opinions!

I also made this one square using the breast pocket from one of the shirts. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to incorporate it into the finished quilt. I may do a partially pieced back and put it there with a note to Missy in the pocket. Or I may use for a coordinating pillow. I also saved the front button bands from the shirt with the idea of using them on pillows as the closure. The possibilities are endless!

If you use this technique please link back to me so I can see your creations. I love these improvisational techniques because the end results are all so different. I can’t wait to see what you all make with it too!