Small Piecing Pays Off

When your only goal is to clean up some little bits of fabric leftover from another project you don’t expect to launch in to sewing an epic quilt. In truth, most of my quilts start with zero intention of being a finished quilt. Rather, it is just something to sew at that time; some experiment to try; some play to improve my mood. So when I had those leftover red squares from this quilt I just sewed them together with some low volume scraps so that they wouldn’t go to waste or get lost. I had no plans, no design, no lofty goals.

But…

They did look quite good together. And what if you sewed two pairs to each other? Oh look at that cute 4 patch! Hmm, there might be something to this…

Reader, there was. I started adding turquoise, then green 4 patches. Those colours look great together and it was all so cheerful. Of course I have a tonne of low volume scraps so I could use them up too. So now I made a 4 patch of two 4 patches. Oh boy, this was getting good!

One thing led to another, one block led to another, and even though I sewed a whole pile of blocks I still had no clue where this was heading. Sure, it would be a quilt one day, but just how far was I going to go?

Quite often I just sew until I get bored. Then the quilt is as big as that many blocks, give or take a few. I use what I made to puzzle together something (hopefully) cool. In this case I reached a point where some actual planning was required. Since I don’t like to make small quilts I did some math and even sketched out the layout to see where I needed to finish. This was my guide for sewing.

Most of the blocks were made as leaders and enders while making other quilts. I kept a bowl of the coloured scraps and a bowl of the low volume scraps by my machine and sewed a pair together at the end of any other seam. These would pile up until I felt motivated to press them. Then I would make the 4 patches as the next round of leaders and enders. At some point these would get both pressed and squared up. That required more motivation because I was squaring them up to 2” by 2”. Tedious work. Then those would get sewn to a low volume square in the next round. Pressing again then the last seam to join two of those pairs together. Usually by the last step I was doing some dedicated sewing on these blocks instead of leaders and enders. It was all very reminiscent of this.

Eventually I became dedicated to finishing all the blocks. If I had started this quilt with the end goal in mind I can honestly say I wouldn’t have started. This was a very tedious make. Don’t get me wrong, I believe all the effort was worthwhile and any time sewing is time well spent. But when you make a quilt from small pieces it can be nearly impossible to see the end from the beginning. Like climbing a mountain when you have no idea just how high it is. Or deciding to swim across the lake without knowing how far it really is. It’s all possible, but it is going to take some time to see the final achievements. So even though I had a specific plan and number of blocks needed, it was hard, in the years I’ve had this quilt ongoing, to see the finish. Glad to be here now. Real glad.

Now that the quilt top is done I will probably get it quilted fairly soon. It isn’t impatience that motivates me, it is a desire to not have to press this quilt top again. That was a lot of seam management there!

Oh, and for those wondering, the quilt top finishes at 63” x 81”.

Hermia

Hermia

72: x 65”

Not known for her stature, Hermia is known for her passion. Her Shakespearian namesake was an apt inspiration. She is always willing to engage in a debate and will fight fearlessly for the rights of all. She’s marched, written letters, educated quietly, and interrupted when necessary. Perhaps her size makes her less intimidating? Or is it that she is ignored, assumed to be worth ignoring. Never make that mistake.

These particular curves started in a Small Piecing workshop with Chawne Kimber. I wanted to see how small I could go. It turns out that ¾” curves are the answer to that question. Chawne encouraged her students to try for smaller and smaller, as well as gave tips for managing the size. Once I started I couldn’t stop! The quilt is the size it is more because I ran out of a number of the fabrics but I was tempted to make it bigger. Small pieces + big quilts = heaven!

Improv curves are a comfort block for me, something to feel good sewing when I am not sure what to sew or need the joy in the act of sewing. Curves are always the answer. Truth be told, I was sad to finish this quilt. It gave me such joy to work on it. The quilt is great! But this is one of those times when process wins over product.

I had a few ways to go with quilting. No matter what, I knew it would be easiest choosing an all over design. I also chose to do straight line quilting with my walking foot to manage any potential headaches with all those seam bumps! Essentially, I quilted her twice. In one direction in various blue threads. Why various? well, I had a whole bunch of more than half empty spools so decided to use them up. Then I did the same thing in the opposite direction with yellow.

My original plan for binding was to use the black and white print I used in bits on the front. This is one of the prints from my one and only fabric collection. In the end, though, it felt too busy as binding here so I swapped it for the Famous Last Words print. Perfect!

It took the motivation of my first solo quilt show at Heritage Park to finish this one. Otherwise, I might have kept making curves. Once I found my fabric, of course.

One Little Block at a Time

One day you are just staring at the scraps from some log cabins and the next you are starting a new quilt. To be fair, I didn’t really plan on starting a new quilt, I just wanted to see what would happen if I made some little four patches. Well, I can tell you this, JOY happened. Little four patches are deliciously delightful!

Tedious to sew at times, but delightful.

Initially, I only made the red and white ones. After a batch of those I decided they needed some other colours for company. It was only after I made some green and turquoise ones that I decided these little bits would become a quilt. But what kind of quilt?

THIS kind of quilt.

A meta four patch showing off all the best in the colours and the low volume fabric. See? Delightful.

My Covid brain would not allow me to imagine what it could truly be as a quilt though. At least not at a useful size. Usually, I could fo the math and dive right in. Alternatively, sew a bunch and then figure out a way to make it work. This time I needed to draw it out a bit. No one will ever complain about a little sketching either. Some coloured pens an graph paper did the trick. Now I could count squares instead of totally winging it.

Sometimes you don’t want to do the math though. Only because the answer is daunting. Really daunting. That is one of the downsides of small piecing. The only downside. It takes a lot of blocks to make a useful size quilt. In my case, this quilt will end up 21 x 27 blocks. That means I need 567 of the bigger blocks. So double that of the four patches! Yeah, I didn’t like that math either.

The good thing about small piecing and no deadline, is that I can plug away and one day it will be done. This causes me zero stress. If I finish this project this month, next year, or in 2025, I don’t care. It will be a cool quilt no matter what.

So I’ve cleaned up dangly bits from the stash of low volumes, tidied up the scrap bins, and got myself a pile of blocks by the sewing machine. As I work on any other project the pairs become my leaders and enders. Once a good stack of them are ready I plug in the iron and put a show on the computer to press. Then repeat, making four patches. I’ve actually squared up quite a few of them while on Zoom calls for school or sports AGMs. Keeps me busy, at least.

I feel my mojo creeping back so getting these assembled doesn’t feel like work. More like a comfort, a return to home. Just like our lives right now have to be about taking it one day at a time, we can make a quilt one block at a time.

The Problem and Joy of Small Piecing

Problem: It takes forever to make anything not small when the pieces are small.

Additional Problem: I have a really, really hard time making anything small, even if the pieces are small.

The Joy: It is delightfully meditative.

Additional Joy: It looks so cool. Ridiculously cool.

Super Additional Joy: It is always there for me.

Conclusion: Joy outweighs any problems. Keep sewing.