Morning Make February 2021

Phew!

That was a bit of a doozy. In a good way, of course, but still an incredible amount of stitching. That right there is one crumb block for each day in February.

What is a crumb block? That is a block sewn together with little scraps, the crumbs of your previous quilting. I think of them as mini slab blocks, the often used technique from my book Sunday Morning Quilts. What counts as a crumb is a personal definition.

In my case, crumbs are as small as 3/4” and as big as 2”. They might be skinny and long or so small you wonder why I bother. All of it is precious and valuable. This really is sewing with every last bit.

The month started with a basket of scraps that had accumulated over time. I sorted them one evening, pulling out the bigger bits and setting them aside. A few days in I remembered a half full IKEA bag of various scraps. Sigh. That’s a lot of scraps. But a zoom call with girlfriends in another city got me through most of those. Sorting scraps can be daunting but I find it is easier to do when I am multitasking with conversation or viewing something. It was those two sources that fed the crumbs. Yes, there are still some left.

That’s alright, because I am not done making these blocks!

I actually had a handful from previous sew days already. And with my upcoming Crumb Blocks Playdate on the Quilters’ Playcation I have more sewing on the agenda.

I have no idea how I am going to put these all together. You may be shocked to hear this, but I am debating using sashing! All the blocks are different sizes - they finish when I feel like stopping sewing. It would be very enjoyable to puzzle it all together, filling in the gaps with more crumbs. Indeed, that is my favourite part of making a quilt. However, I already have one large quilt made in a similar fashion. Slightly bigger crumbs and the addition of a word, but still very similar. I think I will challenge myself to do something different, I’m just not sure what that will be. In the meantime, there will always be more crumbs.

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.

Plus Size - Scrap Quilt Extraordinaire

Plus Size

96” x 96”

When you get the kids involved in the quilt photo shoot there will always be a Dab. There were a few other moves, if I’m being perfectly honest. Good for laughs, and fun photos.

Finished the binding on this massive quilt recently. It took me a few weeks to get it done due to that whole chronic pain thing and a desire to not sit much. And this is definitely one of those instances where I didn’t quite appreciate just how big of a quilt I was making!

The entire quilt started with me walking the walk, instead of just talking. An IKEA bag full of scraps that needed to be sorted combined with a few sample blocks. An obsession with making blocks and dealing with all those scraps later and I have a finished quilt. Well, a few more steps in there. But funny how as soon as you finish the quilt your forget all the steps that got you there!

Of course, it helped that I had someone else quilt it for me! When I finished the top my local friend asked if she could work on it. Um, yes! I made up a back with some multicolour prints in my stash and dropped it off. The good thing about a scrappy quilt like this is that an all over design is absolutely perfect. With so much going on in piecing and prints you won’t see the quilting. Well, unless the sun is directly shining on it! Lee picked this great modified paisley. I’m a girl who likes contrast so I really like it against the angular piecing.

Initially I was going to do a black binding. Too harsh in this case against all the prints. Then I was going to do a black and white stripe but I after tearing apart my stash for the one I had in mind I remembered that I used it on the back! In the end I went with a grey from my Tag fabric collection. The text is written on the bias so it makes a perfect binding. To keep it from being too boring I pieced in other colours where there was grey on the edge of the quilt.

The name - like many of my quilts - has a double meaning. Triple, actually. 1. The blocks are based on a class I teach called Values Plus. 2. I like the double pluses - using the plus blocks to make colour block pluses. 3. Today was a fat day. Hey, we all have them. And when I was lamenting my plus size body I saw the quilt and it made me smile. My body is real, and this quilt is Plus Size.

Teeny Tiny Scraps Shadow Box Craft

“How small is too small?”

Whenever I am speaking on scrap quilting, no matter the audience, this is a guaranteed question. I think people are looking for either A) someone to tell them it is okay to throw out fabric at some point or B) that they aren’t crazy for keeping every little bit. And both of those people would be right.

My default answer is that I will keep pieces as small as 1-2’’ square. And little triangles left from making binding or other blocks. Definitely keep those. Not to mention all those stringy strings of fabric shedding bits of thread, I always keep those.

Then there are the trimmings. Because the bulk of the work I do is improvised at some point I need to trim and square up blocks or components on a quilt. I might be left with very useful scraps or a mess of threads and what used to look like fabric. While finishing up my last quilt top the dazzling array of bits left behind were just as inspiring to me as the blocks themselves. So I spent 5 minutes - yes, that is all it took - putting together this fun scrap project.

TEENY TINY SCRAPS SHADOW BOX CRAFT

Supplies

• Fabric trimmings, thread bits, and tiny scraps of fabric

• Clean Shadow Box Frame in any size

Instructions

1. Fill shadow box with trimmings. Arrange in a colour order, if desired.

Notes

• Take a little time to make the front side of the scraps pretty. The back of a fabric is really just another fabric in the collection, so it isn’t a big deal if it shows. Just be happy with the way the top layer of scraps looks.

• It might be tempting to jam in ALL the trimmings, but unless you have a latch on your shadow box frame it won’t stay closed. Experiment with just the right amount to be full yet still keep closed.

Now my project happens to match the last quilt top I finished, because it was that quilt itself and her gorgeous colours that gave me the idea. But this has the potential to be a whole different kind of art project. In a way it reminds me of the sand paintings that some people can do.

So, to answer the question: nothing is too small.