Braided Rug Quilt Block Alternative - Colour Focused Scraps

So I think I started a new quilt. I didn’t mean to, honest! It was just an experiment that I fell in love with!

There I was, teaching a Scraptastic class with a guild out of the Whistler Valley. We got to the part where we play with strips. At this moment I always give students a choice on what technique they want to explore. The Braided Rug blocks won out that day. While demonstrating the technique I decided to explore a square block. A change from my original. One pile of pink scraps and some sewing later, an idea was born.

It’s a been a few weeks and that idea has already evolved. I thought rows of blocks first, then placed four together like this. Okay, that works. let’s try another colour and maybe do a round robin, like the original again. I really liked that shape formed by the four together though so placed another colour that way. Yup, that’s the winner! I’ve already picked my next colour - green, for hope - and will make another set of 4. I’m thinking, only thinking, of making 9 sets of 4 blocks. We’ll see how the motivation lasts. That being said, moving to the new studio uncovered A LOT more scraps than I thought I had so there is no shortage of fabric options!

Just playing around with potential colours. This is a more random colour scheme, maybe I will edit it down, maybe not? For now, one block at a time.

Quilted Baba Update

Making progress over here. It’s slow, but it is progress. This is the first 9/81 blocks, all sewn together.

Early in the year I let you in on this epic portrait project. It is a pixelated quilt portrait of my Baba. Each pixel is actually a little x block. And when I say little, I mean that I square them up at 1.5” x 1.5”. When all is said and done, the quilt will measure 90” x 90”. To make the quilt I’ve divided the picture I started with into a 9 x 9 grid. Each of those 81 blocks is made from 100 of the little X blocks. That means there will be 8,100 little cross stitches in the finished quilt.

That picture there? That is 9 of those 81 blocks of 100 together. They constitute the bottom corner. Why did I start in the bottom corner? Well, I had to start somewhere! It also allowed me to test the fabric choices and pixellation because all the other corners were mostly background colours. I’m happy with how it turned out so I shall keep going!

For the most part, I’ve been making the blocks as my Morning Make practice. I tend to make them in batches of 10-15. It is tedious and boring sewing, so that seems to be all I can handle. That, and the fact that it was in the morning and there is only so much time to sew. When I have 100 for the block I lay them out and start the process of sewing them together. Assembling rows goes quickly, but the pressing is a definite slow down in the process. It’s worth the time and effort, though, as there are a lot of seam allowances and having a mess on the back is not good. With such small pieces a messy back would spell disaster for a quilt that stays flat and in order. Once the rows are sewn I pin - yes, me, pinning! - to join the rows together. I want them to line up as best I can. I will admit, there is a some work needed on my part to improve accuracy. But it improves with each block.

Now that I have the studio space I have to figure out a new time to piece these blocks. I think a regular time would allow me to see continued progress, and make it harder to put things aside for weeks or even months on end. So far I’ve been taking 20 minutes after lunch, after I walk with my son and the dog to school. We’ll see how that works.

I think it is important to tell myself that this won’t be an exact representation of the photo. I did my best to match colours and fabrics, but we are always limited by what is available. I wanted to use prints, which meant buying commercially available fabric. I fear that my work with the values, more than the colours, isn’t exactly spot on. I know, however, that the story of the quilt will still be successful. For me, that matters more.

Wren - A Scrap Quilt of Happiness

Wren

78” x 80”

She’s the joyous girl of sunshine. She grew up in a hippie community on an island. It’s easy to be easy going when you grow up surrounded by peace and love. Sure, there is always an underbelly to that and life is always far from perfect. She chooses to move forward with love, however, no matter what happens. As a result, she spreads that calm and joyous nature to the people around her. At night, she retreats and regroups, a little bit alone in her personal sorrow. But without pain you can’t feel joy, right?

This quilt was a wonderful bit of therapy. I mean that both in the making and the end result. She started from a literal pile of scraps that my son threw on the floor as a toddler. Rather than put them away I started sewing them together right from the floor! Fast forward a decade and I pulled it out to make it bigger through some play.

You see, a few eyers ago I faced a rather deep hole of depression. No specific trigger or anything, but life was hard and I turtled. It happens and I am grateful for the support of family and friends and therapy and medication that helped me through. But there I was laying in bed one day, the quilt over me reflected in the light fixture above. The pinks in the chrome with the spots of crystal struck something in me. At that moment I decided to pull out some pink fabrics and play. Why pink? It’s simply a happy colour to me. I made one quilt top, then I decided to play with another. The first one I am in the midst of hand quilting, the second took a trip to the long arm rental with me. She’s done now.

That light fixture has seen some things! It was such a splurge for a light that we don’t actually turn on much (I am one of those people who doesn’t like to be in a room with overhead lights on.) Despite that, she brings me joy every day, reflecting the room around her and the light itself.

After making the initial quilt top a functional size, I set out to make a back that gave me as much joy as the front. I used some precious, favourite fabric from Denise Schmidt I’d been holding on to plus a few others from the stash. Life’s too short for an ugly quilt back!

This was not the quilt for fancy quilting. It is essentially one giant slab quilt with a riotous mix of fabrics. Quilting is for texture here more than anything. That being said, I ended up getting a bit fancy! I started with wavy lines across the quilt in pink, peach, and yellow. Sometimes they overlap, mostly they don’t. It wasn’t until I was off the long arm that I decided on some additions. My first thought was the odd line of hand quilting in waves, just for fun. Then I decided on some words. If this was the quilt that helped me through my depression, then I wanted some reminders to keep my mental health in a good state. So I started stitching words right in to the quilt. Both embroidery and quilting in one.

Connect

Relax

Laugh

Walk

Make Love

These are the actions I need to remember moving forward. As I healed, I learned that I need these things (plus creating, but that is a given) to help me on a regular basis. If I do these things, I can make it through anything. Stitching them through the quilt was a good moment of reflection, and their subtlety in the quilt is like a little message for me - or anyone else - using the quilt.

Of course I wasn’t quite done with the hand stitching. After finding the perfect pink binding (an old favourite from Emma Jean Jansen) in my stash, I went with the big stitch for closing the binding. Yes, this works well and holds up to washing, in case you were wondering. It’s a rather nice way to put a finishing touch on a quilt full of love and joy.

Braided Rug Quilt Top

When in doubt, go bigger. Sometimes I like to say #gokingorgohome. Maybe not quite that big here. But once I had done a certain number of blocks it was clear this needed to be a bigger quilt, so I made more blocks. And a quilt that started, in part, because I needed to be able to close the bin of scrap strips is now ready for next steps. It finishes at 77” square.

The blocks themselves began life as a sample for the Scraptastic class that I teach. Every time I taught the class I made a block. Well, a few months back, I was teaching the class again and we also started playing with layouts of the blocks. That moment sparked something and I raced to make more and more blocks. It was a creative pull that spurred the action, but it was fuelled by that desire to clean up the scrap strips.

Did I use all the scrap strips? Nope! But I would say I used about 3/4 of what was in the bin. Great progress! Of course, I’ve already added back in to the bin. That’s how it goes with scraps. Unless you stop making any new quilts, you are going to make scraps. Just makes for greater opportunities in your quilts!

I know, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the scraps, or feel like using them is a futile effort. I totally get that. There are only two ways out of that:

1. Changing your mindset. Seeing scraps as a burden rather than an opportunity is very negative. I prefer to apply some girl math and think of it all as free fabric to play with!

2. Just use them. Kind of like writing a to-do list with tasks on it you’ve already completed just so you get the satisfaction of crossing them off, using scraps when they overwhelm you is the best way to quell the overwhelm.

That doesn’t mean you have to finish a whole quilt either. Just starting something with the scraps might be enough. So long as starting and not finishing a quilt right away isn’t another source of anxiety! Making a few blocks today may be just enough to calm down. And when the bin gets some more additions, you can always make more blocks. In time, enough blocks will be around to make a whole quilt. No rush. They are scraps, they will always be there!

My plan for finishing this quilt is to tie it. I’ve never done it before! I haven’t decided yet if I will use the bin of scrap yarn that seems to be hanging around or if I will purchase a single colour. I’m just going to let this marinade a bit while I play on some other things. The itch has already been scratched, the bin closes again, and the rest of my stash is calling!