February Quilt-A-Thon
My mother in law is part of her church's quilting group, the First Quilters. Last Saturday they hosted a Quilt-A-Thon, an all-day sewing workshop complete with food, fabric and laughter. This was my third time attending since last spring, and I'm really starting to enjoy the company. I'm only a tad jealous of those who are retired and can quilt all day long during the week. :)
The first part of the day was spent on whatever projects the ladies wanted to work on. I brought the cute pink scrappy HST quilt I'd been working on with my friend Daniel, and finally finished quilting it. It turned out super cute, and now it's ready for binding! It should all set for his niece Audrey's first birthday next month.
I also brought along a brand-new project that I had started the night prior, which was inspired by the Cotton Cuts Color Challenge card I received in my mystery puzzle block package this month (yes, I joined again! I couldn't resist!). I had originally colored my card thinking bright neons would look awesome (teal, purple, hot pink and yellow with grey), but the paper stock of the card combined with my colored pencils turned out a bit more pastel... and then I looked up and saw this cute little fat quarter bundle on my shelf. I decided I needed to make it. More about this in a later post...
After lunch, we busted out the scrap sacks and whipped out enough string-pieced blocks to complete an entire quilt for charity. Well... almost an entire quilt.
I had never string-pieced before, but I caught on like a fish to water and cranked out 11 of them! It's funny... I can definitely tell which blocks I did in comparison to the rest of the ladies; I tend to do little color studies and match up fabrics all pretty, even when it's supposed to look "scrappy". In other words- I think too much.
At the end of the day, I was somehow elected "assembler of the string quilt", and sent home with the pile of blocks and a bag of extra scraps for a scrappy binding. The only rule: the blocks MUST be pressed with Mary Ellen's Best Press (which I didn't have, but had been meaning to try) before assembly.
I was impressed that I found Best Press at Fleet Farm much cheaper than I anticipated! It normally runs around $10 per bottle at JoAnn, and good old Fleet Farm has it for $6. They do only have the lavender scented one, but that's ok by me. The smell reminds me of my grandparents' house...
Clearly, we missed a few blocks. Somehow our math got a little goofy and we were five blocks short of a 6x7 quilt. Oddly enough... I ended up with five extra muslin squares in my scrap pile. Imagine that! So I grabbed a bunch of pretty strips and started laying grouping them together for five more blocks.
Here's a really quick rundown on how to string piece:
1) Start with a square of foundation fabric; ours were about 9" of natural muslin. I chose a scrap of fabric that was long enough to reach from corner to corner and laid it on the muslin, right side up.
2) Choose another strip of fabric that reaches across the foundation square and lay it on top of the first, right sides together and with the edges lined up.
3) Sew through all three pieces, 1/4" along the edges of the strips and press open against the foundation block.
4) Continue adding strips to each side of the growing square, pressing after each addition. Cover the entire foundation piece with strips, and press again to make sure it's flat.
5) Flip the block over and trim to the desired size. We trimmed our blocks to 8.5".
Ta da! These work up so quickly, and they look gorgeous when blended all together! I just might have to make one out of all the crazy scraps I've got lying around here...
I plan to finish up the rest of the missing blocks tonight, and my mother in law and I are going to assemble the quilt and possibly get started on the quilting tomorrow morning.
What a fun way to use up scraps and get a whole group involved in a simple, yet beautiful project!
Once completed, this quilt will be donated to the First Quilters' Quilt for Kids Mission recipient, Willow Tree Cornerstone Child Advocacy Center.
The first part of the day was spent on whatever projects the ladies wanted to work on. I brought the cute pink scrappy HST quilt I'd been working on with my friend Daniel, and finally finished quilting it. It turned out super cute, and now it's ready for binding! It should all set for his niece Audrey's first birthday next month.
I also brought along a brand-new project that I had started the night prior, which was inspired by the Cotton Cuts Color Challenge card I received in my mystery puzzle block package this month (yes, I joined again! I couldn't resist!). I had originally colored my card thinking bright neons would look awesome (teal, purple, hot pink and yellow with grey), but the paper stock of the card combined with my colored pencils turned out a bit more pastel... and then I looked up and saw this cute little fat quarter bundle on my shelf. I decided I needed to make it. More about this in a later post...
After lunch, we busted out the scrap sacks and whipped out enough string-pieced blocks to complete an entire quilt for charity. Well... almost an entire quilt.
I had never string-pieced before, but I caught on like a fish to water and cranked out 11 of them! It's funny... I can definitely tell which blocks I did in comparison to the rest of the ladies; I tend to do little color studies and match up fabrics all pretty, even when it's supposed to look "scrappy". In other words- I think too much.
 |
| I'll mix them up better when we assemble... :) |
At the end of the day, I was somehow elected "assembler of the string quilt", and sent home with the pile of blocks and a bag of extra scraps for a scrappy binding. The only rule: the blocks MUST be pressed with Mary Ellen's Best Press (which I didn't have, but had been meaning to try) before assembly.
I was impressed that I found Best Press at Fleet Farm much cheaper than I anticipated! It normally runs around $10 per bottle at JoAnn, and good old Fleet Farm has it for $6. They do only have the lavender scented one, but that's ok by me. The smell reminds me of my grandparents' house...
 |
| WOW! Super flat! |
Clearly, we missed a few blocks. Somehow our math got a little goofy and we were five blocks short of a 6x7 quilt. Oddly enough... I ended up with five extra muslin squares in my scrap pile. Imagine that! So I grabbed a bunch of pretty strips and started laying grouping them together for five more blocks.
 |
| Me, thinking too hard again. |
Here's a really quick rundown on how to string piece:
1) Start with a square of foundation fabric; ours were about 9" of natural muslin. I chose a scrap of fabric that was long enough to reach from corner to corner and laid it on the muslin, right side up.
2) Choose another strip of fabric that reaches across the foundation square and lay it on top of the first, right sides together and with the edges lined up.
3) Sew through all three pieces, 1/4" along the edges of the strips and press open against the foundation block.
4) Continue adding strips to each side of the growing square, pressing after each addition. Cover the entire foundation piece with strips, and press again to make sure it's flat.
5) Flip the block over and trim to the desired size. We trimmed our blocks to 8.5".
Ta da! These work up so quickly, and they look gorgeous when blended all together! I just might have to make one out of all the crazy scraps I've got lying around here...
I plan to finish up the rest of the missing blocks tonight, and my mother in law and I are going to assemble the quilt and possibly get started on the quilting tomorrow morning.
What a fun way to use up scraps and get a whole group involved in a simple, yet beautiful project!
Once completed, this quilt will be donated to the First Quilters' Quilt for Kids Mission recipient, Willow Tree Cornerstone Child Advocacy Center.
Love your description of the all day quilting event and your string piece block tutorial. Great blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tina! :) It was a really fun time!
Delete