If you’ve been here for a while then you’ll know that I’m a fan of scrappy patchwork quilts, and may even know that I had a grand plan to make my own using fabrics from my stash. As it turned out, progress has been slow - it’s been on the go since 2017, but as the saying goes you can’t rush a good thing! Or that’s my excuse anyway.
Over the Christmas break of 20/21 I picked it up again, the delay had been cutting the cream fabric which surrounds the coloured blocks, and once that was done I’ve been plodding through making up the blocks. The pattern says twenty blocks, but I’ve decided to make more i) for practice, ii) because I’d already sewn more when I realised and mostly because iii) so I can make sure the quilt fits a double sized bed.
This week I finally met the target of my forty blocks. Some are better than others, but overall even though I say it myself, they’re pretty good.
So having reached the target, I’ve stepped out of my chain sewing comfort zone and I’ve trimmed all the blocks so the final cream piece can be added on all four sides.
The next few stages are ones which create some offcuts. Hating waste I contemplated what I could do with them, but as I have no need for even more new projects they have gone into the bin.
Now I’m ready to square off the blocks. I’ve practised this next step on my wonkiest blocks, with the ones where the seams were not quite aligned. And I’ve surprised myself - this was my first sewing project for a long time, and since I started putting the blocks together I temporarily broke off to sew masks for both MOH and I during the early stages of Covid.
I’ve got fifteen blocks that are trimmed, so that leaves 25 to go - and then the deliberation and procrastination can start as I’ll need to decide on the layout for the quilt top, and exactly how many blocks I’ll use and the subsequent adjustments needed for the rest of the pattern.
With any luck, and a good wind behind me, I could actually have a quilt top in the not too distant future!
