Скачать или смотреть From Small Things: Episode 31: Finished Plus Quilt

Welcome back!

I've made some good progress in my sewing room over the last week.

First, I've been focused on my Dresden Plate project, since that is for a friend. I have all my Dresden Plates appliquéd down to backgrounds now, and I have a few tips which I thought I'd share, (though I am no expert in appliqué) which can help to hide your stitches. I've also made the centers for 6 of the plates, and will focus on getting them down over the next week.

I've also been working through my 2 1/2" square scrap drawer, using up my greens and neutrals. I'm just putting them together into a checkerboard, and am not quite sure where this project will end up. It may become a charity quilt in the end. But those scraps need to be kept in line, and I know it will turn into something this way. I have added a border of string pieced neutrals around the outside of the checkerboard, and plan on adding another border of checkerboard around that... then, we'll see!

Also this week, I worked on piecing the 10" squares which I had been cutting out of shirts. I chose some pastel and bright, springy colors and simply sewed the large squares together. I really like how it turned out! I don't yet have a quilt top in mind for this to be paired with-- it is just a back which I will be able to grab when the right quilt top comes along.

Each time I finish the quilting process, I trim the excess off around the edges before putting on my binding. I thought that since I had just trimmed the edges off of my Plus quilt, I'd show you what I do with the bits that get trimmed off. You know they don't get thrown away! I cut them into my most useable sizes, which tend to be 2 1/2", 1 1/2", and even 1" strips. I will cut them up right after finishing a quilt, and put them in boxes with other pieces of the same size, so that it will be very easy in the future to grab a box and start working with pieces which are already cut. I find that keeping on top of scraps like this really works for me, as far as managing scraps before they become overwhelming.

Finally, my finished quilt of the week! This one only took me 14 days to hand quilt. I quilted it with a straight line pattern from top to bottom, with a baptist fan motif around the outer border. It has a scrappy binding, and a scrappy strip down the back as well. I'm really enjoying working with such small blocks, and have a few more ideas in mind...

Thank you for joining me this week. I hope you are having a great time in your sewing rooms!