Side Tracked

So this weekend I desperately wanted to quilt with my three days off. I did get about 2 hours of productivity done with my moms quilt. But the little pieces are driving me crazy and are now in a bag. Yes, a bag. I picked them all up, got them out of my way and set them to the side. They finished blocks are still on the design wall so it will not be put away and forgotten, specially since my mom asks about it!

Because I wanted a quick and easy project and one with little thought I had been trying to figure out over the last few days what I could do. What in my stash lent it self to a fly be the seat of your pants pattern. Then I remembered that I had some red, white, black, and lady bug fabric to make a girl baby blanket. I had no idea what I wanted to do for a pattern so this seemed like the perfect fabric to use. I also didn't have a lot so I knew this would go quickly since I would more likely run out of fabric before I got a quilt large enough to fill the back fabric that was intended for it. I amazingly took some pictures during the process so you can see how it went.

First I cut all my fabric into 3, 2.5, 2, and 1.5 inch strips. I had the idea in my head to do a wonky block/drunken square kind of knock off. I am sure there is an exact name for what I did... but lets just call it squares in a square! Wonky ones at that. Wonky means its not straight. Talk about my kind of quilting! I am officially in love with wonky after this piece.


Next you take your strips and sew them to your center square. Not all patterns call for a center square I chose to have one for some repeat effects. I made sure each block had one square of each fabric. As you can see in this block I used different size fabrics to not only create a wonk, but also an off centered one. There is a 3, 2.5, and two 1.5 that make up the black square. This placement along with some edges shaved off give the block its entire look!

When we went to California a few weeks ago I came home with this contraption. I am the only person who sews on that side of the family and it made since when they were cleaning out Grandma's sewing room that I would take this home. I also said "Oh! A press I want one!" So that helped. Also, I had no idea how it use it until I set up this area and just went with it.

It however is totally easy and I have no idea why you would ever iron again! So you put your fabric in the open press, with your seam finger pressed to the side you want it to crease on. Then you close to lid and wait for the beep. 10 seconds later you open it up and get....

... and entire piece of flat/crisp fabric. I am in love. I'm not sure I could press my seam in 10 seconds much less the who fabric time and time again. My blocks looked amazing after everything was coming out nice and flat!

After you have a pressed block, then you cut another strip to attach to the piece and sew it on. Here you can see the last layer of the block going on.

Now, after you add on all the strips and account for wonk some of the blocks are large and oddly shaped. This is corrected with squaring them down/up with a ruler. I choose 10 inch blocks due to my smallest piece would only allow for that big of a block. Some of them that used a majority of thick strips ended up being closer to 12 inches and I had to cut off a lot of remaining fabric. Some scraps made the trash pile while other larger pieces will make it to a scrap pile.

The blocks are pieced together, pinned to their back, and are waiting to be quilted. I would love to use this quilt to practice some free motion quilting, but I don't have the right presser foot and I really want this one to be done with! I am so excited to put a piece together so quickly! Yes, it is a little small only about 29 inch by 38. But that is beside the point. I think you need little projects like this to get you though the repetitive larger projects!