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Filtered by tag ('quiltalong')
The story so far...
Local quilter Cinzia White publishes an amazing book, The Storytellers Sampler Quilt.
Eppiflex templates launches a Block of The Month called Telling Tales, featuring 60 upsized blocks from the book and I start sewing up blocks.
Cinzia asks me to contribute to her quiltalong using blocks from the aforementioned book.
I fall down the rabbithole of fussycutting.
But let's talk about what this is really about...
Addicted to sewing...addicted to fabric...addicted to starting new projects... and now addicted to fussycutting.
So what's the hype about fussycutting?
If you are already a creative soul and enjoying making pretty blocks by joining shapes together, fussy cutting is some next level crafty action.
Do you remember those kaliedoscope toys we had as kids. I have no idea how they worked, they were just MAGIC. Who could get bored with the amazing patterns they made as you twisted and turned them. I was fascinated with them.
"No you cant have a go yet, Im not finished" - I wasnt a good sharer being the youngest and most spoilt of my siblings. Ask my sister, she will back me up.
So fussycutting a beautiful fabric into an even more beautiful fabric block is a bit like making magic for me.
Mirrors? Yeah nah.
I know some people swear by them, but I don't want to know what it's going to look like. Why spoil the magic? That's like someone showing you a picture of the next kaliedoscope before you can twist the tube. Just let the magic happen. Embrace the unknown a little.
Waste of fabric?
This is what Cinzia says to me... but let's be honest we all have enough fabric to be a bit less frugal with it.
I think quilters are the quintessential horders. Why else would we have so many memes about collecting fabric. Even the term stash says it all.
In fact in the current economic climate of a massive downturn in retail spending I think we all have a responsibilty to fussy cut more and support the shops before they disappear altogether.
So my little contribution to Cinzia's Quiltalong is "Blackberry Freedom" and it is English paper pieced.
Thanks Cinzia for asking me to join in and for writing such a sensational book.
Welcome!
As an added extra for my regular attendees of 2017 at The Quilting Patch I have offered them a Block of The Month Quilt Project. It's a sampler quilt with an Irish chain feature to separate the blocks. Usually sampler quilts will have sashings in between the blocks to help frame each block, but I think you'll agree the Irish chain block, that is the alternate block in this quilt, does the same thing. It also makes the blocks appear as though they are set on point.
This sampler would look great in any colour scheme you choose and I cant wait to see what you have come up with! Ill be posting some of the students blocks here too so you can see how they are going.
I have designed this quilt using EQ7.
So lets get into it!
(The Quilt is 80" x 80", finished block size is 12", all seams are 1/4 inch)
Fabric requirements...
I designed this quilt to use scraps, fat quarters, etc. If you choose just 5 or 6 prints and a background, that will work too!
The background will require around 4.5 m according to EQ7.
If you want to cut off the long borders first then cut off 2.1m of fabric
First border - cut 4"
Second border - cut 6"
Set these aside for later, you can now use the remaining background fabric in your blocks
January...
This month's block is called Key Lime Pie.
Here is the key and rotary cutting instructions for this block..
A - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2"
B - 5 1/4" square cut twice on the diagonal to yield 4 triangles
C - 2 1/2" square
D - 4 1/2" square
E - 4 7/8" square, cut once on the diagonal to yield 2 triangles
How is it sewn together? If you look back at the Key picture youll notice the block is made up of 3 distinct units. I have numbered them in the layout below.
1. The centre square ( D from above)
2. Star points
3. Corner units
Now here is where I'm going to make a big assumption that you can sew these units without too much instruction. BUT do let me know if you'd like a bit more advice or step by step photos.
Please feel free to contact me and email me pics of your blocks!
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