Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Progress of a Challenge Quilt


I attend a sewing group at my LQS, and we just participated in a challenge.  We were to use at least 80% of this fat quarter (in a visible location) and make something.  It could be a bag, quilt apron, whatever.  The perimeter of the finish project couldn't be larger  than 210 inches.


It is from the Country Girls line by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake.  At first I was going to make a bag, but it was just too cute not to fussy cut the shapes.  I started out by cutting 3.5 inch strips.  (The red is just so you can see where I cut the fabric.)


Luckily there was very little waste, but I did lose the cute girl with the knapsack.


Then I cut the strips into squares and rectangles.  I knew I had to piece some ends together to make them big enough to finish at 3 x 3 and 3 x 6.


Then I added fifteen fabrics cut into 3.5 inch squares and put them on the design wall.


I added some Riley Blake Basics, one from Tasha Noel's Little Red line, a couple from Lori Holt's Vintage Happy line, a couple Robert Kaufman quilter's linen fabrics, and some Moda Daysail fabrics by Camille Roskelley.  I am very happy with how well all the different fabrics played together.

I pieced the quilt is a new way.  After chain sewing some pieces together, I didn't snip the threads.  I just continued chain sewing pieces in the row together.  There is a tutorial for this method here.  It looks really neat hanging from my ironing board.


Then I clipped some of the threads so that all the rows were in pairs.  I pressed all the odd rows to the left and even rows to the right.


Then I folded it over and sewed the rows together.


  No pins and my points looked pretty good.  :)


Have you ever tried that method before?

Pretty soon I had a finished quilt top which used 92% of the fat quarter and had a perimeter of less than 200 inches.


I actually finished this quilt in May, but waited to blog about it.  I had fun enjoying it in my kitchen until it was time to turn it in.


I will share more of the finished quilt later this week.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilts have been doing.

12 comments:

  1. Very cute! I love your color palette. You're so right, those fabrics all do play so well together!

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  2. Thanks for linking to the tutorial to further explain the chain piecing method you used. Nope, I have never done that but now I 'm thinking I should start a project just to try it - no wonder it looks so great draped from your ironing board! Neat!

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  3. Love it, Jasmine. I love Riley Blake anyway, especially the children's line. You are so creative!

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  4. That's beautiful fabric, I love the greens and navy you've used with it.

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  5. Very sweet fabric combinations Jasmine and the fussy cutting you did is just darling!

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  6. I really love this! So many wonderful fabrics in there :)

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  7. A very effective use of your fat quarter. I've been at quilt retreats where others used the method you describe. I never quite got the hang of it, but it looks efficient once understood. knitnkwilt.wordpress.com

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  8. Your quilt is beautiful!! I have never used this method on an entire quilt, but I have been using this technique to piece quilt blocks. Julie @ That's sew Julie calls it web piecing.

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  9. Great way to show that fat quarter! Every once in a while I use that method of sewing together also.

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  10. Great use of the challenge fabric. Your colours are wonderful and, as usual, your creativity shines through.

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  11. I love the way you fussy cut the print and included them in a square patch quilt - such a great use of the print :)

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  12. I've never tried that method but it looks interesting. I like the colors you used, and those little girls are so darn cute!

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