Posted by Kristie on December 19, 2007 under K's Postage Stamp Quilt | 
The process I’m using to work on my postage stamp quilt is messy, but it’s organized in a functional, if not rational, way.
I posted before that I had collected enough fabric for my quilt, and organized it in ziplock baggies. That’s still true. However, I’m still collecting individual pieces here and there, from swaps or from other projects I’m working on to add diversity to this quilt. I would have preferred it to be a charm quilt — but I also want it to be finished in 2008, and I didn’t think I could collect enough fabric in time! But as I go along, I’m still adding new fabrics.
The picture below shows some of my in progress pieces:
The box lid has two sets of single squares in it, separated by a knitting needle. On the top, you see 7 piles (which have a full 144 pieces) and on the bottom 5 piles (I’ve already sewed two of the piles together). To the right of the box, you see units of varying sizes — 1×1, 2×2, 2×4. I work on units in several different stages of progress simultaneously. This keeps me from feeling overwhelmed, because as I finish one block, I’m also closed to finished with the next one. I just finished block #4 a few days ago, and here’s block#5:
The 4×8 unit you see was originally made for #4, but I decided I didn’t like the way some of the fabrics in it worked, so I set it aside for #5. I’ll leave these 8 units up on my design wall for a while before I sew them together, just to make sure I like the arrangement. In the mean time, I’ll continue working on smaller units.
Posted by Kristie on December 13, 2007 under K's Postage Stamp Quilt, Process and Tools |
I’ve finished postage stamp block #4.
I like this block a lot — it’s got all sorts of fun fabrics in it.
Here’s a look at how all four of the finished blocks look together:
Usually, I would wait until the end to figure out their final placement and sew them together, but with this quilt, I’m thinking of sewing them together as I go along. The idea of looking at all 20 blocks and all those seams makes me want to cry. What do you all think?
Posted by Kristie on November 25, 2007 under In Progress, K's Postage Stamp Quilt, Kristie's Other Finished Projects |
I did a lot of sewing this weekend. I can’t show you all of it until after the holiday season, but I can show you some of it.
First off, I made four dinner napkins. I have a vision for my table — I want lightweight denim place mats, with no embellishment or decoration, a crazy assortment of fabric napkins (I love fabric napkins) and Fiestaware. Ideally, everyone at the table will have a different napkin and a different colored plate. For now, I’m starting with these four napkins and Target’s Fiestaware knock-off.
I used this tutorial for the napkins. The only change I made was that I cut my fabric to 17.5 inches (square). That way, I can get a napkin out of a fat quarter. Otherwise, I followed her instructions to the letter. I really wish I had fussy cut that cowgirl so that she appears on the top of the napkin when it’s folded at a place setting — I’ll keep that in mind for the future! All the fabrics are 100% cotton. The cowgirl and the map are high quality quilting fabrics. The Asian fabric is cheap stuff from JoAnn’s. And the lobsters are a heavier cotton — not quite twill, but along those lines.
Next, I finished another block for my postage stamp quilt. This is block #3. I find myself giving the blocks names based on squares in them that I particularly like — this one is the “sunflower block” because of the fussy cut sunflower.
Some of my sewing on this block is pretty wonky. I’m going to have to start paying better attention to what I am doing. I am nearly finished with block #4 also, so I will be posting it soon. It’s called the “bowling pin block.”
I’ve also been working on a set of place mats for a gift — I’ll post pictures of them soon.
Posted by Kristie on November 12, 2007 under K's Postage Stamp Quilt |
I imagine this will start to get boring after a while, as all the blocks for my postage stamp quilt look pretty much the same! I finished the second block last night. There are more fussy cut squares in this one (look for the two faces, some flowers, a basketball, a star, and a few others).
I included the ruler, sunglasses, lip balm, quarter and penny in this photo for scale.
Posted by Kristie on November 8, 2007 under In Progress, K's Postage Stamp Quilt |
I’ve started working again on my postage stamp quilt. I’ve spent several relaxing hours watching the Heroes season 1 DVDs and sewing little squares together. I have one 12×12-inch block finished. Here’s a medium sized picture so you can see all the details:
I love scrappy quilts for the stories they tell — the details of where all the fabrics came from, who used them, and how they came to me. If you click on the picture above, you can follow the link to the flickr photo — I used flickr’s “notes” function to label the origin of many of the fabrics in that block.
Also above, you can see a number of fussy cut squares — several have spirals or circles that are centered in the square, others have an object of interest (like the salt & pepper shakers) right in the center. I had a lot of fun cutting.
I’ve been piecing the squares very haphazardly. I start by sewing two together, then ironing those and joining them to whatever is right under them in the pile. I only set them aside if they have too many similar colors. The result is a very messy looking back, which I am being very brave and sharing with you:
You’ll see that some squares don’t have a single seam ironed toward them, while others have 2 or more. If you look closely, you’ll notice that some of my seams are twisted (I cut them so that the twist sits as flat as possible), although I am trying hard to avoid that as much as possible. After taking this photo, I noticed all the threads all over (somehow they had been invisible to me before), so I sat down and trimmed them at least.
I am loving this project.
