After a furry of 4 blocks squares sewn up into quilts sith a stack about 6 inches high still waiting to be trimmed and sewn into block, I decided to take a break.
A month or so before Christmas Eleanor Burns featured many interesting ideas on her weekly Quilt show on RFD TV. One time she showed what she called a Candy Cane quilt that was so quick you could sew it up while waiting for dinner to cook. She had her ten year old granddaughter demonstrate the ease of this quilt on the show.
She had this great technique to sew up strips into a tube, cut the tube into units and once the units are clipped open, sew those strips together and you’re done.
Here’s the specifics:
1) Cut 12 to 14 fabrics that compliment into 4 inch strips. Then cut on fold and trim the selvages.
2) Sew these 12 to 14 strips together in a nice combination being careful to consider that the first and last also blend. There will be two tubes from fabrics you cut.
3) Sew the first and last together so it make a tube
4) Iron – toward the same direction. This is one of the most important steps as it makes the next steps much easier
5) Lay out the tube on your cutting mat and cut into 2-1/2 inch units
6) Start at #1 fabric, fold in half and cut on the fold
7) Start at #1 fabric cut at the seam (or rip seam between #1 and last fabric)
8) Sew first unit to second. Be sure to set up so seams are toward you as you sew. This is much easier and you wont be fighting the seams as you sew. This starts the diagonal
9) Repeat step 7 and 8 for the rest of the fabrics
Sounds really simple doesn’t it? Every little imperfection of sewing multiples along the way. As I didn’t want to make the same size quilt the results from the one strip of 4″ units I doubled the size with 2 strips of each fabric. This left 4 tubes to deal with.
I started this on 12/31/2007 and did finish up the top on 1/05/2008 sewing about an hour a day before I went to work. It was slippery slop as distortion took over and the rectangle needed some tucking on the seams that sewed the strips together to squeeze it up so it measured the same distance across. Even though I really tried to be careful with the 1/4 inch seam allowance daydreams happen and in the end it had some issues.
I fixed it the best I could and trimmed the edges with wider strips.
Peachy Jan 2008
On to the next one. This wasn’t so bad, I thought, once your get started. So I planned to make a couple more. This time I would make one in shades of beige and yellow in king size for my own bed in the summer.
So I carefully selected 14 fabrics, cut them out carefully into four 4 inch strips doubling the last size with 4 strips each fabric instead of just 2. Then began to sew together. This time I added on a “tube at the end of each row to make it wider.
Beige/Yellow fabrics
I was about a foot and a half into the quilt, which by the way I started backwards so the large piece was on the top and the strip was on the bottom with all the seams going the wrong way. I flipped it and started adding fabric strips from the other end. What a relief to not fight the seams and to have the large piece on the bottom.
I could tell right away that this would never be large enough for king size bed at the rate I was going so I cut up 2 more 4″ units for a total of six 4″ units for the whole quilt.
As I sew the pattern got more and more obquere when I started for the other side. The fabrics were not falling in the middle of each color so I was losing the diagonal pattern. I just ripped and added a half unit of fabric here and there along the way. I had cut up some 4″ x 2-1/2″ units just for this purpose. This only multipled the problem. Don’t do it, even if it looks like this will work. Good thing I’m making this for myself. I managed to finish it up today 2/23/2008, but it was an annoying, tedious struggle, ripping, adding, sewing. I had to tuck some long seams to correct the wideth in about six places. Then to correct the mishmash of added pieces that created some bubbling, I just seamed up the extra in a couple of places so it would lay flat.
My mom, Frances, had a similar problem with a patchwork she was making on her lap each evening while watching TV. She sewed lots of scraps together using those small appliqué stitches. It was beautiful. She showed it to us every time we would visit. It probably covered the a queen size bed at least. One time when I visited, she showed it to me. As we layed it out on the living room floor it buckeled up and didn’t lay flat. She has worked on her lap and even though parts of it were flat as she worked there were bubbles of fabric. I’ll need to lay that piece out again and fold up the extra into a seam so it lays flat. When she was still alive, I just didn’t have the heart to cut up her work. She knew this had to happen, but you just get so involve in your work and think it all good and perfect that you don’t want to admit there is another solution.
Years ago in one of the quilting afternoon seminars I attended, I remember the leader talking about humble blocks. This where you try your hardest to do the best and still things don’t quite work out. My kids remember this concept about quilts and life. They often ask me where the humble block or piece in on the quilt. Sometimes it’s just that little piece of fabric hidden in the pattern that blends but it not the same where I ran out of the matching fabric and still have to finish.
Sometimes its obvious, but OK, was in a wedding quilt I made my grand nephew Dustin. I had interesting fabric in soft rose colors. They had a queen size bed. I ran out of the colors as I went along and had to use a blended color for the very edge of the blocks.
Dustin – Niki Szeluga Wedding Quilt Aug 2005
This beige/yellow one had so much to be humble about. Good learning in life. When you think you can do it all easily sometimes you get caught in your own arrogance. Those roses are still out there, so take a smell.
Finally, now I can start back on that unfinished red-white quilt from the 70’s. It looks like a picnic compared to the beige/yellow diagonal. I opened the plastic bag that had held the pieces of the red/white quilt. The pieces were all a jumbled wrinkled mess. Have to start some place. To the ironing board I go.