Saturday, September 1, 2012

The very next day . . .

I've already got half my blocks made!  Here's my little stack of the 11 blocks I've made so far, each cut into quarters:


I couldn't resist playing around with my very first block.  Here it is whole:


Then I cut it into quarters:


And rearranged them, turning some on their sides:


Pretty cool how that changes the look completely, huh?  I think it will look even better when I've got all my blocks to play with, so the prints will be more mixed up.

Mostly so I can remember in the future how I did this, I'm going to record it here:

1)  I started with 50 different pieces of 10" x 10" fabric (two of which were only half pieces).  I cut each into four squares of 5" x 5".

2)  I then made 4 piles, each pile containing one piece of each fabric.  I separated these piles into smaller piles by color.

3)  I counted how many pieces I had of each color in one pile.  I had mostly blue and pink fabrics, along with some yellow, green and purple.  I decided that each nine-patch block should have three blues, three pinks, and one each of the other colors.

4)  Keeping my pile separated by color, I started pulling fabrics to make up the nine-patch blocks until I'd used up all the pieces from the first pile.  Then I did the same for the second pile.  I didn't have space left to lay out the blocks for the third and fourth piles, so I'll do those next time.

5)  My plan is to make up all my blocks and cut them into quarters.  Then I'll lay them all out and start taking one quarter block from each and place them in rows.  That should make my fabrics nicely spaced.  We shall see!




15 comments:

  1. Wow, I've never been into quilting, but you make it sound so interesting! I'm eager to see how the quilt progresses.

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    1. Wow, that's a great compliment! Thanks, Carmela!

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  2. Damn, that was fast. I love that yellow floral in the top pic. I'd probably be dumb enough to try to make it into a blouse. :)

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    1. Not dumb at all - I've had the very same thought about lots of these fabrics! I even googled to see if I could find some more of my favorite one, but I struck out :-(

      Piecing a quilt top is actually pretty quick. It's the quilting and binding that take so long. Let's see how I do when I get to that stage!

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  3. Disappearing 9-patch
    is a lot a fun
    Numerous designs can be created by using color and contrast.
    Love piecing
    hugs

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    1. Yes, you're another one of the people who have inspired to get back to quilting!

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  4. Ah how I love those combinations. You have wonderful taste in fabric designs!

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    1. Can't take credit for that really! I just used what the quilt shop picked out for the pack!

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  5. Wow, this looks cool! Love the way you mixed up the blocks!

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    1. Thanks, Ginger! I've now sewn one whole row together, and I'm quite liking how it's coming along!

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  6. It's meditative
    I ♥ my sewing machines.

    hugs

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