Sparky's Mummy Made. . .

Today the 2nd block for Project 48 was published! As I mentioned last week, this is a mystery quilt-a-long I’m doing along with a friend. There’s lots of people from all over world doing Project 48, and it’s been really interesting seeing everyone’s blocks on Facebook as we all complete them. It is really educational and inspirational to see how the different fabric choices make such a difference in them all!

I’ve given myself the following ‘guidelines’:

• I’ll stash dive, i.e. only use fabrics I already have.
• I’ll use white as a ‘background’ colour, although if I don’t want to put white in a block I won’t worry about it.
• Each block will be centred around bright colours.
• There will be 8 blocks centred around 6 different bright colours.
• I can always do more than one of a certain block if I don’t like how it’s turned out.
• Try to have some fun and not be intensely anally retentive (sure).

I don’t like orange very much, so for the second week in a row I’ve decided to knock another orange block off!

Last week’s block was a traditional one, so this week’s block is a modern spin on the traditional theme. This month’s theme is 9 patch, and this week we’re doing a disappearing 9 patch. It’s just the sort of block I’m excited about playing with!

Looking through my stash, I wanted a medium large pattern to use for the blocks that don’t get re-cut. I almost used some geometric florals I have that are the same pattern but in 4 different colours, but it didn’t really come together in my mind – or really have one dominant colour. I also had a great fat quarter with some cool owls – lots of great colours, so I could pick one out as a dominant – however 1) it would add a lot of darkness to the block and 2) as there are only 2 other fabrics in the block there wouldn’t be much colour unless I eliminated white from the block.

Looking around some more I found some different coloured dogs on a white background, so I decided to use that as both my ‘unifying white’ and as the pattern block. I was going to be a bit fussy about how I cut it up, but in the end decided to just let it come as it comes. I do wish on the Project 48 instructions they labeled the different fabrics. They refer to fabric 1, fabric 2, etc in the instructions, but it can take a bit to figure out which is which. Here’s my fabrics:

The instructions do mention to press seams towards fabric 2; this helps the fabric ‘nest’ when you sew together the 9 patch block. It might seem really fussy, but that difference in thickness certainly can make a difference to the final result – the more seams coming together, the more important it becomes.

Here’s the 9 patch, where a traditional block would stop.

However this block is going a bit further; it will now be cut up and rearranged. One thing that’s not mentioned in the Project 48 tutorial that I think is worth mentioning is that when cutting up or trimming a block, don’t necessarily line the edge of the block up with the ruler. Internal seams can be a better guide.

The writer of this week’s block tutorial mentions she always pins each seam. It really shows how different we all are: I almost next pin seams when quilting. I find it more important to nest seams at right angles to what I’m sewing and ensure the seams I’m sewing over aren’t ‘flipped’ as I sew across them. And to me pinning can often change the alignment; I prefer to perfect as I go. Obviously pinning works for her; her block looks perfect. Perhaps I don’t pin correctly?

Here’s the finished block after the 9 patch was cut up and put back together.

Blocks 1 and 2 of 48.

I’ve been doing more knitting than quilting in the past year, so when my friend suggested we do Project 48 together I thought it sounded like fun. I’ve only done one mystery quilt before. Part of me loves them, but the anally retentive part of me doesn’t. Loss of control! How can I choose fabrics when I don’t know what’s coming! However the idea of 1) how fun it would be doing the blocks along with a friend (like the quilt-a-long I did last year) plus 2) getting the rust off my quilting skills and having a reason to do different sorts of block I might not have otherwise do won on the day.

The first block was released yesterday. I’ve decided that for this quilt I’ll stash dive (i.e. use fabrics already in my stash). To satisfy my anal-retentive-colour-freakishness I’ll give each block a dominant colour from the rainbow with plain white as the ‘background’. So there will probably be 8 blocks centred around 6 different colours. There is a block released each week, and each month the blocks have a different theme. The first month’s block theme is ‘nine patch’, and it will be interesting to see how the different designers interpret the different themes.

I don’t like orange, so I decided to make the dominant colour for the 1st block orange to kinda get one out of the way. I don’t usually like doing fussy cutting as it can waste fabric and my anal retentiveness doesn’t like that, but I thought why not! I chose a charm pack square to fussy cut the centre block. As I’m very fussy indeed, for the 3 1/2 block I put the ruler’s 1.75 inch measurement in the centre of the flower.

My friend doesn’t have as much experience with half square triangles (HSTs), so while I put my block together I took a lot of photos. To start off my HSTs, first I drew a diagonal line through one of my 4 inch blocks with pencil. If you are using a fabric with a definite front and back, this must be done on the back. There are other methods people use without marking the back (these are especially useful if you’re doing a gazillion HSTs), but I might leave that for another time. For this block you only need to mark 2 squares, so it’s not time consuming.

Now with 2 squares of fabric face together, sew a scant 1/4 seam on each side of the diagonal line. You can’t use a 1/4 inch guide foot for this as it pushes down the fabric since it’s designed to run next to the edges of fabric, so measure where 1/4 inch is on your main foot. When you are sewing a lot of small things, i.e. quilting, I find it useful to do it in a ‘chain’, i.e. don’t cut the threads between pieces. In fact, before I sew my 1st piece I often sew through an off cut selvage or something. This will help it feed better and ensure the 1st little corner isn’t sunk into the machine. (My seam really isn’t perfect here; it’s been too long since I did any sewing!) Once you’ve sewed all the pieces, you can easily snip them apart.

After sewing 1/4 seams on both side of the diagonal line, cut along the diagonal line. If you are very anal retentive indeed, press the seams down before you do this. Wow, my seams are terrible! I’ve forgotten how to sew a straight line. Perhaps I should have had coffee BEFORE sewing this morning.

Press the HST open towards the dark side, i.e. the seam will be folded towards the darker colour. This helps prevent the fabric behind showing through the lighter colour.

Now you’re ready to start trimming the HST. Note that the square is slightly larger than the finished size, 3 1/2 inches. Also note that it’s more important to line up the diagonal seam on the 45 degree angle than to line up the edges of the fabric to the ruler.

Turn the square around, line up the edges to the correct measurement (3 1/2 inches in this case) and the diagonal along the 45 degree marking, and make the final trims to your square.

Once I’d also sewn together the four 1/2 and 1/2 pieces, I was ready to put the block together.

First I sewed columns together.

As before, I ‘chained’ them together and cut them apart when I was finished.

Once I had the columns together, I thought about how I wanted to press the seams. The important thing about this is when I sew the rows together, I want the seam where the different pieces meet to be pressed in the opposite direction. If you do this they will lock or nest together, i.e. the bulk of the fabric will be balanced where 4 pieces meet. If you don’t do this there will be a lot of fabric stacked on one side of where 4 pieces meet and hardly any on the other side and the join won’t be neat.

Not perfect, but finished! And very orange.