Thursday, December 10, 2015

In less than two hours

you can put together a top for a toddler's quilt.  That's it!  I actually did mine in less than that, but I had my squares all picked out beforehand.
I took the layer cake left-overs and put them on the wall to see what I had selected for this quilt.  I thought they were in some kind of order, but -- uh-uh -- they weren't.  Sooooooo
I took them down from the wall and put them in stacks of anchors, stars, fish, signals, waves, and stripes.  I thought those "signal" blocks were pretty bright so as I only had 4, I put them in the corners.
Then the stars, which I put below or above the corner blocks. Now I was down to anchors and I just put them up.
I really wanted the fish to be the centerpiece, but heck there is no centre on a 4 x 5 quilt, so I offset them "in the middle".  Now I just worked around what was there.  So your eye didn't travel to the stripes, I put one vertical and one horizontal.  Works for me!
I grabbed my camera and noticed that the two orange blocks jumped out at me.........so I moved one.
It looks better now.
Then I set about sewing the rows together.  As I completed the sewing of each row, I put a "number" in the first block so I wouldn't mess up when I had to sew the top together.
I always put the pin in the first square of each row.  
It helps with the pressing too.
I nest (butt, join) my seams, so every odd row is pressed towards the pin in block 1
and every even row is pressed away from the pin.
These are just flower head pins that I wrote on with permanent marker.  I keep them in my pin cushion near my flannel wall, so they are easy to grab.
In about 1 and 1/2 hours the entire top was put together, pressed and back on the wall.
I had two blocks left over, but never fear, they didn't go to waste.  I found a fat quarter on my cutting table and pressed it as well as I could.
I have to admit I was not amused when I went to square it up.  Slightly off, isn't it?  
I did have enough for two lengths, 10" wide which is what I wanted.  This can help to lengthen the piece for the back.  I will need just a bit more fabric on both ends.  It has to balance!
I did have a thought earlier of adding some boats or something to this one, but I really think it works just fine on its own.  
Now to buy the backing for it and get it quilted.
I bought these layer cakes from my friend Linda 
who owns Patchwork Fabrics 
in Slave Lake, Alberta.
She posted a few on Facebook for me to choose from and this was one.
The other is coming!!!








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