"It Doesn't Matter" quilts 01-26-10

The fourth Monday of the month the "Stashbuster/Philanthropic" all day workshops are held by the Surfside Quilters Guild at "A Time To Sew" in Laguna Hills. Each month features a different project for the guild's philanthropic efforts. Not being a very prolific quilt maker I was delighted to discover I could just work on "It Doesn't Matter" quilts, or any of the other projects offered during the year. Which will allow me to finish at least one quilt before April - I hope!

I seem incapable of working on any one project at a time, so have started working on six different sets of blocks for six different quilts. Keeps me from getting tired of any one set of fabrics. This is a different set than the one I showed on my post of 01-22-10.Here I've put them up on the design wall just to see what other colors I might add - I decided to throw in some yellow and some turquoise, so each block will include fabric in those colors. When the squares have 'grown' enough I will cut them into "I.D.M." blocks and discover what results when I sew them together.

Just a closer view. And YES, I do realize that 'it doesn't matter' means not picking specific fabrics, but at this point in my life I seem to need 'unplanned random". Yes, it is an oxymoron, but life is full of those that we don't even recognize. Actually, my life is pretty much 'unplanned random' all the time!

"It Doesn't Matter" quilt blocks 01-22-10

Here are ten blocks I started the other day. I have discovered that it DOES matter to me if the colors work together - maybe not MATCH, but at least coordinate slightly.

These blocks are not all the same size, but after I have added a few more strips I will square them up and perhaps add yet another round of strips.

The high water mark was even higher today. We had the full range of storm 'symptoms" - rain, hail, wind, cold (for us anyway), thunder and lightning. We have something around ten inches of rain now and more storms lined up in the Pacific. It is going to be a GREAT wildflower spring.

Rachel Maus I.D.M. Part 2 01-02-10

I made my first little doll quilt just after the end of WWII, sometime in 1946 and though years might go by between finished quilts, I always have something "in the works" (also known as UFOs). Sometimes I forget that everyone doesn't have all those years of learning (and forgetting) and I will leave out a step or two when explaining how to make a certain quilt. Please don't ever hesitate to call me on my lapses, I'm happy to share what I know or help you find an answer. One of the readers of this blog asked "where do you start making the blocks with scraps, strips, etc....? Basically, I just start sewing things together. I'll give you a few examples out of the dozens you might use.

These blocks can be called "threesies" and are made by sewing two squares together ("twosies") and then adding a strip of fabric along one side.

These two blocks are "foursies". The top one started with a solid 2.5" square, a 1.5" light colored flowered strip was added to the right side, then a large flowered piece with a black background was added to the bottom. The final strip is the multi color flower print on a black background on the left. The lower block was started with a square cut from a pieced scrap (a bunch of 1.5" strips sewn together like "Chinese Coins") - a strip was sewn to the left and trimmed, then a strip on the bottom and trimmed, then a strip on the right and trimmed. The resulting "foursie" was increased in size by sewing a 2.5" strip to the bottom and then a 2.5" strip to the left side. I suppose that would make it a "sixie", but after four pieces I think of it as an individual block rather than a component of a block-to-be.

Another way to work might start like this. When I have scraps and time to "play" I cut scraps into squares ( 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3" and 3.5") or strips depending on how big the scrap is! I have a box for each size square/strip that I can dip into - my thanks to Sharyn Craig for this idea. In this example I took used a 2.5" strip of little flowers on a black background, a selection of 2.5" squares that would sort of go with the colors in the strip and a selection of 2.5" squares in tints/shades of greens. Placing each multicolored square face down on the strip I sewed them with a 1/4" seam, opened them up and sewed one of the green squares to each of the print squares. Rachel calls them "threesies". Then I pressed the pieces open and flat. Working on my cutting table I used my 6.5" square ruler to trim the pieced strips to 2.5" x 6.5". I might make piles of this size before going on to making something to sew on to them.

On the left side of the image you can see one of those 2.5" x 6.5" strips with 2" strip attached to one side - a type of "foursie". And on the right side of the image is another type of 'foursie" sewn together the way one would begin a log cabin block. I will sew these two pieced blocks together, press and then add strips to whichever side needs to be wider.

Stripes and polka dots add motion and 'excitement' to a scrap quilt. Here I have pieced a stripe onto the 2.5" x 6.5" strip. Next I will sew these two "blocks" together - press and trim. Notice the bunny eye on the right block. No matter how "serious" the quilt top will be, a little surprise is always something extra for people to discover in the life of the quilt.

More stripes, dots and a star to add interest. At this point I intend for all these blocks to go into the same quilt, but the joy of I.D.M. is that it DOESN'T matter! When I have a goodly pile of blocks of the same size I will start playing with them on the design board to see what works together. Then I will sew them together and quilt the results.

How will I know when the quilt top is ready to sew together? Part of that depends on how large I want the quilt to be. Another part is when I get tired of working with these blocks. And yet another is if/when I run out of more blocks to add. The quilt maker could always make a few more blocks, but whenever I have done that in the past anyone could immediately pick out the 'invaders' - so I choose to finish with what I have and to toss any extras in a box with other orphans for a future scrap quilt.