Posted on by agilejack

Deepening Crumb Quilt Obsession

A little over a week ago on February 22 I thought I’d make a couple of crumb quilt blocks to sew into a drawstring pouch.

Now today, on March 1, I’ve made 57 eight-inch blocks and only need to make another six to have enough for a quilt top!

IMG_5881

I have a tendency to go in jags when I take on new projects or new techniques. I really get into it and have a lot of fun getting familiar with a new technique, and with exploring my own way of doing it. When I get on a jag like this I can be very obsessive and quite productive. . . often ignoring other things I should be doing.

I’ve had to dig into my bigger Kaffe Fassett Collective scraps in order to get the color balance I want in these blocks. I discovered a small drawer full of KFC scraps. It’s amazing to me how many scraps I generate and don’t feel I actually  make that many projects that would generate scraps.

That’s just the scraps that I pulled together to make these crumb blocks. There are many, many more where these came from.

When making quilt blocks, I love to do assembly line piecing to make it all more efficient and quick. So I’ve used a lot of my scraps that are cut into strips to make these blocks… sewing shorter pieces onto longer pieces, and pressing and slicing them into smaller pieces, which will then be sewn together into larger pieces. It’s really a crazy process!

IMG_5869

That’s a long string of pieces that have been chain pieced and are ready to press and cut apart. This string is probably at least forty feet long. Here they are lined up on the ironing board ready to be pressed open.

IMG_5796

Once these pieces are pressed, they’re then sewn together into larger pieces…

IMG_5797

Which will then be sewn together into even bigger pieces.

IMG_5799

IMG_5798

At this stage, I start putting together these blocks to make eight inch blocks.

IMG_5806

When I feel confident that each sets of blocks, once trimmed to have straight edges, will make a block that is a little larger than eight inches, I sew them into blocks. Here are six blocks that are all sewn together and are ready to be trimmed to eight inch square.

IMG_5880

I use a clear eight inch square ruler to lay over the top of each block so I can see the block underneath. I adjust the square until I have fabric extending beyond all four sides, and then I use my rotary cutter and trim away the excess. (click on each photo below to get a bigger view.

Any pieces that I cut off that are big enough will be saved and sewn into another block.

While trimming one of these blocks the other night, I got careless and had my finger sticking over the edge of the ruler. I ran over it with my rotary cutter. It bled like a stuck pig!

IMG_5804

Luckily, I didn’t get any blood on the blocks. I just bled all over the bathroom counter top. Sewing is not for sissies!

I’ve been giving a little thought to how I’ll put these blocks together once they’re all done. And I’m thinking I’ll sash them with the Kaffe black with white spots and white with black spots and will alternate every other block. I just love the graphic black and white with these bright colors!

IMG_5866

Once I get the six remaining blocks done, I’ll cut the sashing fabric and sew the pieces to the blocks assembly line style.

I have several pieces of Kaffe fabric that are large enough for a backing. I have one in mind that I’ll probably use, but I’m not completely decided yet.

I anticipate that I’ll have the remaining blocks done later this week.

 

32 Replies to “Deepening Crumb Quilt Obsession”

  4. Pingback: Finishing Up UFOs During Isolation – agilejack
  5. Pingback: Scrappy Hexagon Blocks Done! – agilejack
  7. Pingback: Chipping Away at UFOs – Scrappy Star Ready for Quilting – agilejack
  9. Pingback: Frankenbag Tutorial – agilejack

    1. I have a ruler that I bought several years ago. Brought it home and made that one block and it’s been hanging on the closet door ever since! The ruler is by Gyleen Fitzgerald. on the ruler it has this web site: http://www.colourfulstitches.com . There are other pineapple rulers on the market. I don’t have any reference for which is the best to use.

      Like

      Reply

  12. Ditto to everything you have said! Except for the cut finger! I sewed so many blocks, 15.5”, that I ended up with 2 king size quilts! I didn’t use any washing, just sewed all the blocked together! Man, I was cruising!
    “Don’t stop me now, ‘cause I’m having a good time”, Freddie!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: