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!

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!

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.

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

Which will then be sewn together into even bigger pieces.

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

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.

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!

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!

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.