Saturday, March 15, 2008

Chain Gang

Whoever came up with the concept of "chain piecing" quilt blocks was GENIUS!!! And thank you Lazy Sister Sue for teaching it to me!

I use it all the time - making Lazy Girl totes and wonder wallets, making quilts, sewing curtains for The Munchkin's room. Saves time, saves thread, and it makes these fun little "banners" - especially working with 1 1/2 inch squares!

Last night I sewed 102 of these little pairs for the Christmas Quilt project - which has expanded to 2 quilts and 4 wall hangings. I did the calculations and found I need about 100 of the quilt blocks (I have 62 done) and somewhere around 900 of the little square/muslin square pairs. I have around 400 of those done. (I know exactly how many - but I just don't have the paper in front of me right now) .

The other GENIUS is strip piecing! I've been cutting up scraps for this quilt, so sometimes I have no choice but to cut those little 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 squares, but wherever I can I have been cutting 1 1/2 inch wide strips, and sewing them to the muslin strips. I know I have about 200 squares just waiting to be cut apart.

The funnest part of this project has been the fabrics - going through my own stash and remembering projects past, seeing fabrics from friends and family and wondering what kind of projects they started out from, seeing how all the different fabrics "play nice" with each other.

3 comments:

Michele said...

I agree! My grandmother who taught me to quilt would have TOTALLY loved rotary cutters and strip piecing.

Amelia said...

Quilting has progressed in so many ways...the new tools, sewing machines and all the wonderful FABRIC!

We are lucky to be living at this time!


Amelia ~ in Oklahoma

BitnByAQuiltingBug said...

I love piecing all those little ones. And, I'm like you, seeing them work together. Have fun!
Regina in MI