Sample Blocks

I don't sew small things.  It hurts my hands to cut them out and they never come out neat and straight. So I always sew large things.  Then I came across the blog of Lori Holt at Bee in My Bonnet.  She makes sewing small things easy.  Her techniques are easy to follow and her pictures are very helpful. She not only showed me I could sew small pieces she also opened up my eyes to a whole new way to use my scraps.  You need to read her post on this.  Pow! Mind blowing.  So I had this quilt which I haven't finished yet.  It is Suburbs from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Another great blog.  I haven't put the backing on yet but I had tons of scraps left over.

I started making sample blocks from Bee in My Bonnet.  And I made 15 of them before I knew it.  I absolutely loved it.  Look at those adorable blocks that are going to make an even more adorable quilt.  I keep spreading them out and looking at them.

But there's more.  I still had triangles left over from the Suburbs quilt. I started sewing a few at a time when I finished with a block. Sort of using them to start and end the next block.  Pretty soon I had a pinwheel quilt.  All from scraps.  This picture shows it pinned and ready for quilting.  And I have to tell you I don't like pinwheels.  I would not ordinarily set out to make them.  But this quilt was done in two days.  TWO DAYS!  I work full time - nothing gets done in two days.

I can't wait to get my copy of Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt so I can make tons of more blocks. I love it when I find something that gets me excited about quilting all over again.

Math and Rainbows

Let's start with the math. I don't do math. I am an attorney.  You have heard the old joke that lawyers don't do math.  Well it is holds true for me.  But I saw this heart quilt and fell in love with it. Then Z asked me to make it for him.  There was no pattern.  So this is where the math comes in. I had to figure out how to make this with no pattern. I decided to graph it.

That is old fashioned graph paper I haven't used since grade school.  I was counting blocks and using fractions.  Hard stuff people.  But it worked and I got this: gorgeous rainbow strips all in the correct shape.

And then I got this: white strips filling in the space and defining the heart.

Just ignore the zombie child in the above photo.  And then I got this:

All from using math.  Who knew?  Stayed tuned for the rainbow border and backing which will be added soon.