Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cutting and Sewing...

...was my plan for today. I have been collecting fabric with the idea in mind to make a "Paintbox Quilt" inspired by this one. I have been faithfully watching and taking advantage of the sales on Kona Solids (and using my fabric store coupons). At this point, I have collected over 40 different colors. And I have pretty much memorized what colors are available at which store...

These are the solids paired with a corresponding print.
The matching up of pairs is still a work in progress and I have about 6 or 7 solids that I haven't put with a print, so there may still be some mixing and matching.

Because I am not working from pre-cut strips, I worked out what sizes I needed in what length and set about cutting the fabric for the first few blocks. After I had cut the fabric for the first two coordinating blocks, I realized that it would be more forgiving if I cut the strip pieces a little bit long and trimmed them after sewing them together. So, the subsequent strips were left the width of fabric.

After I cut the fabric for four pairs of blocks, I decided to sew them together before cutting more fabric, just to stay a bit more organized. After about an hour, I had one block complete. Not even on pair. Just one block.

I think I picked out every seam at least once on the first block. And re-cut the strips. It did not register when I was reading the instructions, that the solid pieces were to be more narrow than the prints. At least cutting them too wide is easier to fix than cutting them too narrow!

I finally finished the first block, but even after measuring the seams after I sewed each one, and re-doing the ones that were too wide, the block turned out a bit shy of the 6.5 inches that it should have been.

I am going to start fresh tomorrow and try leaving the strips for the outer pieces of each block a little wider, then cut them down to proper size.

Tomorrow is the Daytona 500. The Mister has been looking forward to the start of racing season for weeks. And 500 miles gives me a lot of time to sew!

4 comments:

Gaynell said...

The colors in your stacks are very vivid and attractive. Looking forward to the finished article!

Iron Needles said...

Well, I am glad you started your 'test article' before you got everything cut out so you can make adjustments on the front end.

I almost always assume I need to try things out first.

Martha said...

That looks like it was fun matching up all those solids, and it's going to be even more fun laying out the completed blocks. I can't wait to see your progress -- it's going to be such a bright and colorful quilt.

lunaticraft said...

The prints/colors are fantastic! I can't wait to see the finished block, painstaking as the process was!