New Old Work in the Studio, Part 1

Written by Diane Harris on June 8, 2020. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Trunk Shows

Hey quilters, how are you holding up? I know. Me, too. Things are starting to open up here in Nebraska, and I wonder if my friends would want to head out to a quilt store this week. I am ready!

I have sewn like a crazy woman during the pandemic. I’ve finished up some things, started a bunch of new things, and practiced machine quilting a LOT.

In December I dug out and shot all the UFOs I could find, including these little baskets.

I arranged them in different ways until I had an idea.

I remembered this flower blocks from years ago in basically the same colors.

Many auditions later, I started to like something, below.

Four baskets were not quite big enough to equal one flower block, so I added coping strips to make them fit.

Keeping the greens similar in value helps them blend in so that you hardly notice them.

I started a checkboard to finish it off but I didn’t like it much. I still had leftover baskets so I tried them in the border.

I went with a scrappy red and pink piano key border. Maybe I’m stuck in a rut because that seems to be my default border when I need to tie things together.

It doesn’t take nearly as long to make these borders as you’d think. It’s mindless sewing and I never mind doing it.

Then I had a whole adventure in quilting it as I learned how to use rulers for machine quilting. I wrote about it for Handi Quilter on the HQ Stitch blog. I quilted it on the HQ Capri, which is a stationary longarm at which you can stand or sit.

I love quilting on it! It has an 18″ throat and built-in stitch regulation. I have a lot to learn but now it’s fun to machine quilt!

So that one’s a wrap! It goes straight into Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts, one of my most popular trunk shows for quilt guilds. Although I think I’m going to create a second trunk show of scrap quilts, because that one is full.

I have to leave quite a few quilts at home now. If I created a second program, then guilds that have seen the first one could book again and see all new quilts. Still thinking on that.

Posting More Often…

I’m recommitting to posting more often here, maybe shorter posts but more of them.

So tomorrow I’ll share Part 2 of “New Old Work.”

Quilt on,

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Tags: make extraordinary scrap quilts, quilt design, scrap quilts, trunk shows, UFOs