Far friends

Some time ago I got into contact with Lara B. of Buzzin Bumble. We had been following each others' blogs for a while, commenting now and then. And then, some months ago, we got into conversation by email, and from that grew the idea of a person-to-person swap. Since we both had other things going on, we decided on a small swap without pressures.

After some discussion, we decided that a pin cushion would be a very welcome gift to both of us. While I pondered what to make, we kept up our email correspondence. And I tried to find out from her blog what she would like. As she must have done for me, because she got it exactly spot on!

Look at these lovely goodies I received:

The parcel Lara sent me was seaside themed, isn't it wonderful?! I love the sea! And batiks, yum, I love those colours! Even the card was well coordinated. Can you tell how happy I am? The pin cushion is filled with saw dust, which gives it a lovely weight and sturdiness. And this makes the star fish shaped so perfectly, the body stands proud from the surface it sits on, and the tentacles curve up slightly. Very clever!

The lovely appliqué pins she included (very sharp and thin) make a pattern on its body. When I use them, my youngest warns me to put them back into place! Because I do use it, of course! It gets used all the time!

The very best thing though? Because of the swap, we got into a correspondence that otherwise probably not would have happened, and we became friends! Gradually we have gotten to know each other, and emails are still regularly crossing "the pond".

Thank you so much, Lara, for the pin cushion especially made for me, but even more for your friendship!

Sandra

Blocks and Patterns and Calculations...

  and don't be afraid!

- this post contains affiliate links (indicated), which means I receive a small amount of the sale price should you wish to purchase (no pressure though). This makes no difference to the price you pay! All opinions are independent and my own -

Some years ago I was asked to write the pattern for a quilt I made. I set about drawing the steps, wrote the text and did the calculations. The pattern got written in the end, but those calculations! After all, this pattern was going out into the world, so the calculations had to be right. I know, I am a bit of a perfectionist at times, but really, they had to be right. There were the cutting instructions (sizes and quantities), and total fabric requirements (number of fabrics and amounts), and while I did not want to tell people to buy too much fabric, I definitely did not want to risk them buying fabric and finding out it was not enough! This feeling of responsibility led to a long time of calculating, and re-calculating, and going over it again and again... It took forever!

These days I seem to be making mainly quilts without commercial (or even any) pattern. Often I make it up as I go along, using whatever selection of fabrics I fancy from my boxes. I am not too upset if I miscalculate, or change my ideas, and I need more (or different) fabric. I just find some more that will go into the mix.

However, I also have some ideas for quilts that will not like that slapdash approach. I draw blocks that want to be made into quilts. I design quilts on paper that do need fabrics that are well coordinated. I stand in the quilt store and wonder how much fabric I will need for a project I have in mind... This needs planning. However, I now have found a great help!

When I was recently asked to review the "Quilty Math Workbook" (*affiliate link*) for Carrie of Carrie Actually, I jumped at the chance! And looking through the book was a light bulb moment. Or rather, a series of light bulb moments...

I had to get my colour pens out for this

The book comes as an e-book (PDF download) of 25 pages. And it is ideal to print off and keep in a folder. Since many copies of the work tables can be added you can make it into a personal resource for as many quilt designs as you can come up with.

The first section shows what you can do with the book. Carrie shows (with clear examples) how to use the diagrams to document your block and quilt design. And then she guides you step-by-step through the worksheets, helping with all the calculations. The worksheets are designed to help decide on quilt dimensions, and sizes for individual patchwork pieces. And from that on to the amounts of fabric you will need to buy (or gather...) to make the quilt as planned.

examples as shown in the Quilty Math Workbook

 Inspired, I worked out an example of my own:

block diagram

quilt diagram

The most attractive page for me is the Seam Allowance Worksheet. I can see a whole folder full of worked out block designs, with sizes and numbers of pieces all worked out, ready to make into a quilt:

The Seam Allowance Worksheet includes a sketch of the block

The next step is the Fabric Requirements Worksheet which guides you through the calculations for the amounts of fabrics required for your chosen quilt top. In her example, Carrie shows the requirements for one fabric, but my quilt didn't need that many fabrics, so there was space enough in the table to fill out all the requirements for my whole quilt top in the table.

Fabric Requirements Worksheet

The book includes explanations for the size of seam allowances for common shapes (squares, rectangles, Half Square Triangles and Quarter Square Triangles), but also a calculation for the number of equilateral triangles you can cut out of a fabric strip. So now it will be a breeze to determine the fabric requirements for that triangle quilt I have in mind...

Since I have not actually sewn the quilt top, I did not use the rest of the book (yet!). The workbook goes on to help decide the size of wadding (batting) needed for your top size, as well as how to piece the backing most efficiently, and how much fabric is needed for that. Lastly, the book guides you through the calculations for the binding (number of strips, amount of fabric) to finish off your quilt to perfection.

There are a few features in the book that I don't think I will use. There is a Quilt Size Worksheet which helps you decide on a quilt size that easily fit a precut wadding size. Since I most easily get my wadding from the roll this is not really relevant for me. And I skipped the Quilt Top Assembly Diagram, too. But I am happy to have found a resource that helps give me confidence that my quilty calculations add up. I will be writing up many more patterns for sure, and keeping them together in a folder to look through when I want to make a well-planned quilt.

For more details, or if you want to have a copy for yourself, the Quilty Math Workbook (*affiliate link*, opens in new window) is available from Carrie's Gumroad site.
With all that designing going on I better not forget to do some sewing as well...

Linking up with:
- Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
- Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Sandra

Limited improv - improv without the fear

A lot of people feel afraid of improv, often they don't know how or where to start, and it's keeping them from trying it. I think the trick is to start in a small way, I call it limited improv - to be honest, I only thought of that term just as I was starting this blog post, good timing! - and build up your confidence. I'll illustrate it below with a quilt top I recently made...

As I see it, improvisational patchwork (improv for short) is not completely random, and is seldom as "free" as it looks. While it may look random in many ways, improv always starts with some (a few or many) guidelines. You may call those guidelines by different names; rules, scores, limits, boundaries, constraints... those guidelines are all-important: They direct your improv throughout the making process and leads to a more unified result. Of course, being improv, the rules are there to be broken, so guidelines can change during a project. But it is necessary to have some in place to start off with.
If you are daunted by improv, you can simply increase the guidelines of your project to a level just beyond your comfort zone (after all, no harm in challenging yourself a small bit). To start, try mixing a little improv with your usual accurate and planned piecing, like I did. It all started with this:

"More Hearty Good Wishes" by Janet Clare for Moda

At the time I was doing quite a bit of Sashiko, and I wanted to capture some simple images in sashiko style stitching. I chose a couple of the less complicated images from the fabric and enlarged them to a comfortable size for stitching. It was great fun, and worked up much quicker than expected. I wanted to include the resulting small panels into a bigger project, a throw maybe, so I found some more fabric... I had a charm pack (5" squares), a couple of half yards and fat quarters, and my different-sized panels. I pondered how to best use it all to end up with a usable size quilt. At first I had no intention to use improv for this quilt at all.

Because I had no plan or pattern in mind for this quilt, I started with a few guidelines (guidelines can play a role in non-improv piecing, too):

• use the fabrics I had - no more fabric buying
• use the charm squares without further cutting - further cutting would reduce the final size, and I didn't want small, fussy piecing anyway for this one
• use the sashiko panels - I had stitched 3 images, and two patterned strips, all different sizes
• more linen/cotton was available - but would need more sashiko 
• I wanted a no-fuss look - not wonky, just straight squares and rectangles
• use the fabrics randomly throughout the top - no advance planning of fabric placement
• balance light and dark

I started off with the easy part, which was not improv at all: I sewed the charm squares into four-patches. They ended up 9" finished size, but there were only 10 four patches, and I had two charms left. Laying them out on the floor (no design wall for me), I decided to make a few more by cutting some more squares from half yards and to place them chequerboard-like in a square quilt top. Then I considered what to make in between them.

This is where the improv came in (finally, I hear you say). It was obvious really, since the sashiko panels were such different sizes I had to add fabric around them. So I started to edge the sashiko with random strips from my fabrics, until they were big enough to be trimmed to the desired square size of 9". After neatly trimming most of them I realised that they had to be 9" finished, so 9½” unfinished (of course!! aargh!) so I improvised the blocks some more!

Liking the effect a lot I set about improvising squares for the remaining gaps from arbitrary strips and pieces, finally ending up with 13 four patch squares, and 12 improv squares. They went together into a top like a dream...

If you look carefully you can easily make out where the square blocks are, but the overall effect is surprisingly random! So give it a go, set yourself some guidelines (a few or a lot), and start improv. Even limited improv can lead to great results, and it may be the start of your journey to find out what unlimited possibilities improv has to offer!

My quilt top will (soon, hopefully) be finished with some more sashiko images in the cotton/linen pieces, and a straight border to frame it. I didn't set out to make an improv top, and of course it isn't very improv anyway, but a project like this is great to gently ease yourself into improv piecing. If you are daunted by the idea of making an improv quilt, limited improv may well be the start of an enjoyable improv journey. Making improv can be done just like making a traditional quilt; one block at a time. And to finish off another image from one of the improv blocks:

I had to leave this part of the selvedge visible in the quilt, I'm sending you all "GOOD WISHES"!!

Linking up with AHIQ - Ad Hoc Improv Quilters at Sew Slowly and Fret Not Yourself
Also linking with Quilting Inspiration at Joy for Grace
 

Sandra