2. Select a project to start:

Oh sure! After the quilt show and three quilt shops --- I couldn't get my head to focus on one single project without help.

Instructor Sue put the elimination questions to me this way:

Cheater Cloth or Pieced? Definitely Pieced; the object was to LEARN, not to use a shortcut to get started.

What size for the finished quilt? A LAP QUILT sounded best for a first project; tackling something to fit my king size bed was too overwhelming. We settled on a loose 40" x 60" target.

Hand pieced or Machine pieced? Actually, I wanted to do both. Hand piecing would be slow, but would teach me things about construction I might overlook otherwise. A machine-pieced project would progress fast enough to let me see results (and sometimes consequences) to stay enthused without wearing myself out.

Lucky for me, Sue convinced me to give myself permission to do both!

For my hand-pieced project I settled on a variation of the hexagon pattern called "Grandmother's Flower Garden" which could be made from fabric remnants and scraps.

The traditional flower garden is accomplished with paper pattern pieces sometimes called English Paper Piecing. But instead of paper, I purchased a package of plastic forms called QuiltPatis (also available here) , and fell in love with the whole process.

They come in multiple sizes and shapes, and in packages of 50 for the most popular size (1-inch-per-side). That's enough to do a lap quilt or crib quilt, but two packages are better for larger projects.

At $17 per package it's a lot better than measuring and cutting out fifty or a hundred (or more) pieces of paper, not to mention the ease of sewing by hand around the firm plastic form .

You'll find the details and progress photos of my version of "Grandmother's Flower Garden" in the next installment.

Three weeks later I was making progress on "GFG" (quilter's shorthand for Grandmother's Flower Garden) when Sue brought me a pattern from Atkinson Designs called "Yellow Brick Road" to be my machine-sewing project.

The instruction sheet included fabric requirements for all popular size quilts,(Baby, Lap, Crib, Twin, Full, King) as a number of Fat Quarters for the top, plus yardage requirements for border, binding, and backing.

I browsed through the abundant Fat Quarter stash in Sue's cutting room and came out with the 18 pieces required for my daybed (twin size mattress), making sure each Fat Quarter was different, no repeats allowed, and somewhat complimentary in their colors.

Then the "cutting" fun began. I'll have photos and details in a future installment. Stayed tuned . . . . . .

 

Happy Quilting!
LLoni

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