Enraptured By Tiny Squares

Looky!

What the heck are those, you may ask? Those are boxes and boxes of 1 1/2" fabric squares. Arranged by color. Stacked in old Saran Wrap boxes. Nope, these don't belong to me. They belong to quilter extraordinaire, and the proprietress of Hen Scratch Quilting, my friend Janet.

Here she is with her square-aganza.

Every time I go on a quilt retreat with Janet, like this past weekend, I learn something new. I just watch what she is making and absorb her knowledge like a sponge.

She began by pulling out the aforementioned fabric squares and started laying them out on Fusible Quilter's Grid. Then after ironing the entire piece to fuse the squares to the grid, she folded lengthwise along one grid line and stitched a 1/4" seam all the way down. She repeated folding and stitching in one direction, then clipped the intersection of each square. Then she turned the quilt and stitched the other direction.

Here is a photo.

The results are perfectly stitched 1" squares. Next she made a quilt sandwich with the top, some cotton batting and a plain piece of fabric for the back and stitched diagonally across the squares to hold everything together.

Then she squared it up and bound the edges. She made two quilts and they now reside in a cradle, ready for her granddaughter to play with.

She appliqued a doggie on the back of the top cover. I am 45 years old and I wanted to play with that cradle more than anything!

Instead, I got to work.

And cut and sewed and cut and sewed until I made this bag.

It's kind of big, but I love it!

It measures 17" x 12". I put a pocket on the back and it's perfect for toting around my laptop and other random items. I used premade handles and stitched them to the bag with short strips of leather.

More tales from my quilt weekend to come later, but now I am off to cut more squares! You think Pinterest is addicting? For me it's got nothing on these tiny squares.

Quilting...

I am at a wonderful quilt retreat this weekend. Here is a sneak peak of my project.

Stay tuned, 'cause after I get back I have a couple of posts planned on how I cut those super cute bird shapes... and an awesome project using the tiniest squares of fabric imaginable!

Now off to make five more squares!

Making Mini Quilts

I love to make quilts. I learned to make quilts with my Mom years ago. We would have all-night quilt-a-thons. Me, Mom and my friend Susan would get out our sewing machines on a Friday night and not come up for air until Sunday afternoon. Who needed to sleep or eat when you could spend time cutting up fabric into tiny pieces and then sewing them back together?

This past New Year's weekend I decided to take scissors to fabric and make a few mini-quilts. Mini's are not such a big commitment. Make a few squares, add a border, machine quilt then bind it and voila...a quilt! A small quilt but a quilt nonetheless.

Here are a few snaps of the action.

I took a pile of scraps from Mary's quilt*

Sat at my beloved Featherweight sewing machine.

And whipped up this quilt top.
I sewed the strips together lengthwise into a large rectangle.
Cut it apart crosswise, rearranged and sewed them back together.

I sewed a border around the rectangle and
made a sandwich with backing fabric, cotton batting and the top.

Then quilted the sandwich with wavy freehand lines
from side to side and across.

Made a binding, and stitched it on.

Mary stitched the binding so I could snap a picture. 

Topstitched the binding in place.

And it's finished!

Ready for bears.

Or small dog.

*This is Mary's quilt that provided the scraps for the mini quilt.

 A perfect way to spend the New Year.