Corner Fix

Recently I was finishing the edges of a small quilt.  I was using the facing technique instead of binding because there was not enough of my border fabric to make binding strips.  

As I was inspecting the edges of the quilt, I saw that one corner antique block had a slit along an edge.  I thought that my walking foot took a wide enough seam allowance that the slit would be enclosed.  All would be okay.

 

But it was not okay.  It wasn't until I had all of the facing turned to the back side that I discovered the batting poking out of that corner.  Now what?  This project was set aside as I pondered how to fix this problem.

Several other quilts were waiting for bindings, so I set to work on one of them.  I chose a tan fabric with which to bind a charity lap quilt.  The binding strips were joined in the usual way--perpendicular to one another--so there were small triangle pieces to cut away from the seam allowances. 

 

Hmmm...could one of these triangles be used to fix the problem with the other quilt?  The fabric was a good color, but would the size work?

The facing was undone in that corner area and a triangle basted in place.  There was enough seam allowance along the diagonal edge to turn under.  That allowed me to applique the triangle in place, over the damaged original corner of the block.  

 The facing was reworked in that area, and one would never know that a repair had been made! 

 

 

 

Another use for a cut-away triangle.  :)

Brown Goose

A year or so ago, in with my collection of fabric scraps and projects that had been started, I found a box of small triangle cut-aways---in pairs!  LOTS of them!!! 

 

I cannot recall where they came from, but I had obviously looked at working with them sometime in the past.  In with them was a pieced block--"Brown Goose".  Plus, being somewhat of an amateur poet, in the box was a poem** that I had written about Brown Goose.  It was time to continue this project.

I set the box of cut aways next to my sewing machine and used the pairs as my thread savers ("leaders and enders") as I was sewing other projects.  As the pairs were sewn, they were set aside.  

It took me several months to sew all of the pairs.  Once all were pieced, they were pressed and trimmed to 1 3/4" square.  

Sixteen squares were needed for one Brown Goose block.  I ended up with enough squares to make 14 blocks!  The blocks finished 5" square. 

I re-read and tweaked my poem to ponder how to use the 14 blocks. 

**Little Brown Goose was waddling along,

   Enjoying the day,

  Singing a song.

Out jumped her buddy, Bright Green Frog.

  They stopped to chat

  On a nearby log.

Miss Blue Bird was flying by.

  When she saw her friends,

  She stopped to say “Hi”.

All their noise woke Furry Gray Mouse.

  She peered out, saying

 “Who's on my house?”

Seeing her pals, she cried “It's you three!”

 “Stay right there.

  I'll put on some tea!”

She brought out the tea, a cookie plate too.

  They talked and they laughed

  Like good friends do.

Chatting with friends over cookies and tea

  Is the best kind of day!

  Don't you agree?

I looked through several pattern books for blocks to represent the characters and other elements in the poem.  I even found a block called "Tea for Four"!  The challenge, then, was to draft them to finish 5".   

Thank goodness for a stash of scraps!  Bits of the brown fabric were needed to make the fourth "T" in the "Tea for Four" block.  I just happened to find some squares of the brown fabric there!  

 

 

Sashing and cornerstones completed this small quilt.  It was just a fun little project (that took over a year to complete!).

 

 

Waste Not

I get excited when I see the possibilities in fabric bits that others might consider waste.  

Depending on their size, I like to play with triangle cut-offs.

At a fall retreat, we were given kits to make blocks for the Cluck Cluck Sew pattern, "No-point Stars".  In this pattern, the stars in the blocks are created using "Triangle Corners" or "Diagonal Corners" (A small square is placed in the corner of a larger square.  After you sew on the diagonal of the small square, the corner is trimmed away and the remaining small triangle is pressed to the outside.)

For these stars, 3" squares were placed on top of 4" squares.  The leftover trimmed corner was large enough to sew a 1/4" seam and finish with a decent size half square triangle square. 

Because 3" squares were placed on adjoining corners of the 4" squares, there was an unexpected result using some of the half square triangle squares to make pinwheel blocks!  (See the small pinwheel in the center of the square on the left?)

The binding for one of my prayer quilts was made from striped fabric.  I joined strips of the fabric using  diagonal seams.  Instead of throwing away the seam trimmings, I decided to stitch them to scrap squares of white fabric.  Pinwheels from these triangle trimmings turned out fun, too!

 

Often I will find random triangles in scrap bags that are given to me.  As I did with the striped triangles, I will stitch these to scraps of background fabric, then cut them out and trim to size.  

What will I do with these little blocks?  Right now I have a basket in which I put little blocks that I have either made or inherited.  My vision is that someday, they will be made into a sampler quilt.  TBD  :)  In the meantime, it is definitely fun to play!