On My Design Floor

I'm at a disadvantage when it comes to wall space,

so I depend upon my floor to lay out quilts as I work.

I like to keep a couple of baby quilts on hand,

and it seems they all tend toward the female gender!

So, at my Crafty Daughter's urging, I'm concentrating on boys.

This week on my design floor, I am putting together a chevron quilt

As always, just click on the pictures to enlarge.

which looks  quick and easy,

but this is ME!

I'm pretty pokey, slow, and deliberate,
and it's taking me days to make.

I was sewing with someone last month

who whipped up a chevron quilt

ALL IN ONE DAY!

It was kind of comical.

I sat in one corner, stitching away,

putt, putt, putt,

and she sat in the opposite corner,

zoom, ZOOM, ZOOM!
YOU know who you are!

Today, I'm squaring up all my blocks.
I used the 'make 8 HSTs at once' method
following this tutorial.
I knew I wanted my quilt to be no more than 40" wide,
so I consulted the provided chart

and decided to cut my beginning squares 8.5" to get 5.5" blocks..
When I sewed them together, I used a scant 1/4" seam allowance
to give me plenty of room to square up the blocks.

When I am squaring up blocks, especially larger sizes,
I place it slightly askew on my cutting mat

to make it a little easier to take that final slice across the top.
That way I'm not contorting myself
and causing my ruler to slip.

Using this method of constructing HSTs means cutting across the bias.
I never spray a finished block with water or starch,
because it causes distortion,
which causes frustration.
Instead, I use spray starch before I cut my strips/squares.
Seems to work very well, for me.

Although I'm not crazy about this quilt
(it looked different in my head)
I'm excited to get it together and under Janome's needle
because I'll be using variagated thread for the first time!

All my fabrics are 1/2 yard cuts from Northcott,
three different lines that played so well together -
Rainforest Romp, A Day in the Amazon, Freestyle,
and for the backing, At the Zoo, from Henry Glass Fabrics.

This is a pretty wordy post, for me.
If you made it all the way to the end,
and you are interested in my scraps for your donor quiltmaking,

please just mention it in your comment!
There's no sense saving them until I revisit them.
Life is paved with good intentions, but it could be forever
before I unearth them again!
so, they're up for grabs!

I hope you are having a quilty day!
If the sun is shining in your corner of the world,
get out and celebrate the day!
Your sewing machine will wait patiently for your return!

XO,
karen