Wednesday 13 March 2013

Proper WIP :D

I first blogged about making this quilt a couple of weeks ago - at that point I queried whether it was an actual WIP or just an IIMH (my new acronym - idea in my head!) Well, after all my selecting, measuring, cutting, piecing and head-scratching this week ... I do believe this definitely now qualifies as a 'proper work in progress' :)

In case you don't want to visit my previous post, this is the quilt I'm making from the Jelly Roll I won from the lovely Carla:


The pattern, 'Stormy Weather' features in this book, by the very talented mother and daughter team, Pam and Nicky Lintott and, whilst it was a slow start, I'm now on a (jelly!) roll! (note to self: must not laugh out loud at own jokes!): 

Because my Jelly Roll isn't predominantly one colour as in the pattern, I did experience a little 'too much choice-anxiety' and umm'ed and ah'ed for ages at separating the strips but, eventually, I put on my big-girl's pants and just got on with it:


Took a while to sew the 48 x 4-patch blocks but thank goodness for chain-piecing:



Once all 48 units were made, I started to trim them down to 4 1/2" even though I'm not sure they needed it. Trouble is, once I started, I couldn't stop and when you look at the little pile of trimmings at the end of it, I don't know whether I'd bother in the future. Would you:


Then on to the tricky bit :( The pattern calls for using one of these triangle rulers which I don't have (much to DH's surprise, "I thought you had every quilting contraption on the market!") Hmmm ... obviously not my dear:


Tried being clever and cut out the first 2 triangles without measuring and I realised after sewing them together, it was too small - 4 of these were not going to amount to a 4 1/2" finished square in a square. But, I'm no quitter so I practised different angles and sizes by cutting on scraps but it just wasn't working  ... this was going to be easy. I knew some clever quilter out there would have blogged about this - I didn't need to buy another ruler and wait a week for it to be delivered. So, thank you Google and KarrieLynn of Freckled Whimsy - I finally found your HST tutorial from 2010 which told me to sew both sides of the jelly roll together and use an ordinary square ruler like this:


Brill ... but ... the pattern said I should have got 24 HSTs out of the strips and this was all that was left after cutting 20:


Never mind, that's what a healthy stash is for! See DH - told you there was a very good reason for me buying fabric 'just in case!' I went for plain black and lilac polka dots so as not to clash with the black and purple patterns and colours in the jelly roll. Think it works ok - do you! 



And, sometimes you just have to photograph the back of a block:


I had a go at the 3rd unit - this wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be ... again, it just took a bit of time. You have to mark the back of the squares with a triangle template then sew 8 of them to a strip. The pattern doesn't call for pinning but I did:


No blocks to show you yet, as it takes a bit of time to cut and sew the individual units that make up a block. But I will get some done over the next few days so please come back for a visit soon :)

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.





6 comments:

  1. Get you with the neat and tidy back of a block!! You've created a problem for me... I've finally bought my first ever jelly roll, with a particular plan in mind, but my jelly roll is all blues just like the design you've shown, and it's now so tempting to change track...

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  2. I like that line of fabric. Your quilt will be lovely

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  3. I love watching quilts come together. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Wow you have made quite a bit of progress! ... and think of all you have learned in such a short time. :) It's going to be very lovely.

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  5. Can't wait to see the blocks!

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  6. I am making the very same quilt! I am using a Fabric Freedom Jelly Roll with lots of greens, blues and aquas so I am suing a self patterned white as background.
    I am just up to marking the 82 x 4.5 blocks ready to PIN onto the strips and sew. Such Fun!
    I would love to see your finished quilt and how you quilted it.
    Kind regards
    Goldie

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