Navy Blue Scrappy Quilt

 

I finished piecing Navy Blue Quilt, composed of scrappy flying geese and cornered blocks. 

Detail of block construction

Sashed flying geese blocks, added corners to make a diamond in the center,

Sewed the 4 blocks together, and added 4 more corners to make offset diamonds.

MY GOAL: to feature as many scrappy bits as possible this year in my quilts.

My overflowing scrap bins have lots of 1.5", 2.5" wide strips.  When hunks of fabric are reduced to less than 1/4 yard--I set them aside for applique work, yo-yos, and strip quilting.  Building scrappy quilts are my favorite.  Did you notice the flying geese blocks are made from scrappy strips?

During the summer months when we do craft shows I bring along my 1916 Singer model 128 hand crank sewing machine and a laundry basket full of 2.5" x 8" strips or shorter.  I sew them end to end, forming hand size rolls to make scrappy quilts.  

1916 Singer, Model 128 is a 3/4" sewing machine.

She's little, and pretty.

Check out the beautiful "Victorian" decals.  Nearly perfect condition.

All original parts, including the hand crank

The bullet shaped bobbin shuttle whips back and forth dispensing thread.  Inside the shuttle is a bar bell shaped wound bobbin.  

bent wood case and key

The machine is so well balanced, makes an effortless chuga-chuga sound.  

Controlling the fabric with one hand is easy, while turning the crank.  

Hand crank machines were very popular in England, as no respectable turn of the century woman would power a machine with her legs!

Ok, ok, back to the Navy Blue Quilt . . .

Almost ready to quilt.  Next, I added a scrappy border to the quilt, loaded the quilt backing, cotton batting and quilt top on the frame.  

I made my first video today using Jon's GoPro Hero4 camera.  I used a chest harness to hold the camera--while I filmed.

Maybe tonight I'll edit the film, add some music, and post it!  

In the mean time, here are some still photos of the long arm quilting process on the Navy Blue Scrappy Quilt . . . 

I am stitching my Feather Bouquet sequence, interrupted by small meander.  Huh, I haven't stitched small meander since making the Science Friday Quilt in June 2013.  I'm out of practice.

I chose "Kiwi" color thread for contrast

The leaves are a repeating feature in the quilt.  

I transferred the leaf images using freezer paper cut outs in the shape of sawtooth leaves.  

Ironed the freezer paper leaves in place while I had it loaded on the quilt frame.  

Stitched around the freezer paper.  Easy.

This is a genius method as it eliminates chalk pencil outlines on dark fabrics, and I don't have to use rulers to do the work.  

It is a technique I learned in Cyndi Souder's online Craftsy class, "Hitting the Mark".  

One of the best classes I've taken on Craftsy--I highly recommend it.

I designed the Navy Blue Scrappy Quilt with lots of negative space just so I could try Cyndi's freezer paper transfer technique.  I will use this technique to design and plan future quilts.  Great tool.

Lots of Wow--going on with this quilt.  It's a thread-eater, and will take 4 times the labor to quilt. 

Below are some photos of the finished quilt--binding completed, and laid out on the north bedroom upstairs.  Funny, how different lighting affects the photography.  To clarify:  THE NAVYV BLUE BACKGROUND IS REALLY DARK.   

Stick around--I'll post the film (my first video) later showing how I quilted this one.