April's Project, a Little Late: Un Petit Projet

Wecome to post #100! Wow can hardly believe that but here it is...

... And to mark this grand occasion we're going to do a small project....

Have you ever been working on a large project that you swear will never get done?




You too? So glad I'm not alone....



I've been working on a quilt for two months now. It's one of those things that you don't think it will take very long until you realize that for each finished 12" block, it takes about 5-7 individual pieces to make one small components and three components to make a block!
So I have about one row done. ONE ROW! After two months of work.




Sometimes you just have to do a small project you can get done in a day to feel some sense of accomplishment. This was that project. This is out of a recent quilt book purchase,
"A Cut Above".

This was the perfect little patchwork project to do with all those small bits and bobs that you have after large projects. They are too small for a large project but too big to throw away. It's hard for my frugal soul to throw something away that has use. Or if you have a small piece of fabric that is just so pretty like this one that you have to find some use for it.







So I saw this in her book and decided I liked it so much that I would make one for myself and one for my mother. For mom's I used some of the fabric left over from her quilt.

First I did the four 2 1/2" squares and just mixed and matched.

Then I did the flying geese patch. You can make them in two different ways. One that I'm currently using for what we'll call, "The Two Month Quilt Project", that I'll show you later. Or the way I first learned how to do them which is simply a rectangle and  a square patch.





Sewing the flying geese patch, corner to center both
sides.

Take one 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangle patch and with the right side towards you, lay it in front of you. Take one of your 2 1/2: and from the outer corner on a diagonal, sew towards the center like this:















Then do the same for a second patch on the other side. You will cross in the middle at some point.









Trim the outside corner and fold and iron the patch back. Congrats, you just made a flying geese patch.

This is the easiest way to make these if you're only making a small project. If  you are making a larger one, I'd use the Eleanor Burns method.

Now added four white 2 1/2" square blocks in the corners. View the block as rows and grab one row and sew across. Do the same for the remaining two rows then sew the finished blocks together.

 

 

 

 
Make three of these blocks and as  you make them remember to trim your pieces so that you have straight lines throughout the process.

 

 

 

 

 

Sew these blocks together and then sew a 2 1/2 border along both small sides of the finished block set. Trim and iron. Then sew another 2 1/2 border along the bottom and the top. Iron.

 

Now step back and be proud of your one day project. Quilt if you want. I think I'm going to attempt to frame it like they did in the book.

 

Mom's with some fabrics from her quilt.

 

 

 

Nice to have a quick project for a sense of craft satisfaction.

 

Mine. I think I'll hang it on the porch.