Tidying Up the Studio (disguised as Scrap Quilting)

Or should it be the other way around?  Scrap quilting disguised as "tidying up the studio".

Touching the fabric often leads to cutting up the fabric!!

 My box of reproductions looks a lot tamer and I've refreshed the 2 1/2" square basket and the 2 1/2" strip box (it's my studio's sourdough).

I also cutting pieces for these simple blocks which finish at 6" for another small charity quilt.

Corner squares are cut 2", center square is cut 3 1/2", and rectangles are cut 2" by 3 1/2".

It's a great little "leader and ender" project or just right for a quick fix of stitching without thinking!

I laid out some today with the plain alternate squares (cut 6 1/2") to make a plan for size and determine how much more of everything I need to cut.  

Pretty cute, huh?

And then this started to happen, too.

The idea comes from @lorrainequiltsallday on Instagram -- she's an Australian quilter who hosts a Facebook group called "English Paper Piecing Projects" HERE and the Instagram hashtag is #1797revisited .  The Facebook group is doing a sew along English paper piecing style.

The quilt is inspired by an antique quilt in the Victoria & Albert Museum in England.

It would be a great EPP project, but I still have a huge one going with another good size one in the queue.  Solution?  Machine piecing!!

   Lorraine started her version (which is lovely) by trimming 1/2" off each end of a 60 degree diamond paper.  (Templates and papers are beginning to pop up on the Facebook group at this point.)

 I'm using a larger diamond and starting with the 3" template H52 from Marti Michell.

Once I have a stack of diamonds cuts, I'm trimming them into the "coffin" shape.

(Notice that the points of these diamonds are trimmed off during the cutting process.)

I'm using the 60 degree line on a rotary ruler. 

By aligning the 60 degree angle line with the long edge of the diamond and the 3/4" grid line with the pre-trimmed end, trimming off 3/4" is simple and accurate. 

Yes, there's a bit of waste but a simple cutting process justifies it! 

Here is a stack of the coffin shapes after trimming.

Once I've transferred the "stop dots" onto the wrong side of each corner of the coffin pieces, I'm ready to stitch. 

I'm working on both projects at the same time -- there's a 9-patch laid out and ready to stitch.  The beginning of 1797 Revisited is under the needle.

Sew off the coffin onto the 9-patch. 

Then off the 9-patch onto the next coffin.  It's fun!

Back and forth, I love the rhythm of chain piecing.

Even though I'm no longer teaching face-to-face workshops, you can teach yourself the Set-In Piecing Simplified Technique by using my teaching guide -- available as a downloadable PDF in my Etsy shop -- MaryHueyQuilts HERE -- plug in the coupon code RETIRED through 10/31/18 for 25% off the price. 

I think the next round is going to be yellows and golds.

Be sure to check out Lorraine's feed on Instagram or head over to the Facebook group to see some versions that are farther along and lots of other interesting EPP projects.

Now I have to go cut up some more fabric!!

Mary