Overage

Anyone who has sent a quilt out to be longarmed or done the quilting themselves on a longarm machine knows that four to six inches of overage in the backing fabric is a must. This allows your longarmer room to load the quilt onto the machine, gives space to clamp the sides of the quilt, and allows for some wiggle room if the quilt isn't quite square. Totally understandable! But, when you trim your quilt, that overage results in a good bit of fabric waste. And we all know quilters don't like fabric waste! Here are some ideas to use these leftover bits that most of us have sitting in our scrap bins.

First, quilt binding! The leftover bits cut from your quilt are long strips of fabric that are perfect for binding a future project. Cut the strips into 2 1/2" wide pieces, taking a moment to remove any seams and re-sew the pieces at a 45-degree angle, and you'll have binding strips ready for your next lap quilt or baby quilt. If you have a generous amount of backing, you might be able to get two strips of binding from each piece. You can piece strips from several projects for a fun, scrappy binding. An added bonus is that it's always great to have binding pre-made and ready to go when you finish a quilt! Trust me--you'll feel accomplished and on the ball!



Many smaller projects, such as project bags and pouches, require only small bits of fabric. Be on the lookout for patterns that utilize small widths of fabric. This gathered clutch by Noodlehead is darling, and the pattern calls for pieces only 5 1/2" tall. It would be ideal for some larger backing scraps.

You can also trim your backing scraps down to a uniform size of squares (say, four or five inches, depending on how much overage you have) and make a simple patchwork baby quilt with the leftover bits. The trimmings from the backing for a twin sized quilt would yield roughly 60 to 70 4" squares. This super simple baby quilt uses 61 4" squares of the focus fabric and 60 4" squares of background fabric along with a 1" border for a quick and each project using up those scraps. It finishes at 40 1/2" square. You can even strip piece the blocks to make the project even quicker!

I'll often choose quilt backs with future projects in mind. Think of how your quilt back will look as a pouch or as a binding. It's great to have a plan for those long bits of fabric rather than tossing them in the scrap bin. It's often quite a bit of beautiful fabric that deserves a second life!

The Quarter Inch

I'm often curious to hear the story behind blog and company names and thought I'd share how my blog got its name. 

When I was naming my blog, I dismissed something with my name pretty quickly. It seemed like Christine Weld Quilts just wasn’t memorable or fun. I tend to gravitate towards more creative names rather than eponymous ones—I think, as a visual person, names with adjectives resonate with me more. 

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I liked about quilting and what defined me as a quilter. As a quilter who likes many different techniques, there wasn’t one singular style that I could use as an identifier—I wasn’t Christine the Paper Piecer, for instance.

I started thinking about what unifies us as quilters, and I kept coming back to the humble quarter inch seam. It’s one of the first skills you learn as a quilter and it’s vital for precise quiltmaking. Certainly, there are times when you can abandon the quarter inch seam (improvisational quilting comes to mind), but it’s a skill that every quiltmaker needs to master and something that unifies us in our craft. The name also lends itself to a pretty obvious graphic for a logo!

Quilting is about community for me and I like that this blog name is one that includes all quilters. There’s room for everyone around my virtual quilting frame! 

Controlled Scrappiness Versus Hot Mess Scrappiness

I've been spending long days at Camp Oda May, working on my summer quiltalong project. Join us over at the Moda Bakeshop! I am just thrilled with how the Color Cuts are working out in my quilts. The grays add enough contrast to the low volumes without overwhelming the softness of the lighter fabrics.

I love the look of scrap quilts, but I always strive for "controlled scrappiness" and try to avoid what I call "hot mess scrappiness." Controlled scrappiness, as the term suggests, involves some planning and thought, not just reaching into the scrap bin and pulling out whatever happens to be in there. If you have a defined style, controlled scrappiness can be easy to achieve, but for those of us who work with lots of different types of fabric, some editing is required to avoid the hot mess look.

Here are some of my tips for controlled scrappiness:

Consider your color palette. You don't necessarily have to limit yourself to three or four colors, but you should decide what look you're aiming for (muted? bright? specific colors?). It's okay to have some variety within that palette--that is, every green you use should not be exactly the same shade. In fact, visual interest is increased with some variety in tone. But throwing in a random color may look jarring. If you use all pastels and then add a lime green fabric, it's going to look out of place.

Think of your fabrics as families, and consider what families will work together best in the project. There is some wiggle room here, as fabric styles overlap a good bit (and good neutrals and background fabrics nearly always can work), but you probably don't want to mix Civil War prints and uber modern prints. They likely won't jive well together.

Consider outliers carefully. If you use all tone on tone prints, and then throw in one multi-colored print, the viewer's eye will go right to that multi-colored print. If that's your goal, great. But, if not, reconsider that multi-colored print. Other examples of outliers would be one fabric with a gray background when the rest have cream backgrounds. You can also address outliers by adding fabrics in the same category as the outlier so that it's no longer all by its lonesome in the quilt.

Definitely mix scales. You should have large, small and medium scale prints in your project. 

Don't get too matchy-matchy. Scrappy quilts benefit from some variation. If your prints are too similar, your project will look too sterile.

More is more. When in doubt, add some fabrics. After all, the goal is scrappy!

Heading to Camp

I never had the opportunity to go to summer camp when I was young. I think it would have been a blast! This summer, I get the joy of being a camp counselor at what might be the most awesome summer camp of all time--Camp Oda May! I've been working behind the scenes with some other talented designers to plan a summer quiltalong for Moda's Bakeshop. We had such fun planning the project and being part of such a collaborative effort was a joy.

Camp has just kicked off, so there is still plenty of time to join in the fun. Start here, and pack your bags for Camp Oda May!

My quilt is going to be done in grays and low volume fabrics, mostly from Moda's Color Cuts, a fun curated selection of fabrics from their most recent lines. I love low volumes, and I'm excited to play with such a fun mix of fabrics. I threw in some fat quarters from my stash to make the quilt extra scrappy. Happy sewing, campers!

Podcasting!

I made my podcast debut! I had the opportunity to chat with Pat Sloan on the American Patchwork and Quilting podcast about my work with the Moda Bake Shop and my love of quilting. It was a blast!

For the uninitiated, podcasts are basically radio shows. There is a huge variety of styles--some are serialized, with new episodes building on previous ones. Others are standalone episodes. Some are audio versions of familiar shows (the Daily Show has a truncated version in podcast form called the Ears Edition). Topics are wide-ranging, and there is truly something out there for everyone, including sewists! I love listening to podcasts while I sew. It's a great way to entertain yourself while creating. I find wireless headphones are particularly handy, as there's no cord to get tangled around (or accidentally cut!). 

I enjoy several quilting and sewing related podcasts. Besides American Patchwork and Quilting (long a favorite!), I like While She Naps, Modern Sewciety, and Sit & Sew Radio. For non-crafting podcasts, my favorites include Freakonomics, TED Radio Hour, From Scratch, StoryCorps, and Endless Thread.

I listen to podcasts on my phone through the iPhone app, but there are several other platforms to use. Most podcasts are free to enjoy and you can even subscribe and have new episodes automatically download to your device.

What are some of your favorite podcasts? 

Bag Lady

I've been on a pouch making kit lately. Small projects are super fun to make and it's satisfying to work on a slightly different skill set. Most pouches don't use a huge amount of fabric, and I've found they can be great to use bits leftover from larger projects, especially small bits left from precuts and the large strips leftover from backing quilts.


























I usually have long, four to six-inch strips of fabric left after trimming the excess away from the quilt, and I found that these pieces are great to use for bags and pouches. I often use large scale prints on the backs of quilts, and it can be hard to find a use for little bits of large-scale prints, but they work beautifully as the lining of pouches.

I recently made a couple of Sew Lux's Brickyard Double Zip Pouch. Rather than a mini-charm pack, I used some bits leftover from a layer cake for the pieced front. And I had plenty of trimmed backing fabric to use as the lining fabric. All I needed was a coordinating solid, some interfacing and two zippers to complete the pouch!

The pattern was a delight to use. Clear directions with clean illustrations enhanced the creative design of the pouch. I will certainly be making more of these pouches and will likely be buying more pouch patterns from Sew Lux Fabric in the future!

Please note: I purchased the pattern from Sew Lux for my personal use. No consideration was given and these opinions are my own.

On My Way

I'm off to a weekend quilt getaway shortly and thought I'd share my packing list. Did I miss anything? Hope you enjoy your quilting-related travel as much as I do!

Sewing
Sewing machine
Quarter inch foot
Walking foot
Free motion foot
Any specialty feet required
Bobbins
Thread (including different colors for different projects)
Sewing machine needles
Foot pedal
Power cord
Extension cord
Extension table for machine
Lint brush
Sewing machine oil

Cutting
Scissors
Thread snips
Rotary cutter
Extra blades for rotary cutter
Self healing mat
Quilting rulers
Seam ripper

Pressing
Iron
Portable iron mat
Seam roller
Spray starch

Pinning
Pins
Needles

Marking
Disappearing ink fabric pen
Mechanical pencil
Pen
Notebook

Miscellaneous
Patterns
Portable light
Sweater
Ziploc bags
Water bottle
Snacks