Saturday Sewing…….What’s under your needle today?

Under my needle today: some fun stuff….scrapbusting/stashbusting is the name of the game in my house as I have to free up storage space and remove all the UFO’s which are weighing me down!

I made this quilt above a number of years ago (May 2010 to be exact) and used some of my “fruit” fabrics. Needless to say I called the quilt “Citrus Surprize”.  Saturday Sewing today is not about this quilt so just real briefly: all the applique blocks are applique-in-the-hoop so embroidery using the Smith Street Designs design CD called “Dots and Daisies”.  (although I do not see this CD on their website so it could be that it is NLA). Blocks in between on the diagonals, that are not appliqued, are still embroidered – but here they were quilted-in-the-hoop where I used built-in quilting designs from my Janome Embroidery machine and the Janome Acufil Quilting tool. Also straight stitching in the ditch with Janome Acufeed Ditch quilting foot.

Fast forward to today: scraps from the fruit fabric box got another chance to see the light…..I had various strips which I randomly placed on the diagonal on top of  backing fabric and batting about 8-9 inches square. I have made a video for you which is on our Janome Life You Tube Channel.  Hence I won’t go into a lenghty explanation in words. Follow the pics below with brief captions and/or watch the video.

dark green backing and batting squares

First strip face up on batting. I placed on diagonal. Could be vertical – whatever you prefer.

Second strip is face down – ie right sides together with first strip. Sew a line 1/4 inch is fine) along right edge through ALL layers. Flip open and press.

Keep going left right of the centre, sew, flip and press until all the batting is covered with fabric. Bits will stick out but you will trim whole square to the size you need. I trimmed to 8 inches

You can add more quilting if you wish. Quilting?? Yes, well each time you sewed a strip you were actually quilting-as-you-go so the block is essentially already quilted. But if you like to embellish, go right ahead and add decorative stitches using polyester embroidery thread or cotton sewing thread.

The 8 inch block on its own makes a nice mug rug or pot holder? Or you can start joining blocks together.

Clearly I am on a quilt-as-you-go roll ….. wait until you see what we have been up to tomorrow with Sunday Sewing here on Janome Life …….but here I joined 2 of my fruity QAYG blocks together and I can keep going until I lose interest or another shiny object catches my attention? Or my fruit stash gets used up? You could make placemats, table runners, lap quilts, wall hangings, picnic blankets, bed quilts……you get the picture?

How to join the already quilted blocks?  There are other methods but the one outlined below and  in the video is the easiest in my opinion.

• Trim to size
• Lay together with raw edges butting up alongside the next block.
• Zig-zag together with a wide zig zag: SW6 SL2
• Cut strips of fabric and turn & press raw edges under like Amanada showed on Instagram Live on Tuesday this week (video now on Janome Life You Tube channel) + more on Sunday Sewing tomorrow AND on the video for this post today. We got you covered from every angle…..you are welcome!
• Fuse strips over the joins with fusible web or washable glue – whatever works for you. Pins on the back are not easy to remove.
• Sew down through sashing strip on the top, blocks and sashing on the back. I like  2 rows of Serpentine stitch – one down each edge of the sashing strip, but you use whatever stitch floats your boat.  I would advise not too “fiddly” a stitch as it will take longer and could distort if you are using the Acufeed Flex foot – which is highly advisable when sewing through all those layers. Serpentine or similar works well.

With hindsight the red sashing strips are a tad too red for the quilt but I had to use what was in my stash. This was primarily a stashbuster/ UFO to get completed, not a show quilt!

This bigger project above is using exactly the same technique…and a bunch of scraps. This cannot get any bigger than 30 blocks as I am now out of those red & green prints. Hubby had that odd look on his face again….like “Isn’t that too small for a bed?”  Yes dear. It is not for a bed. You’d kick off onto the floor anyway. Plan is to give it to my RN daughter to give to one of her elderly patients as I highly doubt they’d let me go anywhere near a seniors home right now.

But it needs binding first….next job for my Janome Quilt Binder set. Probably only take me 15-20 minutes to bind it as the strips of red fabric are already cut and joined. Another UFO almost done and a bunch of my stash has been liberated. YAY!

What is under your needle today?

Tell us below in the comment box or  #janomecanada on Instagram so we can see your creations.