Sunday, 10 September 2006

Back in 2002, when I got my sewing machine, I was having trouble sewing straight lines. I decided I needed a project that would require sewing lots of straight lines, but it had to be something low-stress, so that I could screw up and not worry about it.

I decided to make a foundation pieced string quilt. I made my blocks like these, only I used muslin instead of paper for the foundation, and I left the muslin in place. Last weekend, I was looking for something else entirely, and I found these blocks and realized that I had made enough for a baby quilt -- they just needed to be sewn together.

I decided to lay the blocks out so that they made a squared off circle design. They went together very quickly, since I thought it wasn't necessary to be overly precise with points:

These are my two favorite blocks. First, a little bit that says "hello." I don't recall if I fussy cut this or not:

And second, a block that has a pieced strip in it:

See the bit in the lower right corner with the horizontal lines? I sewed several little leftover pieces to make it. I think it's cool.

Next, I need to make the quilt sandwich, and then I think I'm going to give hand-quilting a try. It's football season, so I expect to be doing a lot more quilting -- in my craft room, far, far away from the television where my husband will be glued to the gridiron action.