Wednesday, 20 September 2006

I've mentioned before that I really love little squares and rectangles. Two of the five quilts I've finished have had postage stamp or small block borders. I have no idea why I love these tiny things so much -- but I do.

So I've decided to take the plunge and make a postage stamp quilt. I posted bit a few weeks ago about my quest for fabrics for this quilt, which will have 2,880 pieces. I haven't graphed out a design -- there doesn't seem to be much point. It will have 20 12-inch postage stamp blocks arranged 4x5. And a border. If I still love postage stamps at that point, I intend to do three borders -- a 1-inch inner almost-solid border, a postage stamp border (3 postage stamps wide) and a 5-inch wide outer border in the same fabric as the first border. Graphing this out would not help me with the process because the measurements are all very simple.

Since I am doing no strip piecing, I plan to assemble most of the fabrics first (later fabrics will be added to the border or to later blocks), then distribute them into 20 bags. Then I plan to draw each piece out of a bag one by one and put it on my block-sized design board (which is a very high-tech design: foam core board with batting duct-taped to it) with no thought to placement or color or anything, and then I will step back and examine it and rearrange the pieces if necessary. Then I'll carry the design board over to the sewing machine and I will sew them together in 6x6 units, then sew the units together into a block (with appropriate ironing, matching, pinning as needed).

What do you think of this plan? If you've made postage stamp blocks before, I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions you have -- just leave them in the comments.