Welcome to Saturday Quilt & Share. An opportunity to bring along your project(s), patchwork-quilting experiences and queries to share in the inspiration, generosity and friendliness of our Worldwide Quilting Community. Join in by clicking on the links below, do leave an encouraging message in the comments box of any blog post you visit – just a few words and shared ideas can make a real difference 🙂

I’m continuing to rummage through my string scraps. I’ve now made 36 of the triangular foundation pieced units – enough to group together into fours to create 9 blocks. It was quite an effort to make them all so I thought the nine blocks making a 3×3 layout, measuring about 45″ square, would be the end of the process…

I added blue border strips to the outside edges in readiness to sew the blocks together. My thinking being that the blue strips would make a scrappy border to reflect the scrappy nature of the quilt top as well as drawing attention to the blue strips deliberately placed to create borders between the star and spider web shapes.

Overnight Thursday I thought about the 3×3 layout, pondering how to make the quilt top rectangular rather than square. Maybe I could add scrappy piano key borders top and bottom? Maybe the borders could be made with strips at an angle to better match the Spiders Web blocks? In the morning I looked at the partially pieced top and the answer came to me: make another row of blocks 😬 Oh! Boy! That means I’ll have to make another 12 of the triangle units. I’ve certainly got enough fabric to do that … but time? Ah! Well! In for a penny, in for a pound I’ve purchased another length of the lightweight sew-in interfacing and have cut the centre wedge shapes in preparation…

One thing I have learned in the process of putting together the Spider Web and Stars units is that using interfacing as a foundation has two big advantages. For one thing there’s no paper to remove from the back of the units; secondly the foundation, rather than bulking up seams, actually helps seams press flat and moreover stay beautifully flat 😍

To press the seams I opened them using my thumbnail before pressing with a steam iron. I had my tailors clapper at the ready but actually there was no need for it – those seams just stayed flat!

I’m so excited about these flat seams I have to share another photo 😀

Over the coming week I hope to make some progress making the final twelve triangular units but I do need to catch up with friends 🙂 and tackle some jobs in my poor neglected home 🙁

Here’s a bumper set of links to get you inspired:

Making multiple Half Square Triangle units is time saving and I think just a little bit cool 😀 I regularly make 2 at a time and 8 at a time HSTs but I’ve never tried making 32 at a time HSTs. Lynette has shared her calculation for fabric quantities (depending on the size of finished HST required) along with a tutorial detailing how to create 32 HST from two squares of fabric.

Deciding on the quilting design to stitch across a quilt can be a time consuming, doubt-filled experience. Yvonne shares her decision making process and methods for developing a quilting plan and marking it onto one of her quilts.

Nina Marie has been hand stitching whilst musing on the way trends in crafting ebb and flow.

There’s a new pattern, ‘Fab Farm’, by Elizabeth Hartman featuring horses, cows, pigs and chickens interspersed with sunflowers, strawberries and bees. It does look very cute, says this soon-to-be-a-Nana 😉 If you’d like to make the quilt with the benefits of motivation and tips from fellow patchworkers then take  a look at the Fab Farm Sew Along Kathleen has scheduled.

I have a few ‘orphan blocks’ kicking around my sewing room. I’ve been using them to make practice quilt sandwiches for the students in my beginners classes (I think it’s useful for them to have a few seams to quilt along and practice echo stitching). Diann has found a good use for an orphan block, by deconstructing it to create a border for a stitched picture.

Or, how about adding an orphan block to a sweatshirt? A great way to personalise a piece of clothing and/or hide a stubborn stain! Jess gives a tutorial to show how to stitch down and quilt a block to a sweatshirt over on Amy Smart’s blog site.

‘Set to Spin’ is a new pattern launched by Michelle of From Bolt to Beauty. The blocks are foundation pieced. Michelle has shared the tools and method she uses to FPP. Her post includes a helpful video with tips relating to this particular project.

For a bit of mindful sewing how about developing your needle turned applique skills? I had the pleasure of attending an in-person class with Yasmeen of Sand and Stars a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed her introduction to applique. Her latest on-line BOM quilt, Blomma II, consists of 12 blocks with pdf digital downloads, video tutorials and more. The quilt blocks are inspired by Scandinavian folk art and there’s even the choice of two finishes to the quilt. To sign up for monthly payments click over to Yasmeen’s website before the end of March. At only £4.50 a month I can’t tell you what great value this is – Yasmeen learned her skills at the Royal School of Needlework and has a very gentle, encouraging teaching style.

A blog title guaranteed to grab my attention: ‘5 Ways to Grow Your Creative Community‘. Jenni Grover’s suggestions, founded on her work as a wellness coach for makers, are full of wise advice. I’d strongly recommend finding a community, even if you’ve had a bad experience of belonging to groups (in-person or on-line) don’t shun the idea – Jenni gives some good tips to help build encouraging communities and help us steer clear of making mistakes in the world of creative communities.

Amira has launched a new blog link up. She’s shared her recently finished quilt at the first ‘Friday Finish Link-Up Party!‘.

Linking with Ninamarie for Off the Wall Friday. She has been documenting a major de-stash and has a list of charities who welcome gifts of fabric.

Happy Stitching!

Allison