Joan's Crumb Quilt

 One of my first projects on the blog was my Crumb Patch Quilt.  I wanted to incorporate a crumb block into a traditional quilt design.  I shared how I made the quilt for anyone out there who wanted to try it too and use up those little bits and pieces we all cannot throw away.

Joan of Keeping You in Stitches has done just that.  She used Thimbleberries fabrics and created something beautiful to look at!  I especially love that she used some orphan blocks in the crumby centers too.  There are star blocks and even a bear claw if I remember correctly.  Joan and I have become blogging buddies and I enjoy following her blog.  I think you may too.

So....go on over and check it out!  Perhaps it can inspire you too to take out your bitty scraps and make something fun and exciting!

P.S.  If anyone else out there has made one I would love to share it here!

Value?

How on earth does one put a specific value on a quilt?  The reason I ask is that some people have expressed some interest in the Crumb Quilt.  I spent $18 on fabric and maybe 15 on batting (sale at Joanns...yay!) so the cost was minimal.  A better way to think about it is that scraps cost just as much per yard as the yardage in your stash.  We quilters talk about "free" projects, but that is only because we paid for the fabric and did our mental accounting with another quilt.  Heck, I was able to finish two other small projects with fabric leftover from Crumb Patch and I totally called them Free!

So what does one ask?  Is there a general consensus on a cost based on quilt size (twin vs baby quilt)?  How much does quilting or time account into an asking price?  The Crumb Patch took 8 weeks to make and took a fair amount of time.  I really don't know how much time it took...but it was not a petty few hours.  There are over 1000 pieces in it...my best guess is close to 40 hours.

I love Crumb Patch.  If I keep it I am happy.  If someone wants it and it would make them happy (with a fair asking price of course), I am happy.  My motivation to quilt right now is not to make money...but we have to feed-er-fund the habit, right?

What are your thoughts?

Crumb Quilt is finished

It is done!  It wasnt without its share of frustrations.  First, I ran out of quilting needles (I broke a ton when I was quilting and tired.)  I was able to accomplish a lot after that until my darning foot broke.  Then the kids were grumpy.  Oh well, it is done now!  There was some light color bleeding in a few of the red, scrappy areas.  It isnt bad though.  Washing a two inch piece of scrap fabric isnt really feasible so I took a chance!

Here it is!

A closeup of the quilting.  I made a contuous arc design in the colored blocks.  Later, I noticed a nice secondary design and then quilted in the white areas.



The flying geese had a similar arcing design

Feathers in the border.  Hindsight?  Make the feathers go in the same direction as the geese.  Didnt even think of that!



Quilt back.  I had some plaid fabrics and threw them together.  The green one is a civil war fabric so I stashed what was left with my CW collection!

Just to show you how fast I have to work.  Once I had everything out to photograph, my son came over and moved in.

So what is next?  I have two other quilts in various stages of completion (not including my GFG quilt).  I will likely finished assembling the two rows of the Evilyn Sloppy quilt and get the top assembled.  Not far from accomplishing that!!!

Quilting, Quilting, Quilting and wishing I were Sleeping, Sleeping, Sleeping

I have my sewing machine set up at my work station-er-dining room table and have been working on it in the small bits of time I have.  I really should have marked my lines but I decided to do free hand.  Most of it looks good but I have some wonky stuff in there.  For some, quilting a quilt is a natural talent.  I see some beautiful stuff that comes out of a domestic machine.  For me, the skill will be hard earned.  I see each piece as a time to learn and to improve and thus have to accept that my vision will not always appear on my quilts!  I love them still though and I will DEFINITELY keep practicing!

Here are some shots.

Below, for the most part, you can see how I am quilting it.  I am making an arc in each of the points and squares.  Same goes for the 9 patches.  After that is done, I will be adding some lines in the white areas as well.  The borders will have arcs and feathers.

Crumb patch top complete!

Here she is!  I finished her last night, but the lighting was so bad I waited until this morning to take a picture!  I LOVE it!  This is one of my favorites.  I am pleased that I sewed it well (still won't take pictures of the back of the quilt top though....lots of hidden stuff, lol).  I also had time to sew the back together.  I don't have a large stash, but I found some purple and green plaid fabrics and threw them together.  I think they all were sold as remnants.  One of them was a civil war fabric so I made sure to save some of that and tuck it away for my next hexagon project.

The total pieces for this quilt top is 1137!  The top cost me about $18.00 to make.  I bought the white background fabric and the blue border fabric.  5 yards for 18.00 is a good deal to me!!  I love a good stashbuster, don't you?!?

Here is the finished Crumb Patch Quilt!

The big question here is how do I quilt this thing!?!?!?  I am new to the actual quilting part and have a hard time many times figuring out how to compliment the quilt with quilting.  Suggestions welcome!

Block Assembly for Crumb Patch

Assembly for Crumb Patch is pretty simple.

9 Patch Block (you will need 32)

For each block you will need:
4            2.5" x 4.5" bricks
4            2.5" colored blocks

8 pointed star block (there are 31)

For each block you will need:
4             2.5" neutral blocks
8             2.5" half square triangles

There are a number of ways to make half square triangles.  P.S. I Quilt has a treat tutorial here.  This is how I made mine.  I have to admit I expected some wonkiness in mine so I used 3" squares and trimmed all down.  Yes, all 248 HSTs.  Oh well...I know my quilty weaknesses and I wanted nice HSTs!

Here is the layout.

Crumb Block Tutorial!

I wanted to give some of you who have not yet made crumb blocks a nice, picture heavy tutorial!  It is sooo easy and does not require foundations.  All it takes is the ability to sew in a straight line!

One other note I will make before starting the tutorial is that crumb blocks aren't meant to be huge.  They get really tedious to sew any larger than 5" finished.  Good sizes are 3", 4", and 5" finished.  Mine are 4" finished.

First, I put out a pile of my crumbs.  What are crumbs?  They are the little bits and pieces left from trimming that can't be used for anything else.  They are the bits left from bindings and applique too!

I took two pieces out.

Next stop is sewing them together.  They had straight edges so I just lined them up.

Press open.

Next it is time to add another piece.  The seams do not line up, but that is okay.  I just sewed against the pink piece and then trimmed off the excess.  There is waste in crumb sewing, but this is the end of the line anyway as far as fabric is concerned!

You can see in this picture where I would have trimmed off the extra stuff.

This crumb block isnt quite big enough yet.  I dont have a piece long enough to go across the block as I have it, so I then picked two more pieces.  I found a piece left over from applique. Here is where I point out again that the important thing is sewing in a straight line.  You can just trim off the stuff that hangs over when you are done.

Here is the completed, untrimmed block.  The block here is 4.5" unfinished. 

I lay out my square over the unfinished crumb block and trim.

And here I go!  One crumb block.  In order for this to go fast, I have my ironing board situated right next to my sewing machine.  I don't even have to get up!  If this is not possible for you, then work on a few crumb blocks at once.  Sew some pieces together, trim any extra stuff off as needed, iron, then repeat until your blocks are bigger than what you need.

Here is another.

A picture after it is trimmed.  See that piece I cut off to the right of the block?  You can use that to start the next block!

Happy quilting!