Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Instead of ScrapBeeLicious...

Nanette of Yeah I Made That gave each of us in the ScrapBeeLicious hive a gift this month.  For her turn as Queen Bee, she decided that she didn't need any more blocks than she already had (now that's what I call restraint!) and asked us all to make something for ourselves and share the results.


It's been more than 2 years since I bought this adorable ABC panel and I've held onto it because I wanted to break it up in a fun way and do a different kind of baby quilt.  I just didn't have a very good idea about how to do it.


I've never been able to let go of the idea of a baby quilt with a black background and thought that the rectangles of the letters might lend themselves to being the center of a wonky star.


When I bought this amazing book last week, one block jumped out at me as possibly being perfect to marry all these ideas together - the Tilted Star.  A great idea!  Or so I thought...

I ran into some problems - the text in some rectangles comes ridiculously close to the dashed lines, not giving much of a seam allowance.  First I had to add some white Kona to square it off.  I'm not sure it looks the best.  Maybe it would look better if it was completely surrounded by solid instead of only on two sides?


Then the original block (which is both paper pieced and has partial seams) is 12.5" square.  If you're doing a block per letter would make a pretty BIG baby quilt, so I reduced it down to 80% and made my test block.  The seams are off...really off.  Obviously, my math went wrong somewhere along the way...Maybe I should just do some free formed wonky stars instead of being so OCD and following a pattern?  I don't know.  I have more questions than firm ideas at the moment.

I love the general idea but am still not sold on forging ahead with a whole new project that might end up looking wonky in a bad way.  Or maybe I'm just in a lousy mood and need to test again to see if I was just being careless?

Linking up:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

6 comments:

  1. I love the block, just a little bit more of tweaking to get the correct size of the start points. Since they e wonky anyways, can you go improv. Its much easier that way?

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  2. I think this idea is just fantastic. Using that alphabet panel in this way will be adorable. I too just bought that book and really like it. I also like your blog style where you explain your thought process and explore your decision making. And I think you made a good choice with white on only two sides. Quilts have a way of growing, especially ones where that half inch added 26 times or so is 13". Not really but you get the idea. This tends to happen to me when I fussy cut a fabric and then add borders, etc. I have a wonky Grinch quilt in progress where one simple 1/2 yard panel of about 10 images grew to a bed size quilt instead of a lap throw. My 1 yard of fabric for a Ghastlies baby quilt somehow become almost twin size. I am curious to see your alphabet quilt top when assembled.

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  3. looks great. maybe just make wonky stars with oversized background and trim them down?

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  4. Such a great idea... You'll get it figured out :) - Kate

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  5. I think this is going to be great. Let the ocd go and run with it. Don't try to add all the way around the block but you could add different colors to the two sides. Keep them wonky just work to get the points maybe or not. The more wonky the better since the centers are not going to be easy. the black is perfect. Don't forget some of the blocks could be a strip in the back. I love the idea so go for it.

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  6. I love the idea of the black background for a baby quilt!!
    I like the white added to just the sides, actually. And I think, since the stars are wonky anyways, I wouldn't mess with paper piecing them. Unless you just adore paper piecing (I, personally, do not! ;-) (did you add the seam allowance after you reduced the pattern?
    Elizabeth from Oh Fransson! has stars similar to this (sparkle punch, I think the quilt is called) that sort of interlock (I'm not sure how else to describe it) - point being maybe they would take up a little less space?
    Another option for blocks, if you wanted to get all 26 letters on the front would be economy blocks, maybe?
    (I think my brain works like yours.... ;-)
    ~ Tracy

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