Fibonacci Sequence - A Finished Mini Quilt

So this one is entirely for my mother/minions - it’s just a total math thing and something I wanted to do for a while…but like usual it took me a while to execute the idea. The Fibonacci number/sequence/golden ratio/golden rectangle is a huge part of classical design, and lends itself to a nice rainbow mini quilt, as well!

So the Fibonacci sequence is the sum of the preceding numbers. So it begins with 1, then 1+0=1 again, then 1+1=2, ten 2+1=3… 1 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 8 / 13 / 21 / 34 (etc but this is where my mini stopped)

There’s other quilts out there based on the Fibonacci sequence (and of course the spiral ones are the bestest but I’m afraid of sewing with curves) but I knew I wanted to do mine as a rainbow. So I dove into my solid bins and picked out some itty bitty pieces…and some giant pieces!

Yeah, this design does not lend itself well to fabric usage - you’re either using 1” squares or nearly a yard. I didn’t want to piece any of my sections, so I ended up with a bit of “waste” (is it really waste if it’s scraps creating more scraps?)

The mini came together very quickly, and then it sat around for a reaaaaaaaally long time waiting for quilting. I tried to do it on my regular sewing machine, but it wasn’t “right” (whatever that means) and I knew I didn’t have the necessary freehand control to do what I wanted on the longarm.

Finally Patricia got her computer upgrade and I got comfortable enough to program in the spiral that I wanted! It’s not perfect, but it’s close and I’m really pleased with how it came out in the end!

The backing and binding is a black and white gingham that really hurt my eyes to hand stitch, but minis deserve a nicely hand stitched binding, so I did it. Mostly at a high school cross country meet where all the kids were impressed with the nerdiness of it all.

21x34”

First Grade Memories - A Finished T-Shirt Quilt

So sometimes, an Instagram friend tags their Instagram friend, and a couple weeks later, a t-shirt quilt appears! It’s like magic. Or marketing. Whichever. But, the benefit of this scenario is that Friend A is a quilter, so she was able to help Friend B pick out fabrics and quilting designs and visualize the whole thing. And goodness did it work for this one!

(Things that didn’t work - I’m experimenting with dropcloths and magnets and my garage door instead of the fence, but this quilt was bigger than my dropcloth, so…maybe I should have just used the fence? It’s a work in progress. I have a bigger dropcloth now.)

So anyway, she told me that a few years ago, she lived with a couple friends who were also all teachers at the same school, and they went to concerts in their downtime, so this t-shirt quilt is a mixture of the school and the concerts and a few other travel-y and school-ish things. She asked for puzzle style (obviously) and decided to scatter fronts and backs rather than keeping them together.

The only band I didn’t recognize was Captain of Industry, so I checked them out on YouTube while I was piecing. Yes, I do take inspiration from your shirts!

I thought the info on the back of this shirt, a Radiohead tour, was interesting! The shirt is made from recycled plastic bottles. So it went from bottles, to a shirt, to a quilt. Not a bad life cycle! And it’s still going to be snuggled for years to come!

The quilting is Eddie’s Swirl, a nice swooshy swirl. It even has the swirl-hook that I never remembered to do in freehand. I did the quilting in lilac instead of the usual medium gray. And if you’re wondering how I made the decision, it was pretty much just staring at the quilt and muttering, “I think this one should be medium purple instead of medium gray.” It’s a very scientific process. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.

Oooh, and here I’m just going to gush over the fabric. THIS BACKING Y’ALL. Do you know how rare it is to have a fabric that’s just truly designed to be a quilt back?? Sure, we have wide backs and there’s plenty of regular width fabric with big designs, but this is a wide back that FILLS the space. It’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.

Like, look! The florals are as big as a t-shirt! It’s just…perfection. I’m in love. I feel like I should send my client a thank you note for bringing this fabric into my sewing room.

Backing: Anna Marie Horner Love Always Honorable Mention

Binding: Timeless Treasures B&W Stripe (cut on the bias)

Border: Tula Pink True Colors Wildfire

90x90”

Charm Pack Crispies - a Finished Quilt!

Okay, who’s up for another charm pack quilt?? Yeah, I know. There’s been a lot of that this summer/fall. (Charm Pack Flying Geese, Astral Night can use charm packs, Dazzle used leftover charms, It’s Fall Y’All used charms and a junior jelly roll, Charm Dash…)

Well guess what? I’m not even close to done with charm packs for the year! I’m making a quilt for my mother that uses FIVE DIFFERENT charm packs! Muahahaha, charm packs for everyone, charm packs everywhere!

Anyway…so…this quilt…

This is Charm Pack Crispies! It’s a free pattern by everyone’s favorite Charm Pack Shop Fat Quarter Shop. You can read all about it on their blog post, watch the video on YouTube, or just listen to me wax poetically about it for a few minutes.

You can also snag the pattern-based quilt kit with Buttercup & Slate by Corey Yoder (I used Corey Yoder’s Spring Brook fabric for my Cham Pack Flying Geese baby quilt pattern!)

So this pattern uses two charm packs, and since I am scrap-extra, I picked out two charm packs from the same designers, different lines. It adds a bit more color (one line had no purple, the other had no navy blue) and shade depth to the repeated colors (so much aqua!)

It’s a disappearing block, which is always fun. I loooooove making things and then cutting them up and then remaking them….wait, right, that’s exactly what I love. I used the rotating cutting mat that I stole liberated from my mother-in-law’s house, which made the whole process a lot easier.

I eliminated most of the cream colored charms from my packs so they wouldn’t blend into the background fabric, and luckily the pattern anticipates this and doesn’t require a full pack - just most of it. Perfect!

You can use any charm pack you want, of course, but in case you were wondering what I chose…!

Sherri & Chelsi Seashore Drive / Sherri & Chelsi Happy Days

Moda Bella Porcelain (Also, side note, ps, etc - FQS usually has a nice little reference on the yardage of any given line with corresponding solids. That’s how I figured out that Ivory and Porcelain were the proper Bella solids for these lines, and neither were in stock as a charm pack but Porcelain was as a Jolly Bar, and a Jolly bar is the equivalent of two charm packs, so….there you go!)

Happy Days Geranium Stripe (cheater bias stripe binding!)

Seashore Drive Sky Daisy backing (which is sold out but there’s still some great prints left in the line)

I used the Hearts and Flowers pantograph, which you can find on my longarm page if you have your own amazing daisy quilt that needs daisy quilting. In Pearl thread, if you need yet another synonym for almost-white.

42” square (and actually looks good as a swirl!)

The fabric for this quilt was provided by the Fat Quarter Shop (obvi) and this post contains affiliate links (obvi.)

Scrapamath Blocks = ≠

It’s another month of math symbols! This time, we have both the most important one - you can’t have an equation without the equal sign, after all - and probably one of the least used. At least, I don’t use it. Maybe the older minion does…but he has currently surpassed everyone in the family on math, so we don’t really know what he’s doing.

Anyway, enough about calculus! You’re definitely not here for that. The blocks! Equal is nice and easy, start with that one. Does not equal…well, you can see that I struggled a bit with points matching and pieces being straight. Don’t worry, I starched it into submission and then forced it into the sashing pieces. It looks perfectly fine in the final quilt. So don’t worry about your blocks - they’ll be fine in the end!

THE DEETS

• The pattern is here - the blocks will be free the first month, and go to $2 once the next one is posted. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Hopatong Community Garden.

• approximately 1.5 yards of print scraps (Don’t have enough scraps yet? Try Serendipity Woods’ Bit by Bit Scrappy Bundles! That’s not even an affiliate link, I just really love her bundles. A 30-piece bundle should be plenty, or mix and match a couple 20s.)

• 2.75 yards of background fabric (I’m using a white-on-white from Connecting Threads)

• the Quilt in a Day triangle ruler to trim half and quarter square triangles (not necessary but highly beneficial!)

• the Tri-Recs ruler to cut half rectangle and triangle-in-a-square blocks (templates are also included in those patterns)

• The layout option guide for a coloring sheet and alternative layouts (I’m doing a diagonal rainbow)

If you’re joining me in these blocks, please use #ScrapamathQuilt on Instagram or comment here so I can find your blog!

BOMS AWAY - AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Lyn and I decided to take BOMs Away to Facebook! The group will allow us (and everyone else!) to like and comment on your projects easier! If you’re on Facebook….come join the group! I hope you do - I know I wouldn’t get much BOM work done without the motivation of liking pretty pictures.