Stitch Sew & Show ~ Week 31

 

Welcome to Stitch Sew & Show  ~ Week 31

I am working on my 30 Days of Improv Blocks QAL .

Here is my Block 2 for Stripes Week.

The prompt suggested working with skinny and wider strips as a design element.

I am happy with this block and think it will work well with my last week blocks.

I was thinking "filmstrip" when I was playing with the narrow black and white print strips.  Adding the strip border made with my shorter strip pieces adds a nice improv touch, I think.

Playing with these strips has been a fun diversion from all of the precise piecing needed for all of the block-alongs and sampler quilts that I have in process.

What are you working on this week?

Please share ... :-) 

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Tuesday's To-Do ~ 30 Days of Improv Week 2

 Week 2 ~ #30daysofimprovqal ~ Stripes

This week we are playing with our strips for the improv challenge.

I gathered what was left of my scraps from last week ... 

and there really were not many.

So I cut a nice pile of colorful strips of varying widths and wonkyness. 

Day 1 called for sewing strip sets by alternating directions of or stitching.

I have been doing this for strip sets for many years.

I sewed in pairs. 

Then I paired them up and sewed in the opposite direction. 

Then I pressed and sewed some more.

At the end of my sewing time, I had these strip sets 

Foe my Day 1 Block I just trimmed one down the size of my Week 1 Blocks.

I trimmed the cut-off ends, too, for another block.

I am really enjoying this improv challenge.

The free form sewing is a nice break from making the fussy sampler blocks.

~~~

Time to review my weekly goals list:

~~~

Last Week's Goals:

1) Make more Kinship Fusion Sampler Blocks ... no

2) Make the Weekly Summer in the Garden quilt block next Monday ... no

3) Continue my Sew Sampler Sell Off and de-stash efforts ... yes

4) Make more Cozy & Magical Sampler Spree Blocks ... yes

5) Slow Stitch of my project of choice.  Photo coming soon ... no 

6) Make the blocks for the weekly prompt for the  30 Days of Improv Blocks ... yes

7)  Have fun in my happy sewing place ... yes ... I started a new project ... Bats & Boos QAL ~ Started Here

Score: 4 yes/3 no

Calling this a win because I really had fun sewing. 

~~~

New Goals for the Week:

1)  Make more Kinship Fusion Sampler Blocks. 

2) Catch up with the weekly Summer in the Garden quilt block next Monday.

3) Make more Cozy & Magical Sampler Spree Blocks.

4) Slow Stitch of my project of choice.  Photo coming soon.

5) Make the blocks for the weekly prompt for the  30 Days of Improv Blocks 

6)  Complete Step 2 of the Bats & Boos Mystery QAL

7) Replace spent annuals with seasonal mums in my window boxes.

I am Linking Up with 

To-Do Tuesday @ chrisknits

I am enjoying this weekly review of my sewing projects.

I am not feeling bad about "The Score" as my biggest goal is always

 to have fun in my happy quilty place. 

Have a Happy Quilty Week! 

Strip Piecing

Strip Sets for making my blocks for my

Scrappy Heart Swap Started Here

Right now I have to make about 10 blocks to send.

Since these will be in different quilts they will look scrappy

even thought I made the constructions easier 

by breaking the pattern down into strip sets.

Here are my pieces. 

I sewed 6 four strip units and 2 two strip units

and cut them into 2.5" strip sets. 

I carefully pressed to nest and chain sewed.

Here are the four block units I made.

Sewed into two units.

Finished block.

Here is the back of my pressed block.

There are a lot of seams in this block.

Even with careful measuring and sewing to make my seams all an accurate 1/4" 

and careful pressing to make sure no fabric was left in the seams,

this is just barely a 12.5" block.

I will be adjusting my needle in future blocks to allow a few more threads in the seams

to make the blocks a smidge larger.

I am not a fan of "scant" quarter inch seams but this block requires it.

The pattern calls for more white background fabric between the blocks

so a minimal size variation should not be an issue

but I like to get my blocks to be the correct even size.

I do love the block pattern though and am looking forward 

to making and sending and receiving the swap blocks.

Looking forward to making the quilt, too.

:-)