Knee Deep in 4-Patches!

I discovered a huge zip lock bag  ((YES, make that RE-DISCOVERED!)) of leader-ender 4 patches ---left overs from other quilts I’ve made with them and they've sparked new interest!

I have a plan!

On one of the rare Saturdays that I get to spend at home, I spent most of the morning playing with them, stitching away on my treadle machine and decided on a strippy layout ---

I'm loving this green dot so much – and then panicking because I was not going to have enough of it!

Thanks be to the fabric fairies and the selvage still intact on the edge of the yardage I had – I found that it is  Holly Holderman's Tonal Dots in Key Lime ---and a quick online search with the item number found a shop in Cary, NC that does mail order and they still had some in stock!

2 yards are on their way to me!

Whoopie!  I so seldom have a problem with not having enough of something – usually I am totally up for substitution of something similar if I run out – but it is extra nice to find that I can get more of this one because it fits my plan.  This fabric is not THAT old…which is also a miracle in and of itself in my stash!

Three partial rows of many I hope to make with these!

Inspired by an antique quilt..I love how some of the 4 patches are scrappy everything with no attention paid to light or dark, and some of them ARE matched with only two fabrics in the 4 patch – a light, and a dark…and some are scrappy lights/darks and they can all turn different directions adding movement to the strippy panels.

How are these going to turn up in a quilt? 

You’ll have to wait and see!

I can give you a little hint when sewing strippies like this though....I always go back after piecing, and using the 1/4" marking on my ruler..true up the edges of the pieced strip by measuring 1/4" from the corner of each 4-patch square along the edge of the strip -- those can tend to buckle and bow a bit while piecing...so square them up, trimming off the dog ears and  leaving 1/4" seam  allowance beyond those squares along the edges so that it will piece nice and flat into the quilt.  Sometimes I'm trimming barely a smidge -- but it does make a difference.

I’ve gotten emails asking when the next Quilt-Cam will be.  I had company this week which put it off a bit – and this afternoon I ran errands and went to the movies on a very rare Saturday home.

I’m thinking of Quilt-Cam tomorrow, Sunday June 23 at 2pm Eastern.  I hope this will work for everyone!

I also leave Thursday – so I’m thinking the next one after tomorrow will be Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern.  This way we will catch the Europeans on a Saturday evening their time, and the Australians and New Zealanders during their morning time while we air on Wednesday night in my time zone.

Bring a project!  Cut something out, iron something, applique, bind, plan, dream --- SEW!

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