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Saturday, February 22, 2020

All in a Day of Crumb Block and String Quilt Play!


I just love little scrappy gems like this!

Our Xing workshop from my book String Frenzy was off to a grand start – and some were extremely grateful for our one hour class start delay due to weather from the south.

Those coming up from the Raleigh area had to deal with 2 to 4 inches of snow and ice, which might not sound like a lot to those in Northern climes, but down here where we don’t have road crews and plows, and the modus operandi is just to “Sit tight and wait for a thaw!” would have trouble making it 150 miles up the road safely if it weren’t for that one hour delay start time.


The Peaks & Pieces guild folks are awesome hosts!

We’ve got space set up for 50, and it doesn’t feel like it.  And the lighting!  WONDERFUL.


And see those banquet tables?

The church youth group provided our lunch of salad and baked potato bar – it was a wonderful meal for a cold and chilly day.  I just love coming here!

(Just wait until you see my show & share post on Sunday – these folks are rockin’ the quilts and they are GORGEOUS!)


We spent the morning building crumb centers for cute stars!


Aren’t these adorable?


Hello, there!


Trimming and squaring and shooting the breeze!


How many pairs of scissors can you find here?  LOL!

But I can’t find my seam ripper!!


You can’t make just one – they are far too fun!

We cut the quarter square triangle star points from strips using my Essential Triangle Tool.  Easy tricks for sewing them in mirror image pairs made the construction so easy!

And those crumb blocks?  They became our Leaders & Enders in between the lines of chain piecing stars together.  Crumb locks just keep going, there is no desire to stop.


And then we threw alternate string blocks into the mix!


All those happy little scraps found their way into the little blocks.


And did THIS 2000 Y2K fabric come out to play?

OH, YES!

I had never seen the bottom one. Have you??  How much more of this stuff can possibly still be out there?  We laughed and laughed – and I got to take some home.  Believe me, it WILL be cut small! Haha!

For the rest of our day’s fun, Click to Play:

It was just such a great day all around.



I have to thank Robin once again for the beautiful Chatelaine!

Do you see that it has the tiniest frolic block as a pocket?

She went way above and beyond and I am so grateful!


Everything close at hand, and no longer will pins be in the arm of the chair!

It’s truly beautiful and I will cherish it forever.


How CUTE is THIS?!

I spied this just after clean up as those who are also in class today could leave their stuff in the classroom overnight.  Oh my word – look at the detail!  I love the window box and the fabric that looks like window screening on the camper door.


I couldn’t help but peek beneath!!  SO CUTE!

As class finished at 5:30 due to our late start, we grabbed dinner at a near by Mexican place, hopping and busy on a Friday night.  That chatting lasted longer than the meal – a great way to relax.  By the time I was back to my hotel room it was past 8pm. 

Needless to say NO SEWING HAPPENED!  And this morning I am packing the van with everything in my hotel room as I am headed back home after class is over th is afternoon.  Such a quick trip, but we are packing it full of so much good stuff.


This sweet vintage quilt was over one of the pianos to protect it.

I am just enamored with the down home feel of this well loved quilt, in all of it’s imperfections.  It was the perfect object lesson to get people who were afraid of crumb blocks and string blocks – worrying that they couldn’t do it “RIGHT” that it wouldn’t be “PERFECT” to relax a bit.

It’s the variations away from perfection that make things interesting, that tell a story.  This quirky quilt is perfect to me in every way.


From sashings of varying widths -

To blocks that don’t line up -

With blocks of differing sizes -

And crazy, wonky edges -

From fabric selections less than beautiful -

To seams that don’t meet and pieces in the wrong places -

To pleats and puckers and machine quilting lines that waver -

This quilt is LIFE!

Life is often a hot mess, things don’t turn out the way we think they should.  There are twists and turns (pleats and puckers) in our every day doings – but that is what makes live WONDERFUL.  

How boring life would be if it were all perfect, in every way, in every day.


So I have chosen this quilt as the background for our Quiltville Quilt of the Day -


Do you suffer from a need to be perfect in every aspect of your life?

How much of that can you let go of in an effort to just BE?

Enjoy your Saturday, everyone!


14 comments:

  1. It looks like you had soooo much fun together!!! My question as a beginning quilter is what exactly is a crumb bkock? I've never even heard of it let alone know how to make one lol. So far I've only made 3 throws with rectangles only. No sashing, no triangles, no border. I'm learning though do that's good.

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    1. A crumb block is where you take oddly-shaped small pieces and sew them together to make a block that is not symmetric as most pieces are. If you google "crumb quilt block" you'll find all kinds of info and even video tutorials on them. :-)

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  2. I believe that is the hardest lesson to learn in life... that we are ALL imperfect, and that we will never be perfect, until we leave this planet, if we are Sons and Daughters of God Most High. There are only TWO that are perfect in everything, and one of them we are to strive to be like. God Most High is the Perfect Being. His Only Begotten Son is perfect to Him, for He most emulates God Most High. We spend our lifetimes learning this, and when we do, we can lose the obsession of being 'perfect'. I know that this took me over 40 years to learn. But once I did, oh, did it release me! Free to BE me!

    Blessings, Bonnie!

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  3. I have to reassure you that, as someone from the northern climes, ice is ice & it is safer to sit tight! I also wanted to thank you for today’s quilt quote! So timely, I’ve reposted HollyAnne’s FMQ Academy as a reminder & encouragement to everyone determined to “get” FMQ. A great reality check!

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  4. What a wonderful way to spend a day! Thank you for sharing and giving us a glimpse. I love the video. The blocks are beautiful in the variety of vintage machines warms my heart.

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  5. Is that Dawn Saunders I spy?

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  6. I am making a pattern that is 12 blocks with a flower in the top and a leaf in the bottom. When cutting I made an error in a few of the blocks so I went to the Amish method of piecing to make the strip the right length. Your piecing is making an impression on me. I will have seams where there may not need to be seams but it will work. I kind of like it. LOL

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  7. Looks like SEW much fun!! I'm pretty sure I spy my friend Kirsten's blocks in your post. If only I had been available to go up to VA with her! Sigh...

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  8. Had a great day! Thank you for a fun class, and for getting me out of my box!

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  9. Fabulous class. Definitely an exercise in letting go of perfection. Thanks to a great day. And yes Joy, those are my blocks... Leftovers from Seminole Mountain, plus some extras.

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  10. Just an FYI on instant pot recipes. I follow "Six Sisters Stuff" and also watch their many videos on the instant pot. I think you would enjoy them and their recipes! They are awesome!! Hope you enjoy!

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  11. I love the Chatelaine! Did the maker create this pattern? I would love instructions.

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    Replies
    1. As far as I know, this is her own design, using my frolic block on the front. There is no available pattern.

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  12. I am sooooo jealous. Bedford, Va is not too awfully far from me....I tried a few years ago to make it down for one of your classes but the weather in February is often uncooperative here in WV. I do see you'll be in Ripley, WV in October....so keeping fingers (eyes, and toes) crossed that will work out for me. A class with you is on my MLBL ( major-life-bucket-list)!

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