Three quilting projects on my sewing table (Quilt studio diary)

My quilt studio has been unusually quiet since mid-August. First, I spent a relaxing summer vacation at a cottage/villa by a small lake, then had a short mini-break in a hotel, and then my first working week included a lot of activity and a few long days.

The first quilting project by the lake was a hand-sewing one. I made hexagons out of scraps using the English paper piecing method and cardboard shapes that I've made many years ago. Though most hexies don't have a specific role yet, some are already attached together into small pieces that I’ll later use as details on my zipper bags. Here’s one example:

Of course many of the hexies will become the end pieces for the zippers in pouches that I make for my Open series.

Second quilting project. Back at home, when I finally had the energy and opportunity, I worked tenaciously to finish all the nine-patch blocks that I still needed for the quilt surface. I cut squares, sewed nine-patches and pressed. Here are the last 16 blocks that I finished:

So now, all 320 blocks are done!

I hesitated writing the statement above because I don’t trust my calculations. I’ve mis-counted blocks so many times – the record must be my not being able to count to 12. (Though that was because a similar-sized, different block had hid itself in the pile, so when I just counted by block corners, I thought I did have 12 blocks.)

Of course, now that all the blocks are done, I should have hastened to set them up into a pleasing design and then sew them together into a top. However, I’ve just held on them as they are and done something different – the third quilting project.

I’ve been inspired by all the scraps that my small-square-cutting has produced! Here are the many small scrappy pieces, glowing in the patch of sun:

The nine-patches now live in smaller stacks because I sorted them by colour – and they are staying that way until I start designing the quilt layout.

Before laying out all those small blocks, I’ve finished two scrappy surfaces for a zipper bag. Here, I’ve just pin-basted the patchwork pieces to the batting:

Regular pins are quite adequate to hold small surfaces like these together for quilting. Of course I remove pins out of the way when I’m running the quilting stitches.

I also took a picture of the quilted surfaces that I hadn’t trimmed yet:

I just could not wait to get to the trimming part before taking a photo! These images demonstrate the significant difference that trimming makes. See how definite the trimmed pieces look! ”We are so ready to become a quilted zipper bag,” they silently communicate:

The pieces have been quilted using a pattern that I call Intersecting arcs. If you want to know in more detail how I stitch this pattern, see my blog post 21 easy quilting ideas for patchwork surfaces – from straight stitch to free motion. The same post describes 20 other quilting patterns that may inspire you when you need to quilt small surfaces.

As I’m writing this, the zipper bag is finished, but I have no photos of it yet. The weather is so grey that I don’t know when I’ll be able to have a proper photoshoot. But if you want to make sure to see what the above surfaces look like as a zipper bag, subscribe to my email newsletter. In the newsletters, I share links to my latest blog posts. Subscribe to my biweekly newsletter.

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