how to I break my quilting block?
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: DC metro area
Posts: 1,286
how to I break my quilting block?
My problem is I get quilters paralyzis when it comes to cutting out a new project. As long as the fabric is whole, it has the possibility of so much but once I cut it...maybe another pattern will show up tomorrow that would have been perfect for it. So I collect and fondle my fabric and dream quilty things. Arrange it into piles that might go together, then change my mind.
Another problem I have is matching fabrics. I can match 2-3 fabrics ok, but then usually I don't have enough of the fabric so I have to find more fabric to go with the project and when I finally put my blocks together I wonder what I was thinking.
I have a huge stash that I bought on various sales and yard sales where I didn't buy coordinating fabrics or I have ~1/4 yard pieces. I go to my sewing room with great expectations then after 20 minutes of look at fabric I give up.
It's so annoying. I have time to sew now but can't get started.
What do you do when you have this problem?
Another problem I have is matching fabrics. I can match 2-3 fabrics ok, but then usually I don't have enough of the fabric so I have to find more fabric to go with the project and when I finally put my blocks together I wonder what I was thinking.
I have a huge stash that I bought on various sales and yard sales where I didn't buy coordinating fabrics or I have ~1/4 yard pieces. I go to my sewing room with great expectations then after 20 minutes of look at fabric I give up.
It's so annoying. I have time to sew now but can't get started.
What do you do when you have this problem?
#3
I have 2-3 pieces of fabric that I won't use until I find the perfect project. The rest get used. Have you thought about doing a sampler with a little bit of a bunch of different fabrics. I would use a solid white like kona and make a bunch of 6.5 inch blocks(all different and each block with a different fabric). You should have enough of each to do a lot of blocks.
#4
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 41,548
You should start picturing someone else wacking away with a pair of scissor at your beautiful stash. If you don't use it, someone else after you is going to. Find a pattern that excite you and go for it! So what if you totally screw it up, it's just fabric. Finish it up and donate it to a worthy cause and start again.
#5
Group your fabrics by color and do something scrappy. The first Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt I did required a bunch of string pieced blocks with neutral backgrounds. I had a collection of shirting FQs sitting in a container for years and I was very hesitant to cut them up. I finally asked myself "WHAT am I saving them for?" and started cutting away. It was very liberating. Nothing is safe in the stash now, and I often buy 1/4 or 1/3 yard pieces just to expand a particular color.
#6
I ponder this all the time but if I keep waiting I'll never acomplish anything so I just jump right in. There will be more beautiful fabric to play with tomorrow and other patterns to play with too. Have fun. It's quilting not brain surgery.
peace
peace
#9
#10
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Small town in Northeast Oregon close to Washington and Idaho
Posts: 2,795
I always buy FQ bundles and a few yards of a couple of the fabrics I like the best or a jelly roll or layer cake and a few yards of the fabric I like the best so I know I can find a pattern to make. The extra yardage is for sashing and borders. But I do have rubbermaid tubs full of FQs that match 3 or 4 of each other and I, too, don't know what to do with them. I've never made a scrappy quilt before and I really want to so I just might do that with all of them.
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