Trimmed, Bound & Labeled
A couple of entries ago, I mentioned that I had finally finished quilting the “Use It Up” crumb quilt (after leaving it on the frame for a long, long time). Since then, I’ve trimmed the excess batting and backing fabric, made and attached the binding, and even labeled the quilt. It’s now washed and ready to use!
This was a bit of an experimental quilt for me, because it was my first (and so far, only) time piecing words in fabric. I used the techniques laid out by Tonya Ricucci in her book, Word Play Quilts. It’s been so long since I worked on that part of the quilt that I don’t have much memory of the process, but I think I might revisit it at some point. I still like the idea of “freestyle” word piecing.
The rest of the quilt is made up primarily of crumb-pieced fabric, with a few orphan blocks thrown in for good measure.
I free motion quilted this quilt, starting with the black bars, then going back up the quilt to fill in the crumb-pieced sections. I outlined the letters, then filled the background with smaller-scale meandering. For the crumb areas, I used a larger-scale meander pattern. Oh, and I did some other random FMQ in the skinny black bars with no words in them.
Here are photos before I washed the quilt. (Ignore any bits of lint, fluff, or dog hair in any of the photos I share today, please!)
Part of the charm of these freestyle words is the wonkiness, and I think it’s fair to say that this attempt is definitely full of character.
The saying—”Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without”—is a motto from the WWII years, when people on the home front had to “make do” to support the war effort (and because they often simply had no other choice). It also makes me think of the resourcefulness and practicality that got people through the Great Depression.
I thought this was a good fit for a crumb quilt, which is all about making every last bit count.
And here it is after its first wash and dry, crinkled up and ready for snuggling.
The backing is pieced together with leftover pieces of flannel from other quilt backings—without any real attempt at cohesiveness, because that’s the theme of this quilt. Anything goes.
For thread, I used some dark blue that I had in my stash—”Blue Moon” EssentialPRO polyester thread from Connecting Threads. Interesting to see how different it looks, depending on the fabric. It’s harder to see in these photos, but on the light/bright-colored sections, it looks black, but on the black, it’s clearly blue.
This wasn’t the best thread color for hiding mistakes or problems in the crumb-pieced areas, but I didn’t worry too much about it. It’s a busy quilt, and this is a quilt meant to be used, not an entry in a quilt-making contest.
I made the binding from some strips I had cut long, long ago when I miscalculated how much binding I needed for an earlier quilt. I cut double what was required back then, so I just set them aside, knowing a time would come when I’d need it—and here we are. It’s actually a very dark blue with thin white/cream stripes, but it’s close enough to black to go well with the black strips, I thought.
It’s not an elegant quilt—and that black fabric will probably never look clean in a house with two high-shedding dogs with long, white fur—but it was fun to make, and looking at all that crumb-piecing makes me excited about getting back in front of the sewing machine again!
I’ve also taken a quick look through the stack of quilt tops waiting to be turned into finished quilts. I think I’ve chosen my next candidate—another crumb quilt, but this time with a “background” in a sage green denim-type fabric. I already have a backing selected, so it shouldn’t take long to get it on the frame and start quilting. Updates coming soon, I hope.
