FOR MY NEXT TRICK...

      I have the pleasure of working with several fabric companies.  One of my favorites is the Jaftex corporation.  You may not know the corporate name, but you certainly know their brands, FreeSpirit, Henry Glass, Studio e, A.E. Nathan, 3 Wishes and Blank Textiles are all under the Jaftex umbrella.  As a designer, I like variety in my fabric selection and those labels offer everything from reproduction to ultra-modern prints.  When I was offered the opportunity to become a Brand Ambassador, my first reaction was to jump at the opportunity.  The downside was that you were required to work with only ONE of those companies for an entire year.  That posed a problem, as I said, I like variety.  I ended up agreeing to give it a try if I could work across their brands and mix things up a bit.  Shortly thereafter, my first package arrived.

     In the next 30 days I have to produce either one “large” or three “small” projects using the fabrics included in the package.  This is a little like being on the Food Channel program Chopped where you must use the ingredients in the basket.  The good news is, I am the only contestant and I have an entire month to finish the task.  I filmed an “unboxing” video and shared it in the Nine Patch A Day Group on Facebook  You are welcome to join that private group and watch it there.  

     Here is a photo of some of the fabrics I found in the package.  Half yard cuts of 24 pieces of the Abby’s Treasures fabric line by Missie Carpenter for Blank Quilting.  (You can read more about Missie by clicking the link) WHOO HOO!  I can work with this!  The package also included some light pieces not shown here and a huge piece of a what looks like aged muslin by Tana Mueller of Western Denim & Dirt to be used as background or backing.

     I thought it might be fun for you to follow the design process.  So here goes!

     The first thing I did was cut the fabrics in half on the fold to create fat quarters.  I may write instructions for this project in the future and I find it easier to track yardage by the fat quarter.   Next I sprayed all of the fabrics with sizing and iron them dry.  That is my method of pre-shrinking.  Working with the prints I realized that I had 6 different colors, blue, brown, green, red, orange and purple.  Twelve blocks, two from each color family is a sensible place to start.  The fabrics are also ALL blenders.  There is no feature print, like a larger scale floral, in the group.  This fabric line is perfect for a scrap quilt!  I chose these prints to be my main block borders.

     Next step, choose a block pattern.  It is always a good idea to start with a favorite.  Something not too simple, not too difficult.  For this project it must be interesting enough to include a variety of fabrics.  After all I have 24 different prints to work with.  I also have to choose carefully because SEVEN of the prints are stripes, both straight and diagonal.  One of the background fabrics is a diagonal stripe.  Time to cut that one up and find a pattern to make it work...  Wow!  That wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  Adding a cornerstone to this block keeps the diagonal stripe contained in a specific area.  Block pattern chosen!

     You probably wouldn't start making a block by making the outer edge first, but in the design process I approach the pattern in a different way.  When making a scrappy quilt I like to provide some consistency,  I feel you need a place for your eye to "rest" and appreciate the design.  By cutting these geese units and the squares from the same fabric they will form a frame around the center of the block where a variety of fabrics will be used.  What the center of the block will look like is yet to be determined.  Right now I have to get twelve frames made using 4 different background fabrics.

   BTW, did you notice that the "goose" is inserted between two rectangles and not made with clipped corners?  There is no center seam in those dark triangles, courtesy of the magic of the Quick Trim & Circle Ruler.  The triangles were cut from a 2 1/2" strip using a Quarter Square Triangle Ruler.  The rectangles were cut and the corners clipped with the Quick Trim & Circle Ruler.  Neat trick to cut down on seams!

#BlankQuilting, #Jaftex, #The Quilt Company