100 day crumb quilt-along

100 days?  really?  Making a crumb quilt is so addicting!  After 30 days, I had enough for 2 queen size quilts!!  That's A LOT of therapy, folks!  And all for FREE!!!  No buying fabric.  Pull out ALL your scraps, even from those nooks and crannies, the ones that you were saving as a set just cuz you might use them some day.

You start by sewing 2 pieces together that are the same size, and look good together.  And you do that for a long time.   The idea is that if you are sewing 2 pieces together that are squared before sewing, you won't have a bunch of trimming to do after you press.  (keep your long scissors close to your machine, and square pieces as  you choose them, no pressing)

Then after you've done a bunch, you take those together and do the same thing.  Find pieces that are about the same size, and look good next to each other, and sew them together.  For. a. long. time.  

Then you do it again, and again, and again. Oh my . . . some of those fabrics are VERY old! 

Till you decide to put them all up on your design board and you realize that you have enough to make several quilts!!!

It's quite a messy process, which is why I found that I couldn't work on anything else at the same time.  

My regular machine is getting a check up.  This Singer Featherweight was made in the Czech Republic in the 40's.  It sews a solid stitch, never wavering, a very good back-up.  You can find them on e-bay, and they are relatively easy to maintain. Notice my big scissors there, you will need to keep them in a handy place to help square up pieces.  You don't have to be exact, just eye-ball it.  Seam allowances don't really matter.  

Towards the end, you'll have big squares that you try to fit together like a big puzzle.  You night need to trim some back or add to one to make it fit into the your finished top.

When you think you've had enough, and you can fit all the pieces together to make a good size quilt, you give it a good starchy pressing, and "stay-stitch" all around the circumference. 

I have not quilted these 2 crumb quilt tops, but I have cool plans for their back and quilting process.  You will read about those at a later date.

I learned this technique from the amazing Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts.  You can find her instructions here.  Thank you Amanda!  We miss you :(

In Amanda's blog posts on Crumb quilts, she gave us permission to throw away scraps that we didn't like.  You know, we hang onto them because you can't waste them.  Hmmmmmm,  one of those scraps is probably worth maybe a nickel.  If you hold it up and it doesn't bring you joy? ** Thank it and throw it out!!!!  WOW!  It felt sooooo good to throw out those few scraps that have been haunting my scrap bag all these years.  And I will like those crumb quilt tops for years to come, cuz I didn't try to fit ugly scraps into them that I just couldn't throw away.

** "Tidying Up" now available for all you Netflix bingers :0