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Thursday, August 06, 2020

Pin Basting

Shoo Fly quilt top
The Shoo Fly blocks have become a finished quilt top! This project was started last July as the Quiltville leader-ender challenge and my version has 140 Shoo Fly blocks that finish at 4". Some of the sashing is white and some is a light floral. I decided not to add a border and just proceed to quilting.

I would like to give mention to Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting who has inspired me by making incredible complex scrappy quilts using her totally scrappy approach. 


Ready to pin baste
I used her random layout technique in this quilt... picked 4 Shoo Fly blocks and sewed them together with white sashing, then I randomly sewed the sets of 4 with floral sashing. I love how it turned out!

There are A LOT of small pieces of fabric used up in this quilt, the blocks did not all measure exactly 4", and there are A LOT of seams. It's a little wobbly and hilly in spots, so I'm a bit worried that it might be challenging to quilt. 

Kwik Klip tool

I started the pin basting during a family zoom, and this photo shows me using my favourite Kwik Klip tool to insert and close the basting pins. It makes quick work (less than an hour) of putting 140 pins into the quilt. 
I will post tomorrow about how I prepare for machine quilting.

15 comments:

  1. Love you shoo fly quilt top! Oh so beautiful and scrappy.

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  2. A closeup showed the ones that are fussy cut. Cute! And a lot of work.I passed on this L/E because of the small pieces. I guess I'm burned out on BH quilts for awhile so I'll enjoy yours!

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  3. Wow! This turned into a finished top so fast! The power of leader/enders :)

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  4. One of the things that stands out in seeing all the blocks sewn together is what a difference color/value placement can make in the appearance of the blocks. Definitely adds interest. Nice to see you're moving this one on to completion and not putting it in the closet.
    Pat

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  5. So sparkly! I like the two-fabric sashing. At first I thought you'd spilled something, but then I realized that those are the pins. :)

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  6. Kathy, you did a beautiful job on this quilt! It is interesting as you were making the blocks, it was difficult to imagine how it would turn out! The little borders added on each blocks using different border fabric really makes all blocks stand out and extremely easy for the eye to focus on each block, not one big blur of colors.

    Hats off to you - I am hoping now that I can get back to quilting - almost 8 months since I finished a quilt, for that matter much of anything.

    I am totally impressed!

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  7. What a fun scrappy quilt! You are doing great making progress. I hope to be doing some pinning later today or tomorrow.

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  8. Looks terrific! You do great choosing during scrappy play. A few bobbles in quilting won’t mater a bit.

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  9. Love how this turned out. And you're right - it takes a good long time to sew everything together. I'm sore today from all the up and down of laying my blocks out on the floor and then crawling around as I get each row ready to sew. Not, complaining though, it's good exercise.

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  10. So pretty! This one has a very playful vibe.:)

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  11. Wonderful, small blocks with little pieces look great, but I couldnt cope with teeny tiny bits. But I'm certainly impressed that you and so many other quilters certainly can!

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  12. It's such a terrific quilt! So many vibrant colors and lots of white - it's just fun. I love using the Kwik clip too for basting - it is SO helpful!

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  13. Wow, speedy! It is beautiful! And that Kwick Klip sure saves the fingers, I know! I too am learning to do random scrappy. It can be hard to NOT conform to what we had been taught.

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