Tu-Na Quilts: You’ve Got Mail

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There is still nothing as thrilling as finding something (not counting bills, requests for money, or political flyers) in the mailbox.

 

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My quilty friends from my new quilting group at my orange house (in Arizona) sent me a scrappy care package filled with lots of fabric scraps for my postage stamp quilt. 

 

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At one of our meetings during the winter, I put out a plea for their fabric garbage (the little pieces they were throwing away anyway because they wouldn’t be using them). I received an envelope stuffed full of fabric goodness from one friend a couple of weeks ago and now this box came. They are determined to keep me stitching all summer. Thanks friends! 

 

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Do you see those adorable penguins and the elephant? I think they call for some fussy cutting. They sure crammed a lot of fabric into one box.

Last summer I started a postage stamp quilt hoping to finish at 70″ x 80.” I’d seen one like it the year before when I was traveling on the Minnesota Quilt Shop Hop and thought I was up to the challenge. My plan is to have most of the squares in each 8.5″ unfinished block start out at 1.5″ but somewhere in that block I will use a 2.5″ square for interest. Since I wanted to challenge myself even more I decided to also include four 1″ squares within each block.

 

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Paris! I know that after it is sewn, it will read aris. Even with trying hard some of the seams just wouldn’t match up. But from this distance it doesn’t look too bad.

Sewing with 1″ squares makes the 1.5″ squares seem huge and I’ve really had to work hard at making the scant 1/4″ seam allowances accurate.

 

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Gotta love those golf tees!

I haven’t actually figured out how many pieces I need yet but I think it is around 5, 600 or so. If at all possible, I am trying not to duplicate fabrics but I am able to cut multiple squares from some prints if the squares look different. Surprisingly, I haven’t had too many duplications which attests to the large variety of fabrics available. If I can count accurately, I’ve already acquired enough 2.5″ squares. Last year I joined an online swap through The Curious Quilter as a newbie and received lots of fun prints.

 

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Picnic ants and Spot! The 4 blue squares on the bottom right corner show I cut multiple squares from prints without duplicating. I’m limiting myself to 4 squares cut from one piece of fabric though. I make my own rules: I can also break them if I want.

Last fall I cut about a thousand 1.5″ squares before we left for AZ, packed them, and sewed most of them together in long chains in November. I was busy sewing on another quilty project in December which I will share soon. 

 

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I am finding a tangled-up-banner-mess after unpacking them.

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I see lots of ironing in my future. Poor little puppy; only gets his bottom end on the quilt. I am sure one of my grandsons will find the humor in that.

I sewed some into groups of four.

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Let’s have a little I-spy game. Can you find the iron, spider, and owl eyes?

That’s where this postage stamp project stalled and my big winter writing project began which I wrote about in a previous post. Now I am back to cutting and sewing those little pieces. I expect it will take a few years to accumulate the fabric scraps and complete this project but it will pop up on a post every now and then to show I’m making progress.

This postage stamp quilt is only one of the projects I am working on right now. I have several others “in the pipeline” as well. Oh, and a few in “hiding” too that like to play hide and seek. Do you work on multiple projects at once or are you a “sew one and get ‘er done” person?

What I learned today?

  1. It is really important to know what a scant 1/4″ seam allowance is when sewing itty bitty pieces.
  2. Squaring four 1.5″ squares sewed together to 2.5″ is very important for maintaining one’s sanity.
  3. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be nice.

Thanks for visiting.

Karen

Linking to Scraptastic Tuesday

 

 

 

16 thoughts on “Tu-Na Quilts: You’ve Got Mail”

  3. quiltgranny

    Holy cow. That sounds almost unmanageable. 5000 pieces is definitely over my limit. Make sure to post lots of pics as you go along. I will make the quilt vicariously through you.

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  4. Paige

    What a great scrap project! Adding the 2.5″ square and the smaller 1″ squares will add so much interest. Looking forward to seeing this progress!

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  6. davemelvanolan

    I love that you make up your rules as you go and you can decide to break them as well. 🙂 I have a few 1-1/2 inch squares left over from my rooster and Jesus quilts I could donate if you find yourself running short. 😉

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  7. Melva Nolan

    I love that you make up your rules as you go and you can decide to break them as well.:) I have a few 1-1/2 inch squares left over from my rooster and Jesus quilts I could donate if you find yourself running short.😉

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  8. Nicky

    I love this and want to make one myself. If I did I would have to do something quicker in between as it would drive me crazy! So I guess I swap around as I have spent too many days procrastinating when I get stuck and that isn’t progress! Thanks for linking up to #scraptastictuesday

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  11. Pingback: Tu-Na Quilts: Preee…senting Tu-Na | Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

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