Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Tasting Table Tuesday - Quilts from Shirts

I have a new project on my "Tasting Table" this week.  Two quilts from clothing - mainly flannel shirts, plus some coveralls.  After presenting the clients with several options, the winning vote was for Flying Geese.

Flocks and flocks of scrappy geese, something like this drawing I did on EQ7.


There are many different methods of making flying geese blocks, but the one I normally use involves starting with two squares of slightly different sizes, then sewing, cutting, and sewing some more until you end up with four geese from the two squares.

Another method uses rectangles and squares.

But both of those methods create some waste and complicate the cutting by requiring different sizes and shapes.  That's fine if you're using yardage, but it's a different ball game when you're working with shirts.

I wanted to make the most efficient use of all the clothing fabrics, with minimal waste, and opted for Bonnie Hunter's method because it uses one consistent strip width for all of the components.  I my case, I needed 3 1/2" strips to make the 3" x 6" Flying Geese.

After "de-boning" the shirts (as Bonnie calls it), I was left with this pile of fabric panels.


I cut them all down into 3 1/2" strips of varying lengths...


Then cut the strips into the triangles needed to make two quilts.  (A total of 1,188 triangles, but who's counting...)


Now it's time for some serious assembly-line sewing with Pandora radio to keep me company.

Cheers!

2 comments:

  1. Wow!!! I can't wait to see this all come together :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my, you've got your work cut out for you on this one. If you run into any serious problems with fraying, I recommend spray starch. It does wonders for plaids.

    ReplyDelete

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