Thursday, May 7, 2015

A Place for Pins

Things are starting to come together for my display at Quilt Market  - the big quilting industry trade show next week in Minneapolis.


Several designers and shops will be trading little button-style pins at the show. I have quite a few prepared, so if you see me at one of the other shows I'm going to attend this summer, you might just have to look me up to get one!



Anyway, with all this pin collecting going on, and all these scrap fabrics I have, I thought it'd be a good idea to put the two together to make a fast, fun Pin Keep for my sewing studio. You can download the free pattern here. In the meantime, here's a little run-through of the steps. And oh, the Pin Keep features the new ScrapTherapy Little Scrap Grid Interfacing! How cool is that!?

First I selected some light and medium 3-1/2" squares. Truth be known, since I wanted my background fabrics to match I cut these from a couple of fabric strips, but it would have been just as easy to pull the squares out of my scrap bin. I also selected a bunch of 2" scrap squares, fun prints in contrasting colors.



I sewed the 3-1/2" squares into 2-patches, then sewed the 2-patches into a vertical row. And set that aside for the moment.

Next, I trimmed two 9-patches-worth of interfacing from one of the sections of the Scrap Therapy Little Scrap Grid. The Little Scrap Grid comes by the panel, and each panel has two 'clusters' of six 9-patches. I just needed one-third of one of the 'clusters.' For this project, I'm not using the interfacing as I would to make a traditional 9-patch, as outlined in this tutorial.

I cut a diagonal slit in the center of each grid section.



With the interfacing fusible side down, and the 2" scrap squares right side up, I positioned each 2" square underneath the grid, and pinned it from the top, so I can still see the lines on the grid.



Then I sewed on all the solid lines.



Next I cut the interfacing on the dotted and dashed lines, trimmed the corners to reduce bulk . . .



 . . . And turned each of the 18 squares inside out through the cut in the interfacing. I used a Purple Thang to shape the corners, but I had to be careful not to poke straight through the interfacing!



I made a short stack of colorful square-shaped 'cookies.' The fusible side of the interfacing is now on the back side of the scrap square, facing out.



Next I placed the square 'cookies' on the checkerboard panel playfully as shown in the picture. And fused them in place.

Layered batting (9x30"), backing (8x29"), right side up, checkerboard quilt top right side down. I pinned everywhere, then sewed a 1/4" seam around the edge of the top, leaving a 6" opening for turning. Trim batting and backing, then turn the quilt inside out, close the opening by hand or machine and quilt.



Add a hanging sleeve on the back and pin your favorite pin collectibles to the front. There you have it - a scrappy conversation piece for your sewing room. Hey, or how about this idea--make two, sew them end-to-end and you'll have a scarf for your walking pin display!

Too much fun!

Happy Stitching!
joan

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