Needlework Tuesday - Quilting for Comfort

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you.

Last week I told you that I was going to start on a comfort quilt for one of my sister's co-workers.  He has been out of his house for two months due to the extreme flooding in High River, Alberta.  I wanted to help, but not living near that, I did what I do best, made a quilt.  Oh hand were these great fabrics for sashing, and a selection of 20 co-ordinated blocks that members of my local guild made at my request quite some time ago.

 The blocks were a huge variety of sizes ranging from not quite 12 inches to the standard 12 1/2 inches.  Makes it difficult to put them all together.

 

This is the layout I decided upon.  I pinned notes with number placement on each one and also drew a sketch showing the same numbers and which colour fabric stripe would sash each block.

 Fabric for framing each block were all cut to 3 inches and then sewn together into a long strip.

Sew a strip to both the left and right sides of the blocks.  Trim any ends that extend past the edge.  This is the smallest block, and needed the most trimming.  When I looked at the back of the block, I saw why it was so small, all the seams were much larger than 1/4 inch.

Sew a strip to both the top and bottom of the block and again trim off the extending bits.
This block trimmed to 16 3/4 inches.  Next step was to trim all the other framed blocks to that size.

To make it easier, I used some bright pink tape, (Glow-Line Tape from Omnigrid) to mark the places to align the ruler.  Much easier than measuring each time.  It is not the best idea to cut repeatedly at the exact same spot on your cutting matt.  I did clean the matt twice during the process so that threads were not forced into the cuts  of the self healing cutting matt.

Then it was time to sew the squares together.  I sewed four blocks together in each row, then sewed the rows together.  Only when all the top was completed did I remove the notes with the block numbers.
 

 

Yesterday I bought some 80/20 quilt batt and am using some fabric I had on hand for the backing.  I do hope to get this quilted in the next few days.  Am going to use an all over design from the beginner page at Leah Day's website.

 More photos for you next week.  At that time I'll also have an update on my progress in the 350 Block Challenge.