There’s an exercise I do in order to stretch my quilting muscles. It’s a good way to try something new without making a huge commitment of time, energy or expense.
I make a set of three similar quilts that finish at 8″ x 10″. The piecing is one simple block with some improvised borders. Any block you like will work as long as it’s not too large. I used an Economy block.
The color recipe for each piece is totally different from the others. You get to practice putting different values (lightness or darkness) together, as well as different prints. You get to play with color!
The real fun begins when you start quilting. Each piece is quilted in a unique way so it’s different from the others. I used different colors and weights of thread for each one, too.
One of my quilts is mostly straight lines quilted with a walking foot. The quilt above features swirls that I free-motion quilted without marking. My skills weren’t great at the time but I thought of this as a practice piece and didn’t worry too much about it.
I loved quilting the free-flowing lines on the gray and tan piece above. I just focused on getting some nice flowing motion going. It’s not perfect but it was great practice.
The nice thing about small pieces like this is that they’re easily moved around under the needle of a domestic machine. Practicing machine quilting is fun and interesting when you take this approach. As you gain confidence, you’ll feel comfortable quilting larger projects.
If your free-motion quilting skills are still developing, you won’t feel you have ruined something you spent weeks piecing. Instead, you can just relax and learn, enjoying the experience of practicing in order to improve. I think I’ll make another set of “triplets” soon. I’m still getting to know my HQ Stitch 510 and 710, and practice projects would be beneficial.
To make your own Economy block:
Cutting
For the yellow center patch, cut a square 2-1/2″ x 2-1/2″.
For the blue triangles next to the center square, cut a square 3-1/4″ x 3-1/4″ and cut diagonally in both directions.
For the green triangles, cut two squares 3″ x 3″ and cut once on the diagonal.
Assembly
Use a scant 1/4″ seam allowance. Sew blue triangles to two opposite sides of the center patch and press seam allowances outward. Sew the remaining blue triangles to the two other sides of the center square.
Add the green triangles in the same way. Trim the block to 4-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ as needed. (For this project, you could just square it up as needed without trimming anything off the edges, because the finished size doesn’t really matter.)
Sew wide strips in one or more other colors to the sides of the Economy block until your piece is about 9″ x 11″; square up to 8-1/2″ x 10-1/2″. Quilt as desired. Bind the edges.
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