Life's a Dance

I am finally working on my Square Dance Quilt from a class I took in my Learning Fiber Arts yahoo group back in December. I had a bunch of blue and white squares from an exchange and I wanted to use them up. Finally after getting the squares sewn together, I added the royal blue border yesterday. I think you are supposed to introduce a 3rd color in the border so the blocks won't blend in with the border, but I did not have anything large enough in my stash and I wanted to use up that royal blue fabric. I thought about buying some fabric for the border, but decided instead to use up something that may not be perfect, but will be OK. One of my goals this year is to use up something I already own instead of buying more fabric. I can't figure out if my cat Meeko approves or disapproves of this....


This morning I started the tedious process of cutting up the top to create the "dancing" blocks. I am making a lap size quilt instead of a small wall hanging size so there are a lot of blocks that must be cut out of the pieced top. I created the template and started to trace it onto the top. The trouble with blue and white is finding something that will show up on both colors. I started using blue pencil on the light blocks and white pencil on the dark blocks. This seemed too much like work and not really too accurate as I was tracing the template. I decided to try a different approach by making a freezer paper template and ironing that onto the top and then cutting out around it. I have been careful not to cut too far into the fabric as I go around the corners so I don't snip into what will become the next block. This has been working out great. As I cut each new block I add it to my design wall. I think it is coming out pretty nice. It is taking on a bit of the "blended quilt" look. I just need to remember to be careful when I sew the new dancing blocks together because there are tons of bias edges. I don't want to end up with a wacky, skewed square dance!

Cheryl and Shirley, thanks for a great class! It is hard to believe that you can start with squares and end up with a fun tessellating quilt. Escher would be proud.
Chris