CRAFTY | A LITTLE CHURN DASH TANGO

I’ve been slowly pottering around in the sewing room of late working on a couple of different things as my fancy takes me. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on completing the churn dash border of my Midnight at the Oasis.

I’d been avoiding working on this border because I was worried that my inaccuracy would cause issues when it came to making the border fit.

I have also been avoiding the applique border because I just couldn’t get it to “work” the way I wanted it to. I’m not a big fan of applique vines and flowers but I figured that doing this quilt I would learn some valuable techniques and maybe I could do vines and flowers in my own style. Nah, I just couldn’t get the fabrics to play nicely together and I felt they were just disappearing. But it’s all good because a helpful chat with Gemma (of Pretty Bobbins) gave me an idea to do something a little different with the applique border and I’m going to go with that. So no need to do the applique I can move on to finishing the final borders.

So, back to the churn dash. This border is made up of 3″ finished churn dash blocks. 3″ is really small, people! I decided to do a couple of things differently with this border to try and increase my accuracy:

• Aurifil Thread – I used a 50wt thread to try and remove some bulk from the seams.
• Needle Position – I moved the position of my sewing machine needle over 2 points so that I had a really scant 1/4″ seam.
• Smaller Needle – I used a 70/10 needle to try and keep things tidy.
• Open Seams – I used to be a big one for open seams and then some “experienced” quilter told me that open seams were for dressmaking and not quilting and so I started pressing to the dark. However after following the instructions for my first Bee swap block I decided I would press seams open for these blocks given how small they are and the bulk of the piecing.
• Cut and Trim – I also learned a new trick in the Bee Block making and that was to cut a large piece make the join and then trim to the size the blocks are supposed to be.

It seems like a lot of voodoo to try just to get the blocks the right size, but it’s totally worth it (for me at least). My first block was a perfect 3.5″ square and I did a happy dance.

With one under my belt I decided to do some more. I had already cut out all the pieces for the backgrounds so I just set about having fun with mixing colours.

I’m not sure what I’m aiming for, I’m just having fun. I have done a lot where they’re one colour family and I’m thinking that I’m going to stick with this for the majority of them and just mix it up every now and then.

It’s got me thinking about how I’m going to approach the checkerboard boarder which is next. Not really sure what it’s going to be like because I’m not really wanting to cut out the hundreds of little squares and join them but I also don’t want to have too much of the same combinations running through it.  I’m going to have to think some more on it.

I’ve had so much fun pulling these churn dash together and I’ve been trying to sneak them in whenever I can.

I love putting something of interest in the middle block and I was so lucky to have been sent a little scrap of Heather Ross Gnome fabric and so I just had to put it in the middle of one of the blocks. (Because what’s a quilt without a gnome?)

Every so often I put them all up together on the design wall and stand back and have a look at how it’s all coming together….

I’m really happy with the decision to use the black Pearl Bracelets fabric as the strip borders. It’s funny how the right fabric can really make something pop when there’s only a small amount of it showing.

I hadn’t realised how much fabric I’d been collecting for this project until it came time to get it all out and put these blocks together. I used to worry that I didn’t have enough fabric for projects and now I worry I have too much fabric I bought with no real project in mind that’s never going to be used.

My two current addictions collided – House of Cards and Churn Dash blocks!

I just had to sneak a pineapple in there… it reminds me of a certain Craftee Mumma.

Sometimes I find the points line up perfectly and then other times it’s a little wonky. It’s going to be amazing to see them all lined up and get the full impact of so many small churn dash blocks.

I never thought that I would enjoy small piecing but making these has flicked some switch and now I’m addicted. I find myself sneaking into my sewing room to have a quick play in between tasks and when the Littlest Lad is being entertained by someone else (HUBBY).

There’s just so many possibilities.

I could easily imagine a whole quilt made up of wee little churn dashes….

This is what 15 mini churn dash look like in a row.

So, here’s where I’m at…

A few more to do (I have to make 52 in total) but so far I’m totally loving it. Feels good to be back in the sewing saddle.