Stepping Stones Quilt

I am so excited about the progress made on my Stepping Stones quilt. I have been following along with Jennifer’s quilt along over at The Inquiring Quilter.  Jennifer did an excellent job with all of the explanations which made this a very fun project. The Stepping Stones pattern is simple which made the piecing quite easy. It was the number of blocks and tiny HST’s that took a while! Remember I chose to use a collection of black and white charm squares that I collected over the past couple of years. I chose a cobalt blue to trim the blocks with. It came together just as I had hoped!

img_20160424_4937

I made 143 blocks but only used 132 of them. Once I started playing with the layout, I decided that I didn’t want it quite as big as I had thought. I am sure I will be able to use the extra blocks for something fun. Laying out the blocks was a challenge. I wanted to be sure that the stepping stone effect was dramatic so I divided my blocks into light and dark values. There were many that were in between, in the medium value pile so to speak. It would have been good to have a few more in the darker shades. At any rate, playing with this number of blocks was a little crazy making.

image

My design wall is small so it was of no help here. Because I really wanted to lay this out so I could look at it straight ahead, I decided to take a huge piece of polyester batting that I had and tape it to a wall for use as a design board. Hmmm… this was problematic in that I don’t have a lot of empty wall space. We have lots and lots of windows in our house. Hoping for the best, I taped the batting up over a window and began to play with the blocks.

image

Let’s just say, things didn’t go well. Not at all! I had taped the batting to the moulding around the windows which left too much space between the batting and the window. When I put a square up, the motion of gently pressing it to the batting invariably caused one (or many) of the other blocks to flutter off.  Also, using poly batting was a mistake. It doesn’t stick as well as normal batting (like Warm and Natural).  Jeez! It was no time before this happened.

image

Everything came tumbling down. I gave in and went to lay it out on the guest bed. I have mentioned before that my spatial perception is hugely challenged. For the most part, I am unable visualize how something will turn out. I need to lay it down and keep playing until it works.  This was the next challenge in the process.  I used some cool text prints in this quilt and I wanted them to be placed in the same direction so all of the text read properly (e.g. not sideways or upside down). Seems like this should have been easy…. not so much. Can you see the text prints that are all going sideways here?

img_20160420_4878

I laid it out numerous times with the steps angling in one direction but each time, the text prints were sideways. Finally it made sense to me that all of the blocks had to angle in the opposite direction for the text prints to place correctly. So I picked up the blocks and reversed the placement which set the text blocks in the correct direction. It took a total of four attempts before I got the layout to work. A lesson in patience, for sure. At one point I was groaning and grumbling while working on this. Ray passed by and muttered something like, “how nice that you have such a satisfying hobby”.  😉

img_20160424_4936

I loved making this quilt top. As is usually the case, I learned from it. The HST’s are solid black and white and finished at 1 1/2 inches – fairly small if you ask me! At first I thought I would try to orient them so that they all pointed in the same direction. This was even more crazy making than the text prints. Not long into the process of piecing the strips with the HST’s I gave up on that idea. It wasn’t worth the strain on my spatially challenged brain and I just sewed them in whichever direction they landed on the strips.

image

Chain piecing came in handy here. It made things flow much faster, especially since I wasn’t worrying about the direction of the points.

Here is one last tip that came about while making this quilt top. I had loads of pieces to keep together during the process.  I found one of those plastic bins that spinach and salad greens come in. It was a great container to keep everything together. It even has a lid that I could set on top when I wasn’t actively working on this.  Very handy and it is reusing something rather than throwing it in the trash. Win-Win.

step stones begins

The next step is to prepare my backing. I am pretty excited about this part too! (Really amazing how little it takes to make me happy!!) I ordered the backing from Connecting Threads and chose a piece from the Good Neighbors line by Amanda Jean Nyberg. I love the colors, the price was so reasonable, and it works quite well with the black, white and cobalt blue of the top.

image

This fabric feels just wonderful. I am such a tactile person but I love when the fabric has that solid yet silky hand to it.  Off to prewash the backing and stitch it up. Then on to my least favorite task of quilting, basting the quilt sandwich!

Hope you are all finding time to sew a bit.

If you are finding the time and are in need of supplies, check out the sale this weekend at Craftsy.  Lots of deals to be had!

craftsy sale 4_29

(I am an affiliate of Craftsy, meaning if you click through a link on my page and purchase, I do receive a small payment.)

Linking to all of my favorites this week. Links are found at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

22 thoughts on “Stepping Stones Quilt

    1. Bernie Post author

      I thought about that but I think if I add a few more blocks, I may have enough for a baby quilt. I am going to play with that a bit and see what I come up with.

      Reply
  1. JanineMarie

    Are you saying this was kind of like the Lucy show at times? I’m laughing, but really, I’m sure it was frustrating. Those quilt blocks can just peel themselves right off a design wall. Not fun when the whole thing came down! (But at least you matched your design wall tape to your quilt!) I know what you mean about having trouble visualizing how to make the text all read the same direction. I’m glad you had to change the angle of the blocks though because now they go up like a “good economy” graph! Seriously, though, I love your design and colors–and the way the HSTs sprinkle across like confetti.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Yep. It was crazy comical – just like Lucy! I know you have been there. All you can do is smile and keep going. I like the “good economy” analogy. That’s great.

      Thanks a bunch Janine!

      Reply
  2. Christina

    I like the stepping effect, especially the light and dark separation you have going on. The blue really puts emphasis on the stepping parts. Great work!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thank you! I haven’t made anything that had this sort of effect and I am so happy with this. It is a really great pattern – simple to make but so effective. I also love that there really aren’t tons of points and corners to match up.

      Take care!
      B.

      Reply
  3. Kate Heads

    So funny, I can just imagine it, and Ray’s comments were priceless, you gotta laugh. On a serious note you had fun making it, and patience with those tiny triangles too I bet. Lovely backing.
    Smiling and laughing
    Kate

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Oh my gosh, Kate – It made me so crazy. I really need to find a good spot for this sort of thing. I suppose I could take some pictures down off the wall and use space that way but it seems like a hassle. I am sure I will come up with something.

      Yes, Ray just made me smile there too. The humor keeps things in perspective, right?

      Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      This is the second quilt I have done with black & white and cobalt blue trim. I love that combo.

      Thank you for stopping over!

      Reply
  4. Kitty

    It sure looks like all of your hard work paid off!! I struggle with the same lack-of-wall-space problems as you do, and it sure makes visualizing layout difficult!! That phase of the process requires lots of phone-camera pictures and rearranging for me. You definitely succeeded in getting the dark and light strips, though! I agree that the cobalt frames them all nicely. Congrats on a gorgeous finish!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thank you Kitty. It was a crazy process. Normally I just lay a project out on the floor or the guest bed. But I couldn’t look at it properly – oh well, it worked out fine in the end. Just took a bit longer than usual!

      Hope all is well – have a fun weekend!

      Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thank you Judy – the blue with black and white is one of my favorite combinations. So nice of you to stop over!

      Reply
  5. Diann Bottrell

    I have been meaning to comment on this post for awhile and just got behind, I guess! I love this quilt! I really like how your lights and darks turned out, and the cobalt blue is so pretty with the black and white blocks! Lovely!

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thank you Diann. I just started quilting it and I’m enjoying the process. Should be finished up fairly soon!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.