Inserting skinny lines - square in a square

I was asked to do a little workshop on how to insert skinny lines into quilts.  I've done a bit of it before, and wanted to include both straight line inserts and curved inserts and both of varying widths.  I took inspiration from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, Irene Roderick, Cindy Grisdela, and Jean Wells, among others.  It seems like the super skinny lines are showing up more often in quilt shows and  that intrigued me.

I showed skinny lines inserted into curved pieces that finished about 1/8" on a previous blog.  These will be  about 1/4" inserted into a square in a square block.  I cut a wonky rectangle to start with.  To this, I sewed the 3/4" strips of gold with a 1/8" seam, pressed, and trimmed them to 1/2" from the sewn line.  I used strips about 3" wide from the lime green fabric and sewed those in the next row with 1/4" seam allowance.  

I trimmed them wonky after they were pressed, and to be 1" to 2" wide.  

The process continued with more 3/4" strips of gold, and one more row of lime green.  On one side, I inserted a strip of gold.  The piece ended up about 7-1/2" x 7-1/2", with one side wonky.  I may or may not trim this when it gets sewn into the quilt.  

I hope this helps sew skinny lines into some of your blocks.

Modern Inchie Quilt

I made an Magic Inch quilt in 2017 for the charity arm of our local quilt guild.  It was based on a design by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  I wrote a blog about making that quilt earlier.

At that time, I also cut out some red squares and black and white strips for a second quilt.  Since then, however, I decided that I would modernize this design and make it totally improvisational.

So, I cut through some of the red squares and inserted the 1" strips. Then I added some borders and inserted strips in some of the rest of the pieces.  I used 3 different grays for the background and just made up all the blocks.

I placed them on the design wall willy nilly and moved them around until they looked very random.
Sewing this together wasn't that easy, as I had really odd spaces to fill and partial seams to sew.  But I liked the improv nature of making this top.

Here is a picture showing the progress of the piecing:

And here is the completed top.

48" x 58" by Joanne Adams Roth

I hope you can take a step into the unknown and put together a top intuitively.

Slice and Dice Square in a Square - or Magic Inch Quilt

I saw this quilt made on Nancy Zieman's show on PBS,  "Sewing with Nancy".   Here is the link to it on her webpage:  Magic Inch Quilts .  The guests that designed it are Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle.

When I saw it, I took a picture of the TV screen so that I would have the idea when I needed it.  I always have my phone with me and I always tape the show.  So it's easy to stop the playback and take a picture.  I love having a camera in my cell phone!  Don't you?  This quilt, I decided right from the start, would be a fun one to make while traveling in our trailer.  It's basically a square in a square block that gets slashed 3 times to allow for inserts of striped fabric.  The end result gives you the illusion of floating strips and squares.  So modern.  I love it!

I designed it to use a 6" block, 2-1/2" strips for the outer block, and 1" strips for the inserts.  I don't remember if these were the measurements used on the show, but for sure the 1" insert was the key.

I wanted to make it from fabric I already had on hand, so I pulled out a large piece of gray for the background (outer part of the block), some solids that I had left over from a class, and some striped fabric.

Not too far into the project, I realized that I didn't have enough of the black and white stripe.  So I went with my friends to Country Manor Quilt shop in Battle Ground, WA and found the exact fabric I needed.  I bought the rest of the bolt since it was only 1-3/8 yards.  I also found some striped black/red/white materials that I wanted for the next quilt.  I only bought a yard, and hoped that this would be enough to finished the second quilt.

I sewed just enough of the blocks to make sure the measurements would work, and then cut out all the material before our trip.  It was easy to piece with my little featherweight in the trailer and here is the finished top.

I took it over to our charity group so that they can put together a backing and batting and get it one of our long arm ladies to get it quilted.

I hope you see quilts you like on TV shows too!