Category Archives: Fussy Cutting

Robots, Inc. Quilt

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I have already mentioned the story behind the current quilt I am working on here.  As with all things these days, I continue to tackle quilts one part at a time for 15 to 30 minutes at a time.  Then I have to rest or focus on something else until I feel I can piece a few more things at a time.  This horizontal row quilt was a perfect quilt for me to make since it is in clearly defined steps.  Fussy-cut the robots, sew the red or blue fabric around each robot, square up the sets of robots, build the rows of robots with sashing as needed, etc. etc.

Once I was to the point of piecing the rows together, my goal was one row a day.  As with any goals, I was easily able to comply with my goal some days and had to skip a day or two here or there for either health or busy summer schedule reasons.  This weekend, I actually made up for my missed row days by sewing four of the remaining red rows together!

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And now I nearly have a quilt!  I also took this photo to remind me of how I set the quilt rows out as I will use that as a reference while putting them together.  As you see it on my king-size bed, it takes up the entire space…which means it’s about 75″ long and 69″ wide.  I will add white sashing between the rows and then use white for the border fabric, too.  My goal is to make it long enough and wide enough to cover the recipient but also to be used on a college extra long twin bed.  I have no schedule for putting the rows together just yet though I will start out cutting the white sashing and border fabrics to size.  Once I have them ready, I’ll set a goal for completing the quilt top.

Lots of robot fun for this quilter!

Fussy Cutting Boot Camp

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I have decided that fussy cutting quilt fabric is an art.  For those of you who are unaware of the term fussy cutting, the definition is:

To fussy cut is to target and cut a specific motif that is printed on fabric, rather than randomly cutting yardage as we normally do.  (credit here)

As I mentioned here, my foster mother has twin grandkids who will be graduating next spring.  I have already finished her granddaughter’s quilt and now it’s time to work on her grandson’s quilt.  While she chose the fabric for her granddaughter’s quilt, she shopped for her grandson’s fabric, too – at AbbiMays.com’s online quilt shop.

Her grandson’s passion is with his high school robotic’s team. And although the robots depicted in the fabric she chose are not anywhere close to the robotics he helps build and maneuver, she was tickled with finding a whimsical robot fabric that suited his personality.

Two yards of whimsical robot fabric.

TWO YARDS OF WHIMSICAL ROBOT FABRIC THAT I HAD TO FUSSY CUT!

(Whew, I feel better getting that off of my chest!)

Once I finished all my WIPs and birthday quilting, the only thing left on my cutting board was those two yards of robot fabric. I resolved myself to just sit down and get it done…so, I began fussy cutting robots. Some were as small as 2″ x 3″ and some were as big as 5″ x 8″. Unfortunately, some of the robots shared space with other robots – hence some robots were put in the scrap pile and the rest I kept.

Fussy cutting is not for quilting wimps! I tried rotary cutting but was not pleased with the inability to control that blade as it cut into other robots that could have been used. I finally ended up with a good, sharp pair of sewing scissors, cutting each individual robot out. TWO YARDS of robots!

We had purchased two yards of complimentary blue batik quilt fabric and two yards of complimentary red quilt fabric to border the robots with. I cut out 3″ strips from both fabrics and began the fun part of piecing a quilt top by adding a border to all of the robots I cut out. Unfortunately, I ran out of both complimentary fabrics before I finished with the robots. I decided to work with what I had in front of me, though I will be purchasing more of that complimentary fabric before all is said and done.

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Although the samples I made for my foster mother were approved by her, I realized how much fabric would be wasted…so, I had to build a better mousetrap!

This past weekend, I started putting the robots in rows with white sashing between the blue- and red-robot blocks. As with most things, I can no longer sew a quilt from start to finish in one sitting so have accepted the fact that I *will* get this quilt done, one row at a time.  To-date, I’ve made three rows.

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But, when I looked on my nearly clean cutting table, I was a bit dismayed to see that stack of unbordered robots I wasn’t able to use. I do not think I will need them for the quilt top…so, perhaps my foster mother can do her thing and use them on the back of his quilt…or make pillowcases with them. Whatever she does with them is up to her, but I’m glad I could spare her the pain of fussy cutting TWO YARDS of robots!

How much fussy cutting do YOU do?