Today Starts the Crumb Quilt “Crumb Along”

Hey all..I am so excited.  Today is the first day of the Crumb Quilt “Crumb Along”.  If you are new to “crumb” quilting let me tell you a little about it.

As far as I know, Bonnie Hunter, from Quiltville is the original “crumb” girl.  You can check out her site and see lots of awesome free quilt patterns including a pattern for Crumbs.  Bonnie’s tutorial inspired me to make my own crumb quilt for my daughter. Kalissa.

I admit the first time I saw the blocks and thought about sewing with tiny pieces, I thought it was crazy.  Then after a few blocks, I was hooked.  I am betting you just might get hooked too.

After an email box of questions and a tremendous amount of comments, someone suggested I host a “Crumb Along”.  I thought it was a GREAT idea….So WELCOME to the first ever “Crumb Along.”

Let me start by giving you a few details….

Each and every Tuesday for the next ten weeks, I’ll be giving you ideas on fabric requirements, block construction, layouts and the like.   You’ll have a week to make 2-10 blocks a week depending on your preference and your schedule.  It’s important to remember this is not a race at all.  It’s for fun….and an opportunity for all of us to get rid of a few more scraps.   Come back each Tuesday and I will  have a Mr. Linky here for you to link your blog up and show off your week’s progress.  If you don’t have a blog, that’s okay…I have a flickr group listed as Crumb a Long Quilts and my Jo’s Country Junction  facebook page that will all be open for anyone who wants to post pictures there.  If you are not a picture poster type gal…that’s okay too.  You are welcome to work in whatever way is good for you.

The directions I am giving will be to make a baby size quilt that will finish at about 48″ x 48″.  The original quilt that is shown is larger finishing at 82″ x 82″.  If you want to make the larger size, that is your option.  You can just make more blocks each week.

The center of the quilt we will be making has 36~ 6″ blocks.  We will start on making them first.  When first looking at the quilt it is hard to see where one block starts and the next ends but after a couple weeks of making blocks, you’ll see the blocks of the quilt in no time at all.

I used recycled cotton fabric from shirts in the original quilt with solid red scraps.  The reds are not matching reds, just scraps from previous projects that I had left over.  You can use any cotton fabric that you would like that is light weight.  This quilt will not work with blue jean fabric or any heavy fabric as there are LOTS of seams in the blocks.  I HIGHLY recommend having some sort of solid or constant fabric besides your scraps.   Someone asked if I purposely choose a lot of blue fabrics for the quilt.  The answer is no.  Men’s shirts just tend to be more blue colored and that’s what I had.

I will be making my blocks with recycled fabrics again.   I’ll try to make a few block samples with civil war prints and bright prints so you’ll get an idea of what those fabrics might look like as well.  Honestly…anything goes that is cotton quilt type fabric.  How much fabric, you may be asking….that question is virtually impossible to answer.   Crumbs just seem to multiply and multiply.  About 2-2 1/2 yards worth will give you plenty variety.  If you have a big ziplock bag full, you’ll be able to sew for a long time.  I used the solid red for the inner border and for the binding.  You will need about 3/4 of solid for the border and binding or about 2 yards total of a solid color.  You will need backing fabric too.  My back will be pieced with blocks in it.  If you don’t want a pieced backing you will need 3 yards.

The next question is always how big do the pieces need to be…well, that varies.  You will need some that are 8″ long.  If don’t have any you can pull strings from your string box or I’ll show you a way to work around it.  I don’t sew with anything narrowed than 3/4″ wide.  By the time a seam gets sewn on each side, there will only be 1/4″ of fabric showing so smaller pieces aren’t recommended.  Your scraps can taper from wider to narrower.  Your scraps can be 1″ by 1″.  We’ll find a place for lots of the scraps regardless of the size.

There is no right way or wrong way to make this quilt.  Each and every person’s quilt will be very different.  If we make a block that isn’t you favorite, you can make alternate blocks instead.

Besides fabric you will need thread.  It doesn’t even have to match.  When I made mine, I used up every odd bobbin of  thread that I had.  You’ll also need a ruler that allows you to square up blocks.  I have a 7″ square ruler that I love and is perfect for this.  If you have a different ruler that works for you…great.

Crumbs get really messy so it might be nice to have a large bowl, tote or cake pan sized container that you cam dump your crumbs into.  This allows you room to sift through the crumbs without getting them all over.

By looking at the pictures, you will see that the border has words in it.  This is entirely optional.

My daughter, who I made the quilt for, has an unusual name.   I purposely put her name in the quilt so that she would have a something with her name.  If you want to put words or a name on the border, you will want to purchase Tonya’s book, Word Play Quilts: Easy Techniques from the UnRuly Quilter (That Patchwork Place).  We won’t be making the borders for a few weeks so you have plenty of time if you want to order it.

So this week’s assignment:
Gather your goodies….fabric and squaring up ruler is all you have to have for next week.
Leave a comment here after this post just so we get an idea of who is crumbing along with us.
You might want to follow along on facebook …it’s a great place see what others are asking or to get answers to your questions quickly.
You might also want to join the flickr group so you’ll have that all ready for posting your fabric selections.

Also, do a little public relations work and let your quilting buddies know this crumb along is going on.  Grab a button located on the upper left hand corner and post it on your blog.  This way more people can get started with us next week and not feel behind once the fun begins….

I hope you’re all ready to “crumb along” with me!

Today I am hooking up with Confession of a Fabric Addict…I am hoping all the gals over there will give a big Whoop! Whoop! and join in the fun.
I am also hooking up with Homestead Revival. Now that the gardens are slowing down, maybe some gals from there will join us too.