Blue and Yellow Crumb Quilt Finished

Blue and Yellow Crumb Quilt

54" Square   Top is all from stash.

This top began on a day when I was a little bored with no quilt deadlines in the near future.  Some time ago I sorted my scraps by width and color temperature (cool and warm).  The scraps all fit into six 12" x 12" x 2" plastic drawers, except a collection of less than 2.5" cool colors, which I stored in a brown paper lunch bag on top of the drawers.  The bag had been bugging me for a while so I decided to do something with it.

I found a few long strips and sewed smaller pieces to it, chain piecing style.  I cut those apart and added them to another long strip.  I played like this for a while, adding strips or smaller pieces, trimming edges as I went.  I didn't worry about whether the blocks were square or the same size.  I made nine good sized blocks and decided I'd done enough of them.  I could have made the blocks larger or created more, but I'd reached the Been There, Done That stage, so I stopped.  By the way, I had lots of those less than 2.5" scraps left, all of which I gave to Project Linus--both cool and warm colors.  Someone will enjoy working with them.

A sample of the crumb blocks

Quilt sketch

So now how do I make a quilt of these blocks?  I sketched a quilt design with 9 blocks and decided that 12" finished would be good, with a couple of borders to bring the quilt to a nice lap size.  I found a bright yellow print for bold contrast with the blocks.  If the blocks were 6.5" square (which they weren't) I would need 3.5" strips to end up with 12.5" finished blocks.  After some figuring I cut 4.5" strips and framed each block in the yellow fabric to build them oversized.

I placed a 12.5" template made of tracing paper on the oversized block, centering as best as I could, and marked the corners for trimming.

Here's a sample block trimmed and sewn into the quilt top.  Each block has a slightly different frame due to the individual shapes and sizes of the crumb blocks.

Blocks assembled together, with a solid yellow border attached.

Close-up showing the solid and the print.  There's almost no difference.

Blue border attached - Finished quilt top

I did a pillowcase finish with the batting, backing and quilt top.  (See the previous post for details.)  I tied with all six strands of embroidery floss.

Close-up of ties.  I do a double knot and leave the ends about an inch long.  I like to use thread that blends with the area I'm tying.  The blue crumb blocks have one tie in the center.  I tied the blue border, as well.

Finished Quilt

I took the finished quilt to my church yesterday afternoon as soon as I completed it.  Why the hurry?  I had always intended this quilt to be given to my church, to be distributed to someone going through a difficult time.  I had previously spoken to Pastor Cliff, our lovingly named "Pastor of Disaster" who visits people in the hospital, distributes food vouchers to needy people, etc., about donating quilts to the church for him to  give out as he sees fit. 

It so happens that during last week's sermon our head pastor challenged each of us to do something proactive in our community during the week and email him about it.  Finishing and delivering this quilt was my self-assigned homework--which I accomplished within the week.  I emailed both the pastor who presented the challenge as well as the visiting pastor who will give the quilt away.  I hope whomever receives the quilt will find comfort and peace from it.