Bink Makes ...: postage stamp in progress

My postage stamp quilt. I got the ~~inspiration~~ idea for this quilt from p.s. i quilt's postage stamp quilt along. I didn't want to do a twin size quilt (eek - big!), so I calculated how big I could make it from charm packs.

1 charm pack (42 squares) = 168, 2.5" squares

A quilt 44"x44" = 242 print squares and 242 white squares.

1.5 charm packs = 252 squares

Last April when my sister came to visit I split my Central Park (by Kate Spain) charm packs in half with her, cut some white kona cotton in 5" squares, and sent her home with a 'quilt kit'. (Did I tell you how much I love this fabric? I love the animals, the colors, the bricks, the flowers. It's my favorite fabric. And I shared it.)

I started sewing on it last summer by putting a charm square and white fabric square right sides together and sewed down both sides. Cut down the center vertically and horizontally and I got a 1x2 squares.

They traveled with me to Walla Walla in August (uh, why I though I'd get work done on them there, I have no idea. I was way to busy having fun with my sister, her kids, and our projects.) where I mentioned to my sister I was considering ironing the seam allowances open as I read on "oh fransson!". We tried a 2x2 square with seams pressed open and one with the seams pressed to the side. Seams pressed open won and this became my 'experiment' quilt where I was going to try new things. (While I was there I had my sister pick out the fabric for the back. Kona cotton robin egg.)

Once home, I made it as random as my engineering brain would allow, dumping all of the 1x2's into a brown paper bag, shaking, and then pulling 2 at a time out and sewing them together.

It quickly was laid out on the floor where it was arranged, re-arranged, arranged again, and again, and again. I sewed some 2x2's into 4x4 and then bigger squares ... but nothing ever worked out. After walking around it (and on it) for about a 4 weeks in September/October, I picked it all up and put it in a plastic bin. I had other projects that needed to be done - and I needed my floor back.

January 2012 I had a few days at home before I could go back to work. The postage stamp quilt was pulled out again. (Did I tell you how much I love this fabric? The aqua! The orange! The prints!) But I had learned the lesson of trimming after every seam from C's seeing squares quilt ... and I didn't like how my postage stamp quilt didn't look straight. I sat down and took the entire quilt back to 2x2 squares, trimmed them all to 4.5"x4.5"- making sure they were as straight as possible - and started sewing them together. (uh, I told my sister about taking it apart after it was almost back together!)

This time I sewed them in strips ... using pins on every seam intersection. It took time, but the corners look great! (Lesson learned: use pins! Even when you think you can just line up the seams when sewing.)