Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Playtime: the bunting

I kept busy over the weekend working on my Playtime quilt (a fabulous BOM design from American Jane Patterns). This month's block was a row of gumdrop bunting that goes along the top of the quilt. I did it a little differently from the instructions, and I thought I'd share my process.

This is the template for the bunting shape:

bunting template
The way the instructions would have one do it, you'd create a number of finished circles (much in the same way as I prepared the ball previously) and then you'd cut them into quarters and then pair them together to create the gumdrops. The problem with that is that, unless one wanted only 4 different colors in the bunting (which is not how it is pictured on the pattern), there would be a lot of wasted quarters. So I did it differently.

stitched squares
I cut sixteen 4" squares and eight 1" x 4" strips from a variety of fabrics and then stitched them together as shown in the photo above: square - strip - square. Then I cut eight 4.5" x 8.5" rectangles from a thin, white muslin.

tracing the template
I put the muslin on top of the template and traced a half circle. The muslin was super cheap thin, so I didn't even need a lightbox for tracing.

stitch on the line
I put the muslin and the stitched squares right sides together, being careful to center the muslin on the squares, and then stitched on the traced line.

trimming the half-circle
Next, I trimmed, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance.

turning the shape right side out
Then I turned it right side out, pressed,

trimming the gumdrop to size
and trimmed the top edge down to size.

finished gumdrop shape
Ta-da! A finished gumdrop.

gumdrop close-up
Then it was all a matter of appliqueing them to the background and adding the cherry on top (or below?).

The finished block:

Playtime: gumdrop bunting block
It's 6.5" wide and 66" long.

With that completed, I was able to put together the whole top 1/3 of the quilt!

Playtime: the top third pieced together
Yay, progress!

10 comments:

  1. I love it! You are so creative :)

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  2. You clever thing you! It's so adorable.

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  3. This is going to be really cute!

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  4. How cool is that. You are so smart. Love the progress you have made so far. You should be very proud. It is lovely.

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  5. Those look really awesome! It's nice to see that whole section put together. That's going to be one sweet quilt!

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  6. That is crazy cute! Makes me wish I had a little one again. Only for a second though. LOL

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  7. Ooooh! So cute! But you know how much I love this quilt. LOVE!

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  8. Very fun!!! I need to be bold enough to try circle!!

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  9. absolutely gorgeous girl! I love it!!! :)

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