Ready, set Sew!~

WaveRunner Quilt along

ready to Rock and Roll?

Here we go...

Basic Tools:

Rotary cutter
rotary cutter mat
straight edge
sewing machine, of course!
steam iron and ironing board...


Got your fabrics selected?
(I'm using the right hand fabric for inspiration and most likely it will be the backing fabric...)

Remember when selecting your fabrics to pick
LIGHTS, MEDIUMS and DARK, & BRIGHTS

For a challenge, try to not use WHITE or WHITE BASED FABRICS...
White becomes a comfort zone color, and it's the first thing your eye is drawn too.

I used some scraps, some 1 yard,and half yard pieces.
I folded them so they were about a 10 piece on my cutting mat.

Using your rotary cutter, and NO RULER
Cut random width strips, 1 - 3" wide...
make slightly wavy cuts.
You don't need to be EXTREME in your waves...
A few every once in a while is good, but you don't need them all to be that way...

****Cut ONE strip of each of your colors, and lay them out for starters...

***

Take each strip of each color and lay them out.
How do they look?

Hmmm, for me, I don't like the black and darkest brown...

make sure you have a nice balance of colors...
I've laid mine out on the design wall, dark to lightest...
a nice gradation of tones and values...
Does it look good?

Does one color seem to flatten the whole thing?

For me the BLACK, and my darkest brown, where to much...
So I am pulling them out.

I added a deep purple instead with a warm reddish brown.

That Looks better to me...
If you have a warm palette of colors, it doesn't hurt to throw in a few cool tones... my two purples are helping to balance to warm colors...

so visa versa, have mostly cool colors? add one or two warm colors....

Continue Cutting all your strips...

If you want to cut all your strips the same length, that's fine, I use a lot of scraps so I have a random cut lengths...
We will be sewing strips together to make a variety of 10" x 10" blocks and 10"X20".

SAVE ALL YOUR SCRAPS from your trimming. in the end we will use them to create other odd 10" blocks and a few filler pieces with them.

In no particular order, I begin...
Our goal is to sew enough strips together to make 10" wides sections.

Pick your first two strips, see how wonky they are?...

Doesn't matter. lay them together, edges together at the beginning....

Start to sew, I'm keeping the red edge lined up with the purple edge...
BUT,
They do NOT need to stay edge to edge all the time, if it works out that they are not even that is FINE! They will still be nice and wavy so don't worry about the edges lining up PERFECTLY...
Sometimes with the wave of your fabric you won't be able to get the edges perfectly...
(this is really going against everything you've learned about sewing right!?)
;-)

keep adjusting the top fabric... your sewing line DOES NOT need to be straight,

if your strips are too straight, then sew a
wavy seam, JUST KEEP YOUR EDGES TOGETHER....

See how my seam is wavy and I have pulled the fabric to keep my raw edges lined up?

Open it up, and with your full steam iron, you'll press, steam and pull the fabric til it lays flat.

These curves are very gentle and with a hot iron you CAN press them out flat... Just keep spreading it out, and steam pressing it flat... press seams to the darker fabric...

See? now continue adding rows, til it's just over 10" wide...

You can press as you go, or sew all your rows on, and then press it out...
BE SURE TO PRESS YOUR SEAMS to Towards the DARK FABRICS...
Since we are only going 10" wide, I tend to do the whole bit, and then press it out...
Stretch , pull, and keep lots of water in your iron to steam it all out flat...

Mine looks like this because I used scraps... I sew the long bits together anyway,
as when I trim this, (the only time you'll use your straight edge)
I save the bits to start new blocks... SAVE ALL YOUR trimming!!

trim to cut 14 ...10"x10" squares
4....10" x 20" rectangles,
And, I repeat! Save all your trims, as you can use them to start the next 10" block...See some blocks have little bits tucked into them. Use the scraps to create another 10" block.
It's nice to change directions even inside a few random blocks...
When you start to lay them out, I try to do a vertical, horizontal vertical pattern...
some blocks I make have both directions in them ...

Be aware, when sewing the cut off bits together to make new blocks, that you DO NOT PULL
the seams to much or you will have to re sew the cut seams, like this...

Here are a few more areas where there are two directions inside of one block.

mix it up... there is no right or wrong way to put these together...
NOTE:
If you get a piece, and no matter how much you press and pull it does not lay flat...
CUT THE WAVY PART OFF, and add onto the block with something else...
(or cut it at a 10" block if you have the room to do so)
I've only had one piece in two quilts that I needed to do that too.
I'd show you but blogger says I just ran out of photo upload space...
so i gotta go fix that...

This is the random layout I used on my first... After you've made up your first 18 blocks, Using your scraps , you can start to use them for filling in...

We'll deal with the lay out in the next post. Because sometimes a block just doesn't sit the way you want it, and you have to PLAY! with them to get it right...

Please comment, and ask questions, I'll answer questions in the comment section itself...
Remember not to over think this, just cut your strips, throw them in a pile, and pick one up and start sewing them together any which way.
It's fun and fast, and you'll use your noggin more when you're laying them out... ;-)
Have fun!

I'll post filler blocks and layout next week Wednesday.
If you have images of your work, please email them to me. Email is on my profile.
I'll take a day once a week to show progress.

thanks!
V