March 2018 – Meeting Recap and Announcements
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We had a great turnout to hear Laura L.’s fussy cutting presentation at the March 1 evening meeting.
Fussy cutting is more than just cutting a cute fox out of a novelty fabric, it is the intentional use of prints or patterns from within a fabric.
Laura showed us the tools for fussy cutting and showed us you can get started with just the quilting rulers you already have, or you can make a template with just a regular piece of printer paper. There are specific fussy cutting templates available, but Laura showed us how to get started without them.
When choosing fabric for fussy cutting, there are many considerations, including directionality, repeat, and scale. Squares are the easiest to fussy cut. Most importantly, make sure to account for a 1/4″ seam allowance. Once you get comfortable fussy cutting, you can experiment with HSTs, flying geese, and even improv.
Fussy cutting is often used in English Paper Piecing. Laura showed us various blocks and explained secondary patterns.
One of the easiest ways to implement fussy cutting into your projects is to make a basic block and feature a motif. Some blocks that work well are:
Economy Block
Sawtooth Star Block
Wonky Star
Churndash
Bear Claw
Rocky Mountain Puzzle Block
Flying Geese
Half Square Triangle
Snowball Block (Anne has a tutorial on her blog here)
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- Laura shows off pattern matching on her Seasons quilt.
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- Monique used pattern matching on a table runner.
The final lesson was on pattern matching which can be a great way to piece together two partial motifs from different sides of the fabric.
The Polaroid Block Swap was announced and Kona white fabric was distributed to make the blocks. The swap will take place at the May 2018 evening meeting and the fabric will be available at open sews and evening meetings prior to that, or you can use your own Kona white. The pattern is available in the Member area, along with the full presentation documents.
If you are looking for additional information on fussy cutting, Laura’s favorite book on the subject is The Fussy Cut Sampler. Other books that were recently published that focus on fussy cutting are, The Fussy Cutters Club and Intentional Piecing.
A lot of members brought quilts that featured fussy cutting for show and tell:
We gave away two fussy cutting templates that were graciously donated by Jennifer at Beadeux. She has lots of templates available and you can contact her for specific sizes or shapes.
We also had our pincushion swap with the pincushions made at the February open sew. Thanks to everyone who participated, it was a fun swap!
Fussy cutting letters will be a useful skill for the March 18 open sew challenge of making name tags. Name tags don’t have to be fussy cut, but it is one option. We have a Pinterest board with inspiration but this is your time to get creative! If you plan on attending, please RSVP.
