QM Scrap Squad: Jennifer’s Country Morning

The QM Scrap Squad is a select group of seven QM readers. They take one pattern from each regular issue of Quiltmaker and make their own scrappy versions to inspire you.

The Scrap Squad quilt from the Sept/Oct Quiltmaker is Country Morning. We made the original quilt in Robert Kaufman fabrics. The line is Lazy Daisy Baskets by Darlene Zimmerman.

Country Morning shown in Lazy Daisy Baskets
fabrics by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman.

It was the Classic/Update quilt, where we take a classic pattern from an early issue and update it. The quilt features printed Robert Kaufman fabric that suggests redwork embroidery in the cream-colored blocks. We asked the Scrap Squad to replace that fabric with something completely different. They came up with some great ideas.

Today’s featured quilt is by Jennifer Stevens from Holcomb, Kansas. You’ll hear from Jennifer in her own words below.

Jennifer Stevens from Holcomb, Kansas

“Oh boy…”. That’s how I started this quilt, and that’s how I ended this quilt!! I had never really done paper piecing before—only bits here and there—and I apparently hadn’t done it correctly. Seeing this pattern was a little scary but the instructions in Quiltmaker made my job easier.

I used fat quarters from Robert Kaufman for this project. I won them in a giveaway during last year’s Back to School Party with Quiltmaker. They’re called A La Maison by Terri Conrad Designs.

I was having trouble cutting pieces the right size. I kept having to rip so I made a cheat sheet. Then I didn’t use anything smaller than the size indicated, which saved a lot of time.

My suggestion for making sure all the angles match is to pin, pin, pin! It was handy to have the 1/4″ seam allowance included on the paper foundations. I pinned through the seamline on the front piece and the back piece so the angles matched.

On the large blocks, I envisioned a machine embroidered redwork design. I chose “Country Flower Quilt Blocks” from Bunny Cup Embroidery.  I used a Brother PC-8200 embroidery machine and dark brown machine embroidery thread from Coats & Clark.

Here is my final project. Hopefully it’s the first of many paper piecing adventures!

Kudos to this young sewer for plunging right in to paper foundation piecing. We loved Jennifer’s idea of using machine embroidery in the blocks because we know many QM readers do machine embroidery. Bunnycup is always happy to work with us and we appreciate their partnership, so please visit their website at bunnycup.com for great and affordable embroidery designs.

One option that comes to mind: If you have embroidery software or if your machine allows you to change the size of the embroidery, you could make the embroidery larger to fill up more of the block if you’d like. Or do like Jen did and leave space for beautiful quilting around the embroidery.

I love how brave Jennifer was to use four different border fabrics. It makes this piece ever so interesting, which holds my attention. What more can you ask from a quilt? Another nice job by a busy young mom.