Tumbling Spools Quilt Top Completed

I did it. I just added the last border to my tumbling spools quilt top. This one has been close to a year in the making. I purchased the magazine that had the pattern some time at the start of 2010 and posted about it in February.

Tumbling Spools Scrap Quilt Top

It measures roughly 73 by 62 inches, which makes it my biggest top so far. It will be going off to the long arm quilter as soon as she’s back on deck after the holidays. She likes to take a break over the hottest months of summer. Fair enough too.

I’m proud of the workmanship in this top. It lies flat and I can see in it how I have learned new skills and improved my consistency since I started piecing it about ten months ago. No two blocks are identical. I had to re-make one block to accomplish that.

This is the most forgiving pattern ever. There are lots of points that are a bit cut off here and there or that don’t quite reach the corners they should, but you can’t tell. Love that.

Update on Tumbling Spools Scrap Quilt

Tumbling Spools Units

I’m slowly making progress on the Tumbling Spools Scrap Quilt that I started a few weeks ago.

These are really easy blocks to make as there are no set-in seams. They won’t all be in green tones but that’s the way they started out. The only fabrics I’m ruling out are the ones that are are super bight or very pale. Otherwise everything in the stash is going into the quilt for a true scrappy look

For each pair of spools you cut:

2 @ 2 1/4 inch by 5 3/4 inch rectangles
4 @ 3 5/8 inch squares (for half square triangles)

And for the background:

4 @ 2 1/4inch squares
4 @ 2 5/8 inch squares (for half square triangles)

Each spool block is 5 1/2 inches unfinished and they go together as in the photo.

I have almost completed the first 4 tumbling block units and that means I’m almost 20% done, but with sashing and borders still to come.

I would very much like to make it so no pair of spools is made in colours pairs I’ve already used, but my stash isn’t that big, so I’m thinking to make no tumbling block units in an identical colour combination.

Project Commencement – Tumbling Spools Scrap Quilt

Time to get another project underway. I posted about the Patchwork & Stitching Tumbling Spools design a while back and I have now started work. The size of the pieces is good for using up scraps – the biggest spool piece you have to cut is a rectangle that’s 2 1/4 by 5 3/4 inches and then there are the spool ends that are just half square triangles.

Compared to making stars, as in my most recent project, this was pretty easy but I was very concerned that the cutting instructions weren’t quite right. The components just seemed too big for a 5 1/2 inch block. Here they are laid out.

Spools Components - Too Big?

The only thing to do of course was try it, which I did last night. Seems it’s going to be OK.

Completed Blocks

I’m safe to keep going.
By the way the two straight edges were $12 or so at my local hardware chain. Just for a change, from that particular chain, the quality is fine and the price was excellent. You just never know what discount quilting tools you might be able to find in a hardware store.

Tumbling Spools Scrap Quilt

I have more bright ideas than I have time to execute them. This bright idea comes from Patchwork & Stitching vol 8 no 8. It’s a tumbling spools quilt block made into a finished quilt of 64in by 77in which is 163cm by 196cm for the metric-inclined.

pp14-15 Patchwork & Stitching Vol 8 No8

Seems like a great project to use up those fabric squares that weren’t cut quite for the star blocks as the coloured half square triangles are cut at 2 5/8in squares. The spool centres are cut as 2 1/2 by 5 3/4in rectangles, which again should be fine for scraps.

I plan to follow the directions fairly faithfully except that they recommend flannel, which I don’t have. Instead I’ve found some gold quilting cotton for the sashing and some green for the border. I have those ready to launder and press, though I can’t imagine I’ll start any cutting any time soon.

What I might do though is cut some of the beige background fabric and have it ready so I can throw together a spool or two as I have discards from other cutting work.