Wednesday 14 August 2013

WIP Wednesday: Brown Bag Doll's Quilt


After reading this post over at Mama Love Quilts, I was inspired to give the Brown Bag technique a try. I have an awful lot of 2 and half inch squares left from putting together the Granny Squares for Ruby's quilt (more on that below) so I'm making a couple of doll's quilts.  I put all the 'pink' or 'pink accent' squares into a brown bag, shook it up and had Ruby help me draw them at random.  I allowed myself some get-out-of-jail-free cards whereby:
  • If we chose the same fabric one after the other, we could redraw; 
  • I could add the square at whichever end I felt like of the currently being pieced row; and 
  • I had a little pile of 'wildcards' that I could select from to sandwich between the current square and the newly selected square.
Here's the rows we have pieced so far ...


Ruby is loving helping me with it, she sits on my knee and gets the fabric pieces out of the bag (I tell her not to look but I'm sure she's taking some sneak peaks).  It's a bit tricky sewing with her on my knee, but it's just a doll's quilt so I'm not overly worried about perfection.

As for the granny square quilt, I need 24 blocks for single size quilt and I've made 32!  Ive decided on which ones need to find a new use and have put photos of all 32 grannies in my Flickr pool, for anyone who wants to take a look. This is my current favourite:


Linking up to:
- WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

19 comments:

  1. Both sets of work are looking great! Two fun projects to keep working on.

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    1. Thank you, I'm looking forward to seeing them finished!

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  2. That's a great idea for placing the blocks! I have a boy quilt to make soon and I'm no good with blues. The brown paper bag could decide it's fate :)

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    1. I really liked the randomness of it, and having something (the brown bag) to blame if it ends up looking a bit wrong!

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  3. I love these pinks!! And also the idea of Brown Bag is great

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  4. both WIPs look great, the Lorax is super cute!

    Stopping by from the WIP hop http://domesticdeficitdisorder.blogspot.com/2013/08/wednesday-wip-august-14th-edition.html

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    1. He's so cute, and yellow is my daughter's favourite colour at the moment so I think that one will be a hit with her too.

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  5. What a great idea. It is looking so pretty. I had a similar idea to randomly sew greenish rectangles together to make a quilt top - it turned out very badly :) Luckily it is for my 3 year old, and he loves it anyway.

    I can see why you like the Lorax block the best, it turned out perfectly. I also loved the Caravan block and the Pink Pond Toile block. Great work.

    My kids like to watch me sew. It's a lovely idea to think about one of them sitting on my lap while I sew, but I know the reality would not be so pleasant. I'm quite certain I would have three kids fighting and climbing over me within ten seconds of putting one of them on my lap.

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    1. I sew with Ruby while Pepper-Mae is napping, definitely couldn't do it while they were both up because it would all turn to custard. Thanks for taking the time to check out my granny squares.

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  6. Oh how fun! Love the randomness and the Lorax cracks me up!

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    1. I really enjoyed the randomness of it, and also the little 'wildcards' I allowed myself.

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  7. I love the brown bag dolls quilt. I have signed up to make some dolls quilts for a charity event and I will be borrowing your brown bag idea. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. Thank you! It certainly sped things up a bit, I would have spent much more time agonizing over which patches should go where, and my daughter loved helping out.

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  8. I love how you fussy cut Dr. Seuss. Fantastic, and the colors are nice.

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  9. Love your granny squares and thanks for sharing about the doll quilt! Sweet to sew with your daughter helping! Now following on Bloglovin'.... You twisted my arm!

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    1. Thank you! It is nice sewing with Ruby, it's nice to do something that is just me and her. I'm also now following you on Bloglovin' too.

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  10. It's looking good, Sarah! I hope you and Ruby are enjoying the process!

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