(soft music)
- Hi there, I'm Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. So I have a quilt that has been sitting, waiting for its Afterquilt, in a bag, under my ironing table for almost a year. Mainly because I've got a big idea. Why don't I challenge myself to use all the scrap pieces in the afterquilt? Most importantly, I was going to vlog it. The problem with big ideas, not only do they need a
lot of physical space, they take a lot of brain space. And I just didn't have the
time right now to do it. But I brought this project
out of its hiding place for my last video on the Afterquilt, and then it got into my head,
and it was swimming around, and I couldn't get it back in the bag. So I decided the only way
forward was to Just Get It Done. So this is the story of
Karen and her 'big idea'. (upbeat music) So one of my goals this year
is to learn how to vlog. Nobody likes being a beginner,
but here I am at point zero. Vlogging is like a video diary. I have two days to get it done. (upbeat music) First of all, let me give you
a little bit of background. This Victorian & Albert
quilt came as a kit from Moda from their William
Morris Fabric Collection. And I did it with a
couple of my sew sisters, and I think I'm the last to get it done. (laughs)
Anyways, there is a tonne of fabric left over. Let me show you. So not only do I have all
these scraps left over, but I have all these little mini blocks that I've already made
on a previous attempt. I have also added in two fabrics. One is Kona Wine and Kona Mushroom. And these are just scraps that I have left over from another project, and just help give the project
a little bit on contrast. So behind me, I have
set up my design wall. Normally, my ironing table is there, but I thought I'd have the camera on so that you could see me doing it. And without further ado, I'm going to get all the
blocks up on the design wall. Most of these blocks came
from a previous session where I combined HSTs
together to be the centre of some scrappy and slightly
wonky courthouse step blocks. Many people ask me how
do I put them together? But truly, it's totally improvised, and I just arrange them
with a gut feel for order. There's no formula about it,
it's just what speaks to you. One thought I had was I
wanted to put these on point. Here's a big piece so. I think that has enough contrast, right? I think the blue... The blue is too much like
these, so let's do this one. I've got two colours very, very similar. Either will do, but I think
I'm gonna go with So Fine 404. Then let's do that again
with another block. Auditioning fabrics together
is an important part of improvisation, but
just don't overthink it. So my second block is done. I put it on the wall, stand back, and I begin to reorganise my blocks. I am looking for common themes, and I am moving unlike
blocks into another area. So when you last left me, I was trying to figure out
how to make these blocks. And I'm gonna make them now. They just need another set of strips before they go on point. Now these blocks are big enough. I'm not at the point where I'm going to be squaring
them up to each other, but it's pretty obvious that one is much smaller than the other,
so I'm measuring them up, and I'm going to put a frame around the ones that are too small. That looks much better, but
let's move the colour around, and that's good for now. My scraps can get pretty
messy as you're doing these, so it's time to reorganise them. In every project, you have lots of these small, little squares and rectangles, and the pile gets bigger with
each big block that you trim. And I will sew those into long chains. I can't stress how important it is to iron and keep everything flat. And then I call it a night. So many vlogs have very
stylized coffee pours in them. Unfortunately, my cinematic
skills are not good enough. So I always lay my top out on my bed so that I can measure up how
big my Afterquilt needs to be. (light energetic music) So I took those big blocks
that I made the day before, I tested them out on point, I tried a couple of different layouts where they were going to be a strip. I briefly played with putting them four together in the centre of the quilt. It was here that the whole
concept of how I was putting together this particular
Afterquilt came to be. Laying them out like that, they were perfectly sized
to go across the quilt, so I decided I was going to make rows. Rows of different widths, rows of different styles of blocks, but I would just stack row
upon row until I was done. And these four blocks, because they were on point
and because of their size, they were going to be
the front and centre. They were going to be where
your eye was drawn to. Now I've got to frame them. These are all my pieces
that I can frame them with. These are my width of strip fabrics that I've already pulled out. So I can make the decision to frame them all up in the same fabric, which I have lots of of this one. Or these ones which are much smaller. I'm not sure if I'd have
enough of these ones. I might be able to do it with that one because a couple of them are narrow. And my policy is always to work from the smallest to the largest, so I'm going to use these
pieces the way I possibly can. I only have to do three. If I pull these out, see whether... So I could do this one in that. Remember when you block these out that even though they
might fit the first strip, once you put on the strip, then you need an even longer strip so. So I'll see you in the next part. So for my strips across
the quilt to lie flat, I need my individual blocks to lie flat. So I'm just squaring them up, and I will apply a last
frame to the blocks so that the whole strip will be wide enough for the back of the quilt. (light energetic music) And finally our first strip is done. And it's time to reorganise those scraps. The pile looks smaller, doesn't it? So what do I do with the rest of these? Let's see if I can line them up. My next row was fairly simple,
I had already made them, they were very similar widths, so I ended up turning them 90 degrees so I didn't have to trim them that much. And they fit perfectly across the quilt. I had to add a couple of
strips here and there, but otherwise they were perfect. Sometimes when you're ironing, in this case when you can fold it either to one side or there other, there's a way that the
fabric wants to fold, and I just go with it. And now number two row is done. And then I pause 'cause it's
time to make some more chains. Then with my third row, I had these two blocks
that I initially made and realised they did not
have enough contrast in them. So I took these two blocks, and I added a strip of blue,
and I added a strip of red. And then I just took some smaller blocks that were lying around
and made them larger. Then I laid these blocks across and realised I didn't need another block. I didn't wanna get into the situation when I squared up my
quilt having the design of one of the blocks cut off. So I decided to go with a red
strip in between each block. And that was perfect,
it got me to the sides. We're a little over halfway made. Now I am dealing with the leftover strips from making these nine patches. So I decide just to put them all in a row, and then I just took random
blocks from the other bits and made them on the side. So this is what we have so far. And I must admit, I am getting tired. This improvisation just uses a whole different part of your brain. I stopped briefly for a
Valentine's Day waffle that my husband and son made me. And as you can see, my scrap pile is really going down, I do not have much left. And it's time, you guessed
it, to make more chains. It's 11 o'clock, and I'm just
making too many mistakes. I really hoped that I
would have it all done. I think I probably have
about an hours worth of work, but my brain's just not
working anymore, I'm exhausted. I need to go to sleep, and I'll start again in the morning. (soft rock music) So it's another day.
(laughs) Can't believe I'm still at this, but... Yeah, we're just going to finish this off. Hopefully it'll only take me a couple of hours, famous last words, and then I'm onto the next project. So I just realised this is all-- Well, I'm just doing an
inventory just to be sure, and this is all I have left of my fabric, not bad. I also have these. And this, so I think I
may do one more strip that will encompass those ones. So I'm now laying them out in the order that I would like to put them together, and I'm positioning that initial row with the blocks on point
just above the halfway point. From now on, it's super critical
that everything lies flat, so I'm giving all the strips a good press before I trim them up
before I sew them together. I used the lines on my
mat to square them up. And somehow, I missed showing
you the clip where I sewed the solid colours to the
sides of the coin strips. And these strips will go in
between the larger block strips. Now, I'm not a big pinner, but it's very important that
all these strips are centred. And because of all the pieces, these strips are getting heavy
and can be easily distorted, so I'm pinning as well
to help keep it in place. (soft rock music) And then finally, the back is finished. And guess what? These are the only
scraps I have left over. I have an absolutely wonderful
friend who has a longarm, and she invited me for a couple of days so I can get my quilt done. So I piled everything in
the car and headed up North. Got there just before a snowstorm started, and I spent the day just
putting it all together. I've decided to go with a pantograph that you can just see
down here in the corner. My squaring of the quilt
worked really well. I did not have any bulges
or fold overs on the fabric. And when I returned home,
I put on the binding. A UFO is never officially done
until you show it at guild and get credit for the UFO Challenge. So it's in my car, and I'm also
gonna stop at the work room and drop off my sick sewing machine. Hopefully it'll get repaired soon. I am really pleased with
the finished product. And I hate to say it, but I really do like the
back of the quilt better. That scrappy energy is
just something I adore. And funny enough, it goes
perfectly in my living room. So let's talk about big ideas. I did manage to get this quilt done. This is a monkey that's off my back. But that was only one
part of the big idea, the other part was to vlog this. It has taken me two weeks to come to terms that I didn't do a very
good job of vlogging it. Part of vlogging is being in the moment, and I'm always in the next moment. So I've got to learn to slow
down if I'm going to vlog. Another part of it was trying to do those cinematic moments that
I see in other vloggers. The pouring of the coffee, the walking up the steps, the slow-mo. That's just totally beyond my photography skills at the moment, so I'm going to have to
learn how to do those better. So when do you hold onto your big idea and when do you let go? I wish could give you
a mathematical formula. Take your time, multiply it by two, times the amount of fabrics you have, divide by the colours that you're using. It didn't work that way. But there's comes a point where done is so much better than perfect, even if it was a really good idea. And the silver lining
from getting this done, (soft music)
not only does my ironing table have space for some new big ideas, but I also found crumpled
in the bottom of the bag with this old quilt was a design that I had thought of
three or four years ago. It was coloured out, and
I was excited to do it, but I just lost track of it. And not only am I going to pursue it, now I have so many more
skills to pursue it with that big ideas I
realise don't ever go away. You just keep them in a scrap book, and you pull them out when you need them. So if you have to abandon a big idea for now, it's never gone. Thank you for joining me on this journey. If you like this video,
please give it a thumbs up. If you haven't seen my previous video on 'What is an Afterquilt?' I'll link it in the notes below. Don't forget to subscribe, hit that bell beside the Subscribe button if you want to be notified
when I make new videos. You can also follow me
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my free StashBuster patterns on my website at justgetitdonequilts.com. Take care, and I'll see you next time.
