Using up Crumb Blocks

As an avid follower of Bonnie Hunter I am always making Crumb blocks as a leader and ender project.
I usually cut them at 4" square and collect in an old biscuit tin.  The tin was overflowing so I decided to put some together to make a quilt top, combining  ideas from Gwen Marston's book "Liberated String Quilts" and, of course, Bonnie!

A year or so ago I made a Cornerstones Quilt ( Gwen Marston' s idea) using single 4" blocks and sashing them as suggested in this pattern:

 

I am sure I have seen 4 small crumb blocks made into a 9 patch ( Bonnie's blog, Flickr, not sure where) so I pieced together pairs, just as they came out of the tin, no over-thinking as this is a Scrap Quilt!

 

 

Here's my string of 4" blocks sewn into pairs:

 

 

Then I snipped them into pairs of 2s, left them 'webbed' and easily put them together in a 4 patch block.  I did pin the centre but it really wasn't necessary as this webbing idea gets the blocks lined up beautifully.

 

 

Can you see the 'webbing"? It's the tiny thread holding together the pairs between the left hand side of the joined pairs.

 

 

And here they are, all sewn and pressed, a really colourful bunch:

 

 

I am now finishing the sashing of the blocks to make another Cornerstones Quilt.

 

I am using a lilac Kona cotton and a couple of scraps which tone well with the lilac to make my 'cornerstones".  I am assembling this exactly as Gwen Marston shows in her book. But as my blocks are larger I have cut the sashing and cornerstones at 3" instead of 2.5".

 

The cutting didn't take long - even cut up the remaining cornerstone fabric scrap into some 3" squares and a strip for my Scraps Stash - and then chain pieced the sashing onto the blocks.

So far I have only completed one of the cornerstone-sashed blocks but I accomplished so much in a short time yesterday.

 

This is where I got to:

 

And that's where it stays at present.  I'm off to London with my husband for the weekend, setting off for the train station quite soon. We are going to a couple of exhibitions at the National Gallery and the Dulwich Gallery, plus a bit of shopping and sitting and reading in book shops!  Loads of walking of course, catching lots of tube trains where you walk miles along underground tunnels so my Fitbit will be working overtime.  I'm hoping to get some amazing totals on my weekly report next Tuesday!

Happy sewing!