(Edited on 5/27/18 with finished photos) New photos are at the bottom of the original blog post.
Hi, my quilting friend Kelly Young has published her first quilting book called Stash Statement. She asked me if I would be willing to make a quilt from the book for the book blog tour. She designed three techniques for improv piecing that she calls Structured Improv. She shows you how to use up the smallest of your fabric scraps and create twelve different and original scrappy quilts.
I will admit that I probably don’t have the usual scrap fabric bins. I have been working on making memory quilts from my Father inlaw’s plaid shirts for the last year. I do own fabrics which are not plaids but I do not have a stash of scraps. Kelly asked me to use up my plaid shirt scraps. My original inspiration to make these plaid memory quilts came from the quilts that Kelly made for her family from her Grandfather’s plaid shirts. This is my 18th quilt from the same pile of 30 plaid shirts.
Kelly got her inspiration for the Detour quilt from old city maps. I thought this was quite fitting for a quilt from Dad’s shirts as maps and map making were important to our family as my husband and Father inlaw were in the crop consulting business and made soils and field maps for their customers. The layout of the quilt is alot like aerial view of a soil county plat map.
I built my blocks around the various shirt brand patches that were sewn into the yokes of Dad’s shirts. He wore denim or chambray work shirts for his crop consulting and I found one of the company embroidered patches. My Mom actually embroidered this one for him as we got the logo digitized so she could embroider the guys’ shirts and I also saved one of his embroidered name patches.
This was my stash of plaid fabric that I still have to use for quilt making. I ended up with one large pile that I made my blocks from. 
This pile really didn’t change much in size after making 38 quilt blocks. The scraps just became smaller.
These two photos show the progress from the first patches to the first couple of rounds of piecing strips.
This is the first pieced block segment. Kelly teaches you how to improv piece creating panels, strips or blocks. The Detour quilt is made from pieced panels cut down to the sizes that you need for your blocks. I started out making one of the required panels and soon discovered that I was going to have to take another route as I didn’t want to cut across any of my shirt patches. I ended up using the block piecing technique for most of the quilt and when I was down to the last couple blocks I used the panel technique. I ended up using all of Kelly’s techniques in this one quilt.
I was going to be short 4 shirt patches for the required amount of blocks. My scrap pile was producing smaller and smaller pieces. I decided to dig in the bag of denim shirts and cut 2 of the small and 2 of the larger pieced blocks. I first had the idea to applique random plaid squares to the denim shirts. I did like how they turned out but I was not sure how they would look in the design so I dug further in the bag and cut new denim pieces that had shirt patches on them all ready.
I got the idea to sew the denim strips together and I had extra red background fabric and I am going to use this striped piece as the center of my backing. I think I will use navy solid as the rest of the backing.
Here is another view of the Detour flimsy. I apologize for the poor lighting, as it is after Midnight when the photo was taken. I promise to get better photos when it is quilted and bound. I plan to have this done by midweek and will write another post and link the finish with this one.
Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts is also sharing her version of the Detour quilt today. Be sure to check out all the lovely quilts on the book blog tour. You can find a list of all the stops below.
4/16- Grand Bazaar Shelley @ Cora’s Quilts
Connie @ Freemotion by the River
4/23- Louvered Lindsey @ Primrose Cottage Quilts
4/30- Precarious Jess @ Quilty Habit
5/7- Beach Retreat Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts
5/14- Fire Pit Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts
5/21- Detour Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts
Shelley @ The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts
5/28- Murrina Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl
6/4- Scattered Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal
Christine @ Triangles and Squares
6/11- Bloom Chicka Boom Chris @ made by ChrissieD
Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
6/18- Regatta Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
6/25- Catch a Falling Star Cynthia @ Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
7/2- College Prep Hilary @ by Hilary Jordan
7/9- Take Flight (free bonus pattern) Kelli @ Seriously, I Think It Needs Stitches
You can pick up a signed copy of Stash Statement in Kelly Young’s Etsy shop HERE, which comes with the Take Flight (angel wings) bonus pattern. Or, you can get the book on Amazon, Connecting Threads, or even in your local quilt shop!
Thank you for stopping by my blog and checking out my Detour quilt. I really enjoyed making it and have plans to try out some more patterns from the Stash Statement book. I have my eye on the Scattered quilt next.
UPDATE with Detour Quilting Completed:
Each of my memory quilts will have one of these embroidered patches on it. There are some with Dad, Lee and Grandpa on them, depends on which family member’s quilt it goes on. I asked my Sister inlaw for more patches recently and this was an extra one as the embroiderer forgot to change thread to navy blue like my first batch. I didn’t want it to go to waste so it is sewn on to the Detour quilt, which is an extra quilt. I did sew it on by machine at an angle or on point so it wouldn’t show up on the front as it blends in with the diagonal plaid quilting. I used the denim variegated thread on top and in bobbin.
I made a mini quilt from one leftover improv panel that I cut in half and sewed back together to make a square. I drew out an allover plaid design with my hera marker and ruler. I did the same stitching on the full size quilt but I had to start a little differently since my quilt was a rectangle and not a square. I made a big X and then went out like 7.5 inches from either direction. I added fill in lines at 2.5, 1.5 and 2 inches in both directions. I really like how it turned out and the quilting helped correct a wavy outer border.
I do hope to take some more personal quilt photos at a later date, like with Dad’s 56 Belair or with his Fairmont Speeder Car (railroad maintenance car). Sorry for the delay. It’s been a wild week. Monday was chilly enough that I had to turn the space heater on again in the living room. Saturday and Sunday we are setting records in the 90s. My husband and I took an impromptu 9 hour roundtrip road trip on Saturday and drove over to Nebraska to buy him a pickup. It was 97 degrees. No sightseeing or side trips. First time that I drove that long and that far of a distance by myself. Thank God Dad’s pickup has good AC and a good radio. I had a heck of a time keeping my husband in sight and my GPS wasn’t working on my phone on the ride home (1 X instead of 4G….lol) My quilting was complete on Thursday but I didn’t get binding done until Sunday afternoon. My projects this week is to paint my living room (hope it cools down) and then Friday, our son will be here to help lay laminate flooring in the living room.
I plan on trying more quilting designs made with a ruler and hera marker. I have one of those bendable curve rulers that I can make a design with too. I am thinking I will likely do a similar pattern to this on the two memory quilts that are made from the HST scrap pieces from the Scrappy Patchwork Swoon quilts.
I hope everyone had a great extended holiday weekend.
Happy Sewing,,
Shelley
