Have You Always Made Slabs?

After inviting open questions on today’s Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong, someone asked me if I’ve always made slabs (hi Gail). The obvious answer is no, but at the same time it feels like I always have.

I can remember the first ones I made. The girls were babies playing in the bath. I needed to watch them, but they managed their splashing about without me. So I took my plastic baggies of scraps and sorted them on the bathroom counter into little piles of colour. It was so motivating that I put the girls to bed quickly (and early) so I could go to the dining room and sew. I took one pile and sewed all the pieces together. Then another. My first slabs. That was in December 2009.

Slabs have become a life-force all their own since then. That first blog post initiated a conversation with Amanda Jean Nyberg. That conversation sparked a collaboration and then a book. That book launched our careers. Thousands of people have made slabs for themselves, for charity quilts, for joy. They’ve become a go to block for many, for many reasons.

More than 15 years later, yes, I am still making them. I love them. They are a perfect way to use your scraps as they are. No need to force the fabric to do something it doesn’t want to do and you don’t want to sew. I love the meditative aspect of sewing slabs. I wouldn’t say that I could do it in my sleep, but it does not require a lot of thought anymore; just action, muscle memory. I really like using my scraps, period. Slabs use them, really use them. I love the design possibilities of this made fabric and have not run out of ideas for their use.

Case in point, I’ve never quite used them like I am this year, on the Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong. All solids, for one. More importantly, truly as a fabric. Paired with Kona Snow they are one of the two fabrics in one of my sample quilts. And I am loving the way it is turning out! Quite a few others are also making and using slabs, and also discovering/embracing the possibilities.

So, no, I haven’t always made slabs. But I don’t forsee ever not making them.