Awhile ago, I talked about the lanyard I made for a swap and put up a sort of tutorial about making it. That Orphan Block lanyard came out pretty well and I was pleased.
As BAMQG is part of the Modern Quilt Guild, I got a pin. It has been lying on my desk and I finally decided to make a lanyard. I didn’t want to do a complete orphan block lanyard this time, because of the seam allowances. To much piecing makes lumps. I wanted it to be interesting so I used some of the larger scraps from my cutting table.
![Lumps and floops](https://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DSCN0111sm-300x166.jpg)
It went together pretty well and relatively quickly. Still: UGH! I don’t like the way it looks.
![Fresh Fruit Lanyard](https://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DSCN0116sm-300x171.jpg)
It is cute and cheerful and not terrible, but the seam allowances made it lumpier than I wanted. I forgot to make the upper loop insert a smaller width than the main part of the lanyard, so the lump is even more prominent.
True to form, I let the process options rumble around in my head as I went about my business and decided to make another, starting much more simply: with just one strip of fabric. I used the By The Sea by Gillian Fullard/ London Portfolio Series by Michael Miller fabric. This is the same fabric I used in the recent Ocean Going Journal.
![Ocean Going Lanyard Upper Loop detail](https://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DSCN0114sm-300x256.jpg)
The upper loop, which I like so the name tag is near my face and not even with my belly button, confounded me for awhile until I realized that I could make it much smoother by making it from part of the hemmed fabric. I folded up the length of hemmed fabric rather that inserting a different piece. The loop also turned out to be much smaller.
The tricky part was to make sure the metal circle was in the right place. That took a bit of fiddling and trying, but wasn’t difficult.
Of course, using the length of original piece to make the loop led to length issues for the overall lanyard. I still haven’t quite worked out the best length. Still, that little trick made a much smoother upper loop AND, and as an added bonus, prevented the loop from being too long and floopy.
![Ocean Going Lanyard](https://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DSCN0115sm-300x170.jpg)
Now my BAMQG pins and things are ensconced on my new lanyard and I can’t wait to give it a trial run.
Of course, I have to make another just to perfect my technique and, possibly, write another tutorial.
Yes, please… an updated tutorial.
Thanks for the vote. I will put it on the list.
Pretty. Makes me want to go and make one, or two…
I think a tutorial would be great as well! I could use a new one too.
Thanks all! The Ocean going version went much faster.