On to the sewing! The obvious choice with the 1 1/2" strips would be a Log Cabin, so I went ahead and made one of those a few weeks ago. (pic etc. to follow)
This week I decided I'd like to try a Rail Fence quilt. This idea was inspired by one of Kathie Holland's quilts, a rather large Rail Fence, using 5" blocks, which was featured in the August 2011 APQ Magazine, and in fact graces the cover of that issue.
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| taken in natural light, true to color |
The way they're constructed and arranged gives a "basket weave" look - very cool!
Kathie suggests a very slick and efficient way of constructing many blocks at the same time, by sewing five long strips together then cutting them into blocks. Unfortunately, my strips were all kinds of varying lengths so that method didn't work so well for me. I ended up cutting my oddball strips into 5 1/2" lengths, then going from there. Still, I made dozens of these blocks in a very short period of time!
By last night, I had more than doubled the above.
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| taken last night in artifical light, which warms it up quite a bit |
I toyed with the idea of putting the blocks all together for a single large throw, but then.... where was that quilt going to live? No room for it here, and too big for a Vet Quilt (they're very specific at the VA). So I'll most likely make a few more blocks and turn them into two Vet Quilts. Much easier to handle (and find backs for) and so satisfying to give them to our injured soldiers. Meanwhile, I'm liking the idea of a scrappy 2" border to reign it all in.
Back to those "unloved" fabrics. Funny, they look so much prettier once I cut them into small strips! Another thing I noticed is, the quilt gains more than a bit of life from the whites and (relatively) brights, especially the pinks and yellows, usually shunned in my normal fabric selection. Hmm.. am I learning something here?
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| the Log Cabin |
The Log Cabin looks quite lively, don't you think? Hopefully will cheer and delight whoever receives it. Its densely quilted, with a flannel back, so nice and crinkly/snuggly.
Another thing I learned from making this particular quilt is that (my MANY) mistakes (cringe! ha ha) don't show up in the overall look of the quilt. Thank god, LOL!!
Another thing I noticed while cutting strips are the many fabrics in my stash of very small scale - which I normally find uninteresting - but are ideal for making teeny-tiny blocks, such as the TQC Marvelous Mini's I'm also working on. If I had it to start over again, I might zero in on some of those, instead of trying to make sense of my "precious gems" that often lose their character when cut so small.
Anyway... enough for now. Time to link up with Judy's "Design Wall Monday" before it turns into Tuesday!
love,
Sandy
ps Does anyone have any tips on how to post from an ipad? I can't find a way to access my pictures for the post. For now I have to email the picture to myself, then go from there. Very inconvenient.
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