I picked up a few scraps a while back when my sister was lucky enough to come upon a lady down sizing her quilting stash. I got a bag of scraps and a few boxes of larger pieces and some precut squares as well. I ended up with a large bag of flannel scraps and pieces and have since picked up a few more precuts and small pieces on my most recent trips to second hand stores. After washing the ones I picked up I was sorting through what I had and started placing some of the squares in alignment to see if I had enough to make a small quilt. They have been sitting for a few days and I went down there looking to access the felted wool which was at the back of the room and the choice was to pick up all the pieces and try to remember how they all went together or to switch gears and work on the quilt instead of the felted wool project. Needless to say, that I got started on the quilt and very soon I had filled in all the spaces between the squares with strips and had added long strips in between to get the width I was looking for. I was aiming for a kids quilt so anywhere near 35"-36" would work. So I started sewing the pieces in each row together and finished sewing the rows to each other yesterday. I am very happy with how it worked out as I really did not have any idea when I started what I was going to end up with. It was fun to play with the pieces and move them around until I liked the way they went with the others. I had to cut a few pieces for the in between strips so I used my rotary cutter and cutting mat. Worked really well. It was fun playing with fabric and actually making something that has a real purpose. I trimmed the edges even today and measured it and it is 37.5" x 46.5" or so. I will have to see about finding backing, binding and some sort of fabric to sandwich in between. I am looking to make a lightweight quilt so it maybe just a sheet. We shall see. Today, buoyed by yesterday's success I decided to see if there was enough fabric to make another top for a kids quilt.
As you can see I did manage to make another quilt top but when I made the decision to not add any pink pieces to this one I had to get quite a bit more resourceful to make all the pieces fit. I cut a few squares from some of the larger pieces I acquired recently to have enough for my design. As you can see, I also had to add a piece to the green and blue ones but fortunately, I had small pieces that I had leftover when I was cutting the squares that were just the size I needed. So there are 4 lager pieces that are pieced rectangles instead of square - one in each row of squares. I started by creating the center strip with the only solid colour pieces I had - bright yellow ones. I found some coordinating pieces of patterned fabric and used a small scrap of dark green which gave the strip a bit of definition. I added long strips on each side of that one just adding two little pieces to each of them to make them long enough. One is monkeys and the other is giraffes. The four rows of squares were then filled with what I had left to make the little strips between the squares. There was much moving of pieces and squares before I settled on this layout as I did not want the same fabric touching to too close to each other. I spent the day sewing the pieces of each of the row to each other and then sewed all the rows together. I trimmed the edges even and this one measures 35" x 44" - a pretty good size. I folded them up and pinned a paper with the measurements on it to the corner of each quilt top. I picked up all the other pieces and put them all back into the bag along with the quilt tops and all the other flannel scraps I has sorted out.
I am very happy with my days work!!!!!! I like that they easily could be baby quilts and that I have one for a girl and a boy!! So for now they will be stored away until I can get to finding fabric to make a backing, binding and to add as a filler. I am looking to make them light weight so they won't require much in the way of filling but for sure that will be a project for another day. This week we are back to our regular meetings and commitments so there are a few full days ahead.
Therese