I missed February's meeting for Blankets of Hope, the quilting group that meets at my church, Platte Woods United Methodist Church. It is a small group of us, only five, and we work hard but have fun, too, being creative and producing lap quilts to give to people who need a little hope.
I did work hard to finish a quilt top before leaving in February so Friend Fran could take it to the meeting. They found some material for the backing, layered it with batting and Fran took it home to machine "quilt" it. Fran missed our meeting this month, but she brought the finished quilt to me to take to the meeting (and add to our finished "stash").
As it turned out Friend Sandy and I were the only two at the meeting this month. We ended up doing some spring cleaning (refolding and restuffing sheets and yardage that we use for backing back in a cabinets and reevaluating squares we have cut). I ended up bringing two loads of fabric home to wash. I also brought two stacks of cut squares along with a piece that we felt would go with it to see what design I could come up with for a quilt top.
We traditionally have worked with 6-1/2 - inch cut squares. The last few years since the group has gotten so small, we have gotten adventurous and creative with the fabric. We still have quite a bit of the 6-1/2 inch squares left though because of this. We also have cut squares donated to us. (Almost all of our material is donated to us. We sometimes will buy a piece of fabric to complement pieces we are using in a quilt. We also buy the batting now because we are picky about the batting we use.) Up until now, we take the time and cut down any larger squares we have if we are using them with these smaller squares that were donated to us. This time I decided to try something different.
I decided to keep the cut squares the 6-1/2 - inch and 5 - inch that I had and just cut a piece 2 x 5 - inches and sewed it to the 5 - inch square to make it fit with the 6 -1/2 - inch square to make a block 11 x 6-1/2 inches.
I pressed 6-1/2 inch seam toward the blue print and that meant that these seams "nested" when I sewed the strips/rows together.
I did work hard to finish a quilt top before leaving in February so Friend Fran could take it to the meeting. They found some material for the backing, layered it with batting and Fran took it home to machine "quilt" it. Fran missed our meeting this month, but she brought the finished quilt to me to take to the meeting (and add to our finished "stash").
As it turned out Friend Sandy and I were the only two at the meeting this month. We ended up doing some spring cleaning (refolding and restuffing sheets and yardage that we use for backing back in a cabinets and reevaluating squares we have cut). I ended up bringing two loads of fabric home to wash. I also brought two stacks of cut squares along with a piece that we felt would go with it to see what design I could come up with for a quilt top.
We traditionally have worked with 6-1/2 - inch cut squares. The last few years since the group has gotten so small, we have gotten adventurous and creative with the fabric. We still have quite a bit of the 6-1/2 inch squares left though because of this. We also have cut squares donated to us. (Almost all of our material is donated to us. We sometimes will buy a piece of fabric to complement pieces we are using in a quilt. We also buy the batting now because we are picky about the batting we use.) Up until now, we take the time and cut down any larger squares we have if we are using them with these smaller squares that were donated to us. This time I decided to try something different.
I decided to keep the cut squares the 6-1/2 - inch and 5 - inch that I had and just cut a piece 2 x 5 - inches and sewed it to the 5 - inch square to make it fit with the 6 -1/2 - inch square to make a block 11 x 6-1/2 inches.
I pressed 6-1/2 inch seam toward the blue print and that meant that these seams "nested" when I sewed the strips/rows together.
I alternated the blocks to create the pattern.
I spent 3 or 4 hours Sunday afternoon and then maybe 3 hours yesterday morning making the top and am very pleased with it. The quilt top is about 42 x 48 inches. I don't have the backing or binding picked out. Unless I have something at home that I can use, I will probably take it back next month and we will chose something then. I will come back and update this post to show the finished quilt when I get it finished.
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