A friend sent me some Kaffe strings. She saves her scraps, but these were all less than 2.5″ wide. She wanted to share them with someone she thought might actually use them. I’ve never purchased this designer’s fabric, so it was a fun change of pace. I might have enough for a second quilt, but I’m not in a hurry to start another one (unless a great idea comes to mind).
Deciding on this layout took a while. They’re such bright and busy fabrics I knew it would take a lot of background and, I wanted a bit of a contemporary design. I’m happy with how it turned out.
I used my favorite background fabric. You can see the Malachite design by Urban Elementz I used to quilt it better on the back of the quilt. It did take a bit of time to do the quilting, but I love the texture it gave the quilt and I think it has the same contemporary feel.
This week I decided to start trying to stick with a schedule so I don’t end the week wondering where it went. I may not get a chance to sew everyday but when I have the time, this is the plan.
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday – piece/quilt a string or bucket list quilt top
- Tuesday, Wednesday – quilt donation tops for the quilt guild
- Thursday – work on my own baby/child quilt to donate
I wasn’t able to work on a little donation quilt top at my bee this week but, I did cut out the fabric and got it pieced at home.
It’s based on Bonnie Hunter’s free Streak of Sunshine quilt pattern. I altered it a bit, cutting my strips to 3.5″ and made 8 rows instead of 9 the patterns calls for so the quilt would finish at 36″ square, the preferred size for NICU preemie quilts.
After dinner last night I quilted it and started hand stitching down the binding. I should get it finished tonight.
On Tuesday I made aanother quick trip to Resource Depot. I’m going to try and go every two weeks to look for fabric I can use for baby/kid quilts. I’ll need to start avoiding the office supply section. I have no clue why but I’m a sucker for office supplies! 😉 I’ll use everything I bought this week so I don’t regret it. I just know I have plenty now and there’s no reason to buy more. It’s too darn hard to resist the couple of bucks it costs to fill up a bucket with whatever you want. The week I got a couple of calendars, one for my purse and one for the fridge, more receipt tape for short string piecing, a bunch of pencils, and some pads of paper and graph paper.
I found a few small pieces of fabric that’ll be great to use with some of the focus prints I got last week at Hobby Lobby in Mary’s Quick Strippie quilts. I found a baby print fat quarter, and some pink fabric that will work for backing a couple of future baby quilts meant for donation. The best find was a one-yard piece of ombre fabric by Hoffman. I really love ombre and had fun with a piece a year or two ago making this kid’s string quilt .
Today I’ll get back to working on another patriotic string quilt. I really wasn’t in the mood to work on patriotic strings again yet but, I purchased some bleached muslin from Marshall Dry Goods and was anxious to try it out for the backing.
I’m pleasantly surprised at the quality. I feared it would be too thin or scratchy to use on a baby quilt. It wasn’t. It would have been fine to use right off the bolt but I chose to pre-wash a piece to see how much it might shrink and remove any sizing that may have been in it. The fabric didn’t shrink at all and it was nice and soft after washing. I’ll probably buy a bolt of 45″ wide too and save my cute prints for the tops.
It was a bit of a pain to iron that 90″ wide piece of fabric and trim the stray threads down the sides. Next time, I think I’ll go ahead and use it right off the bold and wash the completed quilt afterwards. I plan to use it mostly on baby quilts so it needs to be nice, soft, and cuddly. ♥
Time to Quilt 