Sometimes I feel like these little quilts design themselves. They certainly have a way of telling me what to do, or more often what NOT to do.
I have a hard time cutting into large pieces of fabric when I make quilts. I love to use my scraps. Last September I cut a large pile of two and a half inch strips from my collection of 1930's reproduction fabrics. I have been moving them from place to place in my sewing room and decided it was time to start something from them. The May/June challenge for the Doll Quilt Challenge group was the exquisite block. Yeah, I had to do it. I wanted to try something a little different from the others I have made. I used the print fabrics for the foundation squares and a solid for the triangles. I was hoping I would get a baby quilt out of this.
P and I worked on cutting squares off the strips. As I cut three or four squares from each strip P collected them and made a pile on the floor. When finished, I asked her to put the pile next to the sewing machine so they would be ready when we had time to sew them.
Well, a day or so later I sat at the machine with some strips of the purple fabric to cut into triangles as I sewed. Worked until each square had the two triangles sewn to them. I pressed them, trimmed them and laid them out. It was a small quilt. Just enough for a doll quilt. I guess those squares were just a bit too small to try and make a baby quilt. I didn't want to cut more. I was ready to sew them together.
When pressing the finished top I noticed a pile of squares on P's ironing board!
"P, why are these squares of fabric over here?"
"Those are mine."
So, that explains the small quilt. Moving on.
I found the PERFECT thread for quilting in my thread drawer, this beautiful hand dyed perle cotton by Melody Johnson. I bought it years ago when she spoke at our local quilt guild.
I tried hand quilting in the centers of the squares but the thread was not visible. Then I tried machine quilting. That just made the whole thing look muddy. I picked that out too. That thread needed to be on the solid fabric. I just couldn't make that work. I ended up quilting in the ditch. I like the clear look of the fabric that way. I am, however, eager to use that thread on something now.Here it is. The scrap quilt not made from scraps. 18.5 x 22.5 inches.
