More Finds!

Amazing what you find when trying to de-stash a bit!!  One of my finds was a pretty large pile of strips sewn together.  They ended up being about 42 x almost 100 in a couple of cases.  Most of these strip sets were in this blue/purple combination.  I know I did these many years ago and of course thought I had used them all up in quilts I had made but it didn't happen!  I know I have made at least 3 or 4 quilts from these strip sets and at least 2 of them were  queen sized!  I took one of these strip sets and cut it into 10 1/2 inch squares which I then cut along both diagonals and sewed back together.  It might be a little random even for me!!  I decided I needed sashing to kind of pull it together and decided yellow or gold would be good.

This was my first attempt, using the yellow to define a "square" and then the gold as real sashing between squares.  I didn't like it at all!!

I decided that this was much more in keeping with the rest of the quilt.  It will be narrower than shown here as it is not sewn together yet.  I will see if cornerstones will add anything this afternoon!

Next time I do this (and I have a lot of fabric that I can cut up), I think I will make a light colored side and a dark colored side.  I have a very large piece that is made up of mostly fabrics with a lot of white in them.  I will also probably cut it into 4 1/2 wide strips and make one of my "go to" baby quilt patterns with on point four patches alternating with the strips.  


 

Finishing Up the Fat Quarters!

Well, finally finished the three tops except for the borders which I will put on after I baste and machine quilt.  It makes life easier to do it this way.  This was my second attempt at making this quilt with these strips!!  My first attempt used the 57 degree ruler and I ended up using the diamonds in the third quilt in this post which turned out to be my favorite!  I really didn't care for the fabrics but I had pulled out some of the ones that really didn't match and think it worked out okay and certainly better than I thought it would.

I have made this pattern before and it uses three strips sewn together and then cut on the diagonal, half with the squares vertical and half horizontal.  I do have to add borders to this one.

These are the triangles that were supposed to be for the tumbling blocks quilt.  It is a good thing I always make a test block first as I only had to rip out two small seams as it was obvious something was very wrong!!  This is the only one of the three that I am even a little hesitant to immediately give away as I do like it.

 

Some More Fun with Strips

Finally got this one finished!  And then of course started another one!!  

Figured I would try a focus fabric in the middle and cut it a bit bigger than I have been so there would be more of a square in the center of the blocks.  I also decided that I would iron all the seams in the strips open so that I would get more precision and that worked beautifully.  Those were the only seams that I did open though.

Here it is done with my glaring mistake!!  The lighter blocks were supposed to be in the middle.  I didn't have enough strips to do them all the same.  Oops!  Of course  I didn't notice it until it was all sewn together and I took a pic.

I am always on the lookout for a new block that uses strips (because I have probably 100 lbs of them cut by now).  I found this one on a FB post.  I had seen it before and couldn't figure out how it was made but liked it.  A very nice lady posted the instructions in detail and it is super fast and easy and makes very good use of strips although I think I need a little bit of sashing between the blocks -- matching the centers I think.

Here I have three of the blocks done and really like them.  I am constantly on the lookout for neat blocks to make with my strips and save those ideas in Pinterest.

I also spent considerable time on EQ8 designing a house quilt but wanted trees in it.  I took a Bonnie Hunter pattern for a house but didn't tilt it like she did in her blog.  This house block only uses 2 inch strips of which I have a plethora!  Will probably work on a couple of houses tomorrow.  I plan to a bunch of these house quilts as our quilt group in Wilmington makes them for Habitat for Humanity new home owners.  They need 15 for this year and I intend to contribute a few!!  

This is essentially what it will look like except the trees are different widths so it will be a little bit more random.  I will also turn some of the houses around just for variety.  
Those little areas of white are because EQ8 doesn't allow you to make anything but whole number blocks.  This hasn't been a problem before but wanted 7 1/2 inch square blocks so I could use the Bonnie Hunter pattern.The following is the link you can use to make the house block -   Bonnie Hunter Instructions .