Bloggers Quilt Fest $2.25 Plus Tax

This year I've been trying a lot of new things, so instead of posting one of my epic applique quilts, I'm sharing an up-cycle project.   I had been reading blogs complaining about the cost of cotton fabric and encouraging people to use old clothing instead.  Isn't that what quilting USED to be about?

I was imagining an amazing bright colored quilt made from Aloha Shirts and headed out to the thrift shops.  Unfortunately anything remotely like I wanted was still going to end up being the equivalent of $8 per yard.

Not one to come home empty handed, I ended up with a couple of men's plaid shirts (one with paint drips on it) for $1.00 and a cream colored, cotton, King sized fitted sheet for $1.25.

I carefully cut apart the shirts, treating them like yardage and decided to make Half Square Triangles using a technique which was new to me.

When I read it, I thought making HST by sewing around the outside of a square then cutting it into 4 across the diagonal seemed perfectly stupid because of the bias.

Turns out that my first impression was accurate.  Making 4 HST for a pinwheel wouldn't be so bad, but a 6 foot strip on the bias....?

My project stalled out at this stage for several months.

Eventually, I started making 9 patch blocks with the remaining blocks.  I added another plaid fabric from the stash to get enough blocks to finish the center.

I then threw all the leftovers into long strips for the finished quilt, no longer caring if there was paint, or plackets, or repairs.  Those are the next strip in from the outer edge.  I added the random 4 HST block squares and called it a quilt.

Everything else went into a crazy patch pillow case which  became a FMQ practice piece described in this post.  

They eventually became 2 pillow cases that used the collars from the original shirts at the openings.

I pieced together the bits and pieces of batting and used up all the old white and cream thread.  Besides my time, I invested $2.25 (plus tax) in material and learned a lot of new techniques.  I would have never been so free in my piecing with "new" fabric.  Give it a try.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : ?? 70x80ish

Special techniques used : machine pieced & quilted by me.  Home FMQ on pillow cases

Best Category : Bed quilt, 2 color quilt, home machine quilted