Strip Twist

 

I have a new favorite fast quilt.  

Followed a Pintrest post to Blue Feather Quilt Studio. 

I used their EQ7 design as inspiration for the following quilts. 

Round 1 was a donation quilt using lots of leftover strips.  The greens all look different in different light, but the concept shows up with the contrasting zig-zags.  It actually looks better in the photo than in person.  I need to buy poly batting to finish this one since it's for Threads in Faith that ties quilts with prayers.  

So I dug through the batik stash, looking for a transitional color variation.  I am always surprised when I sort the stash and realize how many  orange/pink combinations I have.  

Or Not.   This was my childhood luggage.  Yes, I still have both pieces.  It explains a lot.

Meanwhile, my plan was 10-11 strip sets. 2.5" strips with 5 colors gradation dark to light. Turned out that some of the stash were fat quarters or missing chunks, so things didn't go to plan, but still needed 40 squares. The directions noted needing an A and B square that alternated with dark on the left or right. I cut them as 10.5 blocks, a little proud, for wiggle room on the final trim.

 I'm glad I didn't go to the reference sites before I made my plan as they were far more complicated than necessary. By stacking a light strip and dark strip at the top, I could draw a diagonal line and sew on either side to make a HST without bias stretch.  Which ends up with the A and B variations. 

One thing that 40 years of quilting has taught me is to square up blocks, especially if anything is on the bias.  Final trim was for 10".  I was expecting 9.5", but I think many of my seams were a scant 1/4"

That took off up to 1/4 " on some blocks and nothing on others. 

Finished of the sides with a mid-tone color to match the right and left, but leaving the zig-zag  on the top and bottom.  

Final dimensions are 67" square at the wide spots, but 55" at the inner side of the zigs.

UFO finishes

 I had a day free to sew and planned to start a unicorn dress for my granddaughter. The sewing room needed to be tidied before I could start on a new project.  This flimsy was begging to be finished. It was a scrap bin improv that I gave up making square. Which I still believe was the right decision. 

I had fun freehand drawing giant flowers in the borders. 

And parts of mandellas

With dense quilting on the outside to help tame the flared edge that developed from all the bias pieces in the quilt. 

I added a flannel back to this NICU quilt flimsy that was sitting around. 

I had the X and the waves squares on my design wall.  When I went to sew more HST blocks, I discovered that the pre-sewn squares all needed to be cut down to match the scale of the X block. That was the point that my enthusiasm for these leftover fabrics was gone. I was even less excited when I found a bin of the 4 patch blocks that finish with 1" squares.  My Road To California plan became the Road To The Trash Bin. A decision that caused guilt, but ultimately more relief. 

I hope to get in another day of finishing off UFOs so I can get working on 2 dresses from this Unicorn fabric.