quilt along week 7

I'm running behind this week. I hate that feeling and I have no one to blame but myself. I suppose I could blame it on my bickering children (heaven, help me!) but I don't suppose that would do any good, would it?

Ok, for this week's quilt along....

Sew together two strips that are 22 segments long. Sew them to the top and the bottom of the quilt.

Sew together two strips that are 26 segments long. Sew them to either side of the quilt.

Then, sew on the borders that measure 52 1/2" to the top and bottom.

Sew on the borders that measure 56 1/2" to either side. Press well.

Take a photo and add it to the flickr group. :)

It was a little tricky for me this week to get everything to match up. With so many seams in each strip, if you are off by even a little bit (i was), it multiplies with each seam. My strips ended up longer than they needed to be. So, I used the borders as they were cut and tried to ease in the bulk of the pieced strip. I really need to perfect my 1/4" seam allowance. It sure would make things easier!

A few other bits of business....

Tammy was selected as my scrap challenge winner. I'm looking forward to seeing what scraps I get to play with. Due to the overwhelming positive response to this crazy idea of mine, I just might make it a regular thing around here. I don't have the time or energy to organize a swap of this nature, but someone should! That would be great fun.

Also, thanks so much to the generous ladies that have sent me plaid squares. I'll be posting more about that project soon!

can i play with your scraps?

At the retreat, there was quite a lot of smack talk between Shelly and me in regards to our favorite fabrics. I happen to think anything with white fabric is fabulous, (shocking, i know!) while she has a deep love for batiks. (Could you get any more opposite?) At some point a challenge was issued and I had to accept. She sent some batik scraps home with me, and I shared some fabulous white fabric with her. ;) We decided we would make each other a small project using the said materials. She can not add any batiks to her quilt and I could not add any white to mine.

Now, I'm not particularly fond of batiks (my husband thinks they are nasty)...but I must say, it was a great creative exercise. I loved the challenge! I could even get used to batiks. Maybe! I do like their saturated colors and the fabric itself is just so sturdy. Somehow it was easier for me to use scraps rather than whole fat quarters or yardage.

Anyway, this is the mini quilt that I came up with. It measures about 14" x 17".

I liked it so much I wanted to keep it, so I'd call that a success.

This whole exercise gave me an idea.....

I thought I would put this challenge out to my readers...can I play with your scraps? If anyone is interested, this is how it would go. I will select a random name from the comments. That person would send me a small bag of scraps. I'll use the scraps to make a mini quilt and send it back to the person who provided the scraps. Doesn't that sound like a whole lot of fun? If you are interested, leave me a comment on this post.

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edited to add: Tammy was selected via the random number generator, so I'll be playing with her scraps. Thanks for all the interest in this idea. I think it's going to be a whole lot of fun. :)