A Little Stitching, Cutting and a Few Finds

 

On my last trip I found a new flannel Jelly Roll at an antique shop for a couple of bucks.  I didn't realize that this Jelly Roll only had 18 strips (not the usual 40 strips).  Still, it was cute fabric and I used it to make a small Jelly Roll Race quilt.

mini Jelly Roll race quilt top

I bought some flannel yardage on Monday so that I can add borders and binding to this little quilt top.  It will make a cute baby quilt for a boy.  It's always nice to have a couple of baby quilts on hand, just in case.

Also on my last trip I met up with a friend of my parents that I hadn't seen in 30-40 years.  It was nice to catch up with her and her son (they used to live across the street from us when I was little).  She had some antique quilts she was wanting to sell, and I bought 2 of them.

I need to find out what this block is called

Grandmother's Flower Garden

The Missouri TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy) needed more 'house' blocks for next year's raffle quilt.  I'd already made a log cabin block last June.

I made a schoolhouse block and mailed it.  I added a bell in the bell tower and a door knob.

Also on Monday, I finished another block for the Angels Among Us quilt.  This is May's block. (it still needs buttons added to it for the flowers).

Pushing a needle thru several layers of fused fabric gets difficult at times.  I ordered a thimble that fits over my fingernail.

Unfortunately, I broke my fingernail this morning.  Oh well.

I signed up for a quilt class that my large quilt guild is having next week.  We were sent how much fabric we'd need and cutting instructions (we don't get the pattern until the day of the class).  Here is a photo of the quilt we will be making.

There are 6 different sizes we can make.  I decided to make a king size quilt since I only have one that fits on our new king size bed (last year's Christmas gift to ourselves).

They suggest using Jelly Rolls, or 10" squares.  I seldom use either since I like to prewash all of my fabrics.  I had a stack of fat quarters that I'd bought several years ago for a quilt I never made, and I started pulling yardage out of my stash that would coordinate.  I was hoping to just use my stash for this quilt, but I didn't have enough of any off white background fabric.  Oh well, only buying background fabric is ok.  Here is what I pulled to start with, including the background fabric.

I added another dozen fabrics before I started cutting.  There are 45 different fabrics for the chain links in the pattern.  The pattern says I needed at least 3 Jelly Rolls (120 strips).  I cut 3 strips out of each fabric.  I just finished cutting all the pieces for the class.

fabrics for the chain links

background fabrics

I don't like cutting fabrics, but since I have a 2.5" Shape cutter strip cutter, this went really fast.

I saw this great pattern in one of the newsletters I get online and I ordered it.  I've been wanting to make an I Spy quilt and I'll use this pattern for that.  

busy background

plain background

This is the template for the I Spy fabrics.  

Now I know that I will need 9" squares to set the blocks on point (7" squares if fabric direction doesn't matter).

9" square for on point (directional fabrics)

7" squares if the fabrics aren't directional

I only have a few fabrics collected that will work with this size I Spy block.  I'll have to start collecting fabrics now.

They also included 2 strips of ric-rac, to show what size I'll need (each curve has ric rac).  I'll have to start collecting ric-rac, too. 

13-14 inches long

This pattern came all the way from Melbourne, Australia.

Since I don't have many fabrics or ric-rac, this quilt will take me a while to make.  I need around 75 different I Spy fabrics for the blocks.  I was hoping to make this for Grandbaby #4 (due February).  I doubt I'll get that many I Spy fabrics in time. Oh well.