Working feverishly

It has been a busy week of various meetings, but in between I managed to finish what I am now calling "The Big Purple Quilt" and mail it to the long arm quilter over in Wells River (Vermont). It had 30 blocks, each bordered with 1" print sashing, and then with grape sashing between the blocks. I put a 3" border of the same print around the whole quilt that ended up measuring 86" x 97". It was a little too wide for just two strips of fabric for the back, so I ended up adding a thin center strip to the beige back. I plan to use the same print for the binding, which I need to cut before I forget about it. Forgot to take a photo before I boxed it up for the post office!

Meanwhile, Tuesday night's quilt guild meeting featured an "Easy Stack" quilt technique. Just what I needed: another UFO! But it was really fun. We each brought some yardage of a larger print fabric, found the repeat, and stacked four identical pieces of fabric. Then we cut 3.5" squares and arranged them in a sort of kaleidescope fashion. This is sort of like the "Stack and Whack" quilt but easier since the result is a simple four patch. I don't usually make quilts from patterns for which I buy specific fabrics. I used a lovely fabric - Northcott's "Tulip Time" by Ro Gregg, pink and blue tulips on a soft yellow background - and the result was lovely.

Before I knew it, I had made 42 four patches, so I ran back to the quilt shop for some coordinating fabric. Yesterday, I surrounded 30 square-in-a-square fashion and put them together. It looks very pretty. Today I'll add some borders to get to a lap quilt size. I'll still have some squares left over for spring table runners. At our guild meeting, we signed up for a UFO challenge - this was before I generated these new UFOs, unfortunately. So I still have four things to tackle and finish by the June meeting. Still, it's fun to work with something new.