Project Quilting 11.5 – Give It Away

I like projects where I can get started right away and don’t have to make a trip to the fabric store. I also like projects that can be finished quickly, so they keep my attention and don’t end up in the UFO pile. This week’s Project Quilting challenge is right up my alley!

I’ve been planning to make a larger project for one of the challenges because so far this year, all my projects have been small due to time constraints.  Because the challenge is to make something and give it away, I thought that this would be the perfect week to make a baby or kid’s size quilt. 

I have supported a couple of the organizations listed in Trish’s blog post in the past, including Quilts for Kids and Project Linus. I looked them both up online, and Project Linus won, only because they have a local drop off location.  If I am going to get something finished quickly, I also want it to be given away quickly so that it doesn’t get buried in the general chaos that is my sewing room!

The project had to be something simple enough that I could get it done between reloading sessions.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we are having our kitchen remodeled, and I had to unload all the drawers and cupboards.  Now that the majority of the work is done, it is time to put everything back in the kitchen.  I’m trying to organize everything by use instead of by where it used to be.  I’ve been filling a cupboard and then taking a break to ponder which cupboard to reload next, and with what.  It’s been during these breaks that I’ve been sewing. 

I decided that I wanted to use some of the fat quarters that have been proliferating in the set of plastic storage drawers that are beside my sewing machine.  I really can’t figure out how the drawers got so full.  The only explanation that I have is that there has been some hanky-panky going on in there.  ^.^

Deciding what pattern to use was relatively easy.  Karen Montgomery’s Three-Six-Nine pattern uses fat quarters and is a quick and easy way to make a baby quilt.  Basically, you stack up the fat quarters, cut them into squares and rectangles, then shuffle the stacks.  When you sew them together into uneven four patches, you get four different fabrics in each four patch.  But when you rotate the blocks and sew them together, sometimes identical fabrics touch each other, which gives a unique look. When I am making a scrap quilt, I usually don't want identical fabrics to touch, but with this quilt, I like the shapes that form when identical fabrics are next to each other.

Navy/Green colorway

Red/Aqua colorway

A few years ago, I found some yardage that was printed into fat quarters. I think that it was called a Fat Quarter Panel.  Never one to pass up something unique, I bought one in the navy/green colorway and one in the red/aqua colorway.  I tried to find the fabric online, but all I found was an historic listing from the Fat Quarter Shop.  The fabric isn't available from them any longer, but I wanted to show what it looked like before I cut it into fat quarters, and ultimately, into the squares and rectangles required for the pattern. 

That gave me eight coordinating fat quarters, and the pattern only called for seven.  After some angst design decisions, I tossed out the aqua/white print because I wanted the darker prints to dominate, not the light.  And besides, I like it better, and will keep it for another project. :>

Three Six Nine
36" x 45" 

Here is my final project, to be delivered to Project Linus.  It was machine quilted using an all-over meander. The binding was also sewn on entirely by machine, not because it is faster that way, but because it gives a more sturdy finish.  It is most likely going to be washed numerous times, and I want it to hold up well!