Monday, January 10, 2011

Design Wall Monday

I've been working away on a couple of projects and having success, but I keep finding more and more that I need or want to do. :-( Saturday afternoon, I found a small kit that included all the makings for a red, white, and blue Trip Around the World quilt top. I opened the package, remembered buying it at an auction a number of years ago, wondered why I never did anything with it, and promptly decided that I'd work on it and get it done!

Here's the progress so far.
As I was piecing this, I realized why it had been tucked away and not worked on before now. The red and blue squares are a blend fabric and the blue squares are not cut consistently to the correct size (they're supposed to be 5", but some are as large as 5 1/2" x 5". Thankfully, none are cut too small. I'm guessing that when I opened the kit originally and saw the blend fabrics and the inconsistent blue squares, I was unsure whether or not it would be worth messing around with. Afterall, I only paid $2.50 for the kit.

Since I never got rid of it, I guess I thought it was worth saving and that I would get to it one day. Well, today is that day! Starting Saturday afternoon, I measured and squared up all the blue squares and accepted the fact that I would be making a quilt in which half of the fabrics are not 100% cotton. Of course the other fabrics aren't exactly the greatest quality, but hey, they deserve to be in a quilt! (Now I'm not trying to offend anyone here, but I just don't like working with these fabrics. I much prefer 100% cotton when it comes to quilting.)

This top should be done sometime later today. I'm going to be gone for most of the rest of the morning and early afternoon. I really don't have much more to sew here, but darn it all, life gets in the way. I'm going to look in my stash for some border fabric because I like my quilts to have borders, and this is only going to finish 76.5" x 76.5" if I don't add borders. While I'm searching for border fabric, I'm also going to be on the lookout for binding and backing fabrics. Wouldn't it be great if I could make this for $2.50 plus stash fabrics?

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.
Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.

8 comments:

Jo said...

For the troubles you have had with the quilt at least it was cheap. It is VERY nice. I have wanted to make a trip around the world.

Chris said...

Super cute quilt for a mere $2.50.

Quilter Kathy said...

That is the best quilty deal ever!

Julie Kaye from KS said...

It looks great. I love how bright it is. What a terrific find.

Kate said...

Love the colors. It's a great quilt. Hopefully the blends won't give you any other trouble.

AnnieO said...

Great save--I can't believe it was only $2.50! Even if you don't like the blend, it hasn't detracted from the design at all. Hope you find something terrific in your stash, that would be the topper!

Gari in AL said...

What a great kids or comfort quilt. I get lots of "giveaway" fabric that I can't always identify the content but I know that the children who get the completed quilt won't care a bit. Great job.

Alycia said...

I think that is awesome! And it will be beautiful!