Quilt-A-Long!

in other quilty news....

i jumped into Fat Quarterly's Quilt-A-Long!



i've been working on so much stuff that's required planning and thought and MATH lately that i was super into the idea of a project that had instructions and would be simple to do, and when i ran across it, i instantly wanted to join in. i started late, but i'm almost caught up!

the first blog post talks about what materials you'll need, the second post a week later gives you cutting instructions, in the third post they gave the assembly instructions, and yesterday's post was the top assembly.

i've spent a bit too much on fabric lately, so i didn't want to go buy more, but i really wanted to use fabrics that fit together, ya know? the idea was to use a jell roll or fat quarters, but none of the quilt stores near me sell jelly rolls, and since i was already late i didn't have time for shipping anyway. and i didn't feel like my fat quarters were cohesive enough.

someone at the guild meeting on thursday showed a piece they were working on using vintage sheets, and a lightbulb went off in my head! of course! i have TONS of vintage sheets, because i've been collecting them for a few years now (i even joined a swap of vintage sheet fat quarters last year!). i keep planning on making quilts with them, but never seem to think of them when i'm starting a new project. though they're different colour schemes, most of them are fairly similar in style, perfect for this quilt!

so i off i went to my parent's house, where the majority of my fabric is stored, and i went through my sheets and pillowcases. this quilt uses so little of each fabric, really, and since i have about 2 rubbermaids full, i had lots of variety! i skipped goldy yellow/green/brown toned sheets, and any that had super flower powery bold prints, and still ended up with a great selection.

this is where i was at yesterday afternoon -

my 39 finished blocks


and the remaining 41


by the time i went to bed last night, i'd finished sewing the last 41 blocks, but they still need to be pressed. (that's tonight's job) then i'll need to plot out which ones will go where, and start sewing the rows! some folks in the fat quarterly flickr group are talking about rotating every second block, to reduce bulk at the joins, and i think i like that idea... we'll see!