It’s been a long spring.  Covid-19 has sucked the life out of everything, especially my sewing and crafting.  I have worked on almost nothing since early March.  You would think with weeks and months of time and a huge stash that I would not lack for entertainment at home.  But the truth seems to be that going out inspires me to do more at home. I take inspiration from the people and events around me, from nature, from the city, from just being in a different space than the one I craft in.   Staying home has been squelching my desire to do anything.

I’ve been killing time cruising Pinterest, and looking at what other people have done.  I saw this fun and easy quilt project and thought it might be something I could manage.  Last year I bought a few rolls of 2.5″ strips, and I recently bought a pack of black and white strips from a local shop that was having an online sale.

It’s hard to tell in the photo but there are 42 strips in 3 colors, white, natural, and black.  The fabrics come in 5 prints, unless you count the natural ones, there are only 4 prints in that set.  I don’t know why they could not add 3 more strips and make it 45 pieces evenly distributed.  But this is not the fabric I chose.

 

I’m starting with some boring beige strips I got on clearance at JA.  Someone had unrolled them and they were a wadded mess.  At less than half price I was happy to take them home with me and iron them.   The fabric is pretty unappealing, a sort-of dirty hand-dyed look.  I can’t imagine the appeal for most quilters, but I like to take something ugly and make it better.

The best way to do that is to add more ugly. In this case some vintage calico eighths I bought at a quilt show a couple years ago.  Most of them had some kind of burgundy flowers –probably from the 80’s– and I tossed in a trio of peach prints I liked but haven’t found a use for.  Then to round it out, a contrast.  I selected a nice yellow-green textured remnant I had on top of a pile, and voila!

It will work, in the end.