Island Time Quilting: Nearly Two Years, but Little Has Changed

I would like to begin this blog with lots of false promises of "I'm back to stay!" and "I'll be posting regularly again," but I'm not going to do that. I think I have a few things to say today, maybe a bit later this week, and then I'll definitely have much to tell you when I get back from Texas with our next deployment with Quilts of Compassion. But I cannot promise a single thing beyond that. As evidenced by my blogging history, I have good intentions, but less follow-through. If you are truly interested in following what I do day-to-day, you should follow my Instagram account.

And so...time warp. I'm just going to pretend nothing of note has happened since January 2016, and just post today as if you are all caught up. If you are my dear friend and rely on this blog to know what is going on in my life--CALL ME.

In my latest quilting endeavors, I have a beautiful vintage client quilt in the frame.

I also have new design I've been testing called "Leftovers." I whipped up the design to use up fabric that was left over from another quilt, and it has taken on a life of its own. It's a great way to use a charm pack and a couple of yards of background fabric, so let me skip the preliminaries and give you the how-to.

Pictured: "Leftovers" laying on top of Swell (designed by Camille Roskelley of Thimbleblossoms), made from the remains of two Jolly Bars of Prairie and Sundrops from Corey Yoder for Moda Fabrics.

Fabric Requirements for your own version of Leftovers

1 charm pack
3 yards of a contrasting fabric for background, backing, and binding

at least 38" of background fabric
at least 55" of backing fabric
at least 12.5" of binding fabric

batting at least 40x50

Cutting instructions

1. Split your charm pack in half (two stacks 2.5" x 5").
2. Cut six 5" strips of your background fabric, then crosscut them into 1.5" x 5" rectangles.
*******
3. After your top is together, cut four strips (your choice of width) for borders.
4. Your backing needs to be about 55" long, and you can strip up the rest of your fabric for binding. You'll need 4-5 strips 2.5" wide for binding.

Sewing instructions

1. Chain piece all 42 2.5x5" rectangles in one stack with background fabric on each side. I don't clip my threads, and instead wait until after ironing and trimming at the cutting board to clip the sections apart. Speed is your friend.

2. Trim up each block to 4.5"x4.5" Use the first 42 to make 10 blocks, and chain piece them through the machine.

3. Repeat with the other half.

4. Web your top together.

5. Add borders to all four sides. I've made three quilts so far, and I've cut those borders 1.5", 2" and 2.5" and I like all three looks. I'm probably going to try 3" borders on the next one.