Sew Fast

I've had this quilt top rolling around in the back of my mind ever since I saw the cover of this Country Living July/Aug 2011. This came out right at the time of the Infinite Variety Red & White show in NYC. Even after seeing 651 R & W pieces at the show, this one has always occupied a corner of my mind.

My Dad was coming to visit a couple of weeks ago so I scurried to get the spare room all tidied up. This entailed sorting through a stack of quilting magazines.  In the process of doing this, I ended up in my sewing room making a test block!  RJR solids in French Vanilla and Saffron.  *edit* I missed the color name.

I've written out a road map for this quilt, I am making 6" finished blocks, the sashing will be 3" finished, the inner border will be 3" and the outer border will be 8". This means I need 256 - 2.5" cream squares and 64 center squares.

Thank goodness for innovation and Accuquilt and Fabric Etc in Bellingham. It cuts 5 - 2 1/2" strips and you can stack your fabric 8 layers deep.

Flip them around and run the tray through the cutter again and voila, you have 240 perfectly cut squares. I am making the 1/4 sq triangles using Thangles, super accurate.  Wow, like that, and I have my quilt almost all cut out.  Seriously, this is amazing and Carol rents time on this machine for anyone.  She has lots of dies to choose from.  Check it out for your next project, it just might be the trick to move your  project forward.

When this is finished, it will be about 100 x 100.  Unless I decide to not add borders. But I like borders.  I'll probably end up with another 100 x 100 quilt.  But wouldn't this 2 color block make a great baby blanket?
This will be a long term project, one of those quilts that you can work on at any time for just a few minutes,   a perfect time filler or leader/ender block sitting on the side of my sewing table.

Fabric Etc was hopping while I was there today, everyone looking at new projects.  What new project did you start this weekend?
Sharon