Quickest Quilt of All Time...

 

When visiting our local Cowboy Church recently, I learned that a group of members were planning a mission trip to Alaska this summer and were doing some fundraising. My impulsive response was to say, "If I can get my act together and make a quilt, would you want to use it in your fundraising?" They responded with an enthusiastic, "Yes!". I gulped and began thinking of what I could make that would be quick enough to get to them in time. The answer came in a look through my fabric stash. I'd had this Riley Blake fabric panel called Back of the Chutes for some time. Plus I had an entire storage tote containing these completed blocks. So it was a simple matter of a little bit of math, choosing some complimentary blocks and bordering the panel with them. The quilt went out to longarm quilter Debra Johnston who turned it around in record time, and Voila!- the quilt I titled "Rodeo Days" was done. The panel itself does the design work, and of course it was very appealing to the members of a Cowboy Church, among others! 

I thought I'd show you the easy blocks used in the border. Several years ago Emily Schaefer, a now-late member of a local quilt guild, presented a program on using up scraps in a fabric stash. She encouraged us to cut and sort scraps by size and color so they are ready to use in a quilt project. She was the Scrap Quilt Queen.  I took her words to heart and spent a happy afternoon sorting, pressing and cutting fabrics into 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" strips. 

I then organized the strips into groups- four of one print, and one of a second print- so they were ready to sew into rectangular blocks. I was not overly careful about colors, but there is an innate sense of making things look somewhat cohesive.

I kept a zippered tote of the pieces next to the sewing machine. Then, in the manner of notable quilter Bonnie Hunter who developed the concept of "leaders and enders", I sewed a seam on these strips each time I completed a seam on another project. It's helpful to have something "under the needle" to chain sew and prevent an abundance of thread ends. It also keeps the machine from chewing up the beginning or end of a seam, so it worked very smoothly. And the bonus is that I was completing blocks periodically. Here's a pile of blocks ready for another project. Having them on hand really added to the speed with which I was able to assemble "Rodeo Days". So there's a scrappy idea for you if you have plentiful fabric scraps. There are so many pretty panels available now, that a quick baby quilt or holiday project can be done on a moment's notice! It was just what I needed.