Monday, June 19, 2017

Churning the Community Quilt Stash


It's usually pretty obvious that I'm avoiding a project when I start working on something that should be pretty uninspiring.  Right now, I am avoiding some intensive auditioning with the Indians' panel blocks by using up some challenging fabric in the guild donation bins.


I received the fabric bins for our community quilts and luckily my share of this process only includes a bin of guild-made kits, a bin of fabrics sorted into theme bags, and two shallow containers that I haul to guild meetings so people can pick quilt kits or Red Cross bag kits at each meeting.


I dug through the fabric bin in preparation for a guild charity sew in and there was a bag of orphaned items that were difficult to "kit" or pair fabrics with.  A couple of things caught my eye including a pretty but skinny Alphabet Zoo panel and some bright but homely offcuts of a floral stripe in odd sizes.


I pulled out an oddly large chunk of a vintage ESF giraffe print and did a simple layout to incorporate a small stack of alphabet print blocks with the panel.  I wasn't aiming for a square top but, at least it is a useable size for one of our donation sites.


I also dug through the bin to find enough yardage in blues, pinks and florals to make 5 tops that are variations of this.  The kits that the guild makes include simple squares like this, bricks, rail fence, and semi-coordinated jelly rolls.


Of course, I thought I would make a dent in the bin with these but, not so much.  There are some coordinated school and ABC fabrics that are calling out for some yellow and red so I may tackle that next.  There's always a steady supply of Christmas, too.  None of this sewing is as challenging as the work that the Wednesday group in Willoughby does with blocks and spare parts but, hopefully, I'm keeping the fabric supply churning for our community quilts.