Some Pseudo-Hack-Job Quilts

After we moved, my husband (Charles) told me that I needed to start working through some of the fabric in my stash so he won't have to move it again when we move back to our old place (in t-minus 7 months now). I have bolts and boxes of fabric that someone(s) donated to our local Project Linus chapter. Most of the stuff on bolts is REALLY ugly and a lot the stuff in boxes is in pieces too small to use for a quilt-back. I told the boss-lady (Our chapter coordinator, Kathy) that I would do my best to work through some of it. That was over a year ago.

I also have boxes of fabric I got from some new freecycle friends (Thank You, Nancy and Jessica!). Among the fabric they gave me were a bunch of pre-cut 5.5 inch squares. I'm keeping my favorites to make quilts for my kids but figured I'd use a lot of the fabric they gave me for Project Linus quilts. Hey, it was given to me, so I don't mind giving it away.

With this in mind, I decided to get as many quilts as possible done so I can get some of this stuff out the door. Luckily, Kathy said some of the blanket-making groups that meet monthly can help with finishing the quilts (since I seem to have a quilt-tying aversion these days). So, this week I've been making tops like a mad-woman, finishing UFOs, and washing up fray quilts that have been sitting in a bag for a long time. The name of the game is use only what's on hand (no buying anything else!)

First up, we have the UFO twins. This one I finished...

This one I just did the top. Sadly, I don't have anything very great for the back. It's an ugly mauve print....but whatever, it's a back, right?


Next, we have two random I-spy-ish quilt tops from the pre-cut squares Nancy and Jessica gave me. This one is smaller and just has boyish fabric. The back will be light blue flannel.


And a twin-sized one that includes some girly prints. I have a salmon-colored sheet I got on clearance somewhere for the back of this one.


Some other random freecycle person gave me a box of fabric like 5 years ago. Among the stuff they gave me was a Raggedy Ann/Andy print. This quilt uses a big piece of that for the back and smaller pieces, along with the stripes, for the top. I think this is probably the most hideous quilt I have ever made.

This is just one I threw together to try to get through some juvenile flannel someone donated.

And now for the fray quilts:

I put this one together trying to work through some of the smaller pieces of flannel I have around.


I actually really like how this one turned out. It has some really random flannel on the back (that's jewelry or something you see there...and you wonder why someone gave this fabric away?) I think I like the way fray quilts with finished edges look.


You see what I mean about bolts of ugly fabric? Unfortunately, this isn't the worst of it (I can't even think of how to use some of it, it's so ugly.)


And one I mostly like. This was a lot cuter in my head but I didn't have enough of the plain pink flannel and ended up piecing the sashing. The really sad thing about this quilt is that the only thing I have for the back is a big piece of that ugly Powerpuff Girl fabric from the quilt above.

And last, but not least, a shout-out to my awesome engineering-er-ific husband. When I washed the fray quilts, I also washed the first twinner quilt, which is backed with some lousy walmart flannel. Needless to say, it looked awful coming out of the dryer. I told Charles I wished I had a lint roller....he swore up and down that I had one...and then went and thought up something better!

This is my rolling pin, wrapped with packing tape sticky-side out.

Clara's Baby Quilt

Ta-da! Here is the quilt I gave to my sister-in-law Clara at her baby shower last weekend. After I pieced it, I decided that tying it would ruin how it looked (plus, I'm really not in the mood to tie quilts these days), so I just stitched in the ditch on my sewing machine using a walking foot. It's no pro-job, but I thought it turned out okay...there's a little bit of fabric shearing in a few places...but it looks better than I thought it would. Considering that I didn't use high-quality fabric, I don't expect that it will last forever but it should do the trick for a few years, at least.

The funny thing about this quilt is that it is the one that convinced me that my husband's aunt was right. When I first started quilting, I got SO bent out of shape when she said, "I feel sorry for people who try to quilt on the cheap." I thought she was just being snooty at the time (this is the woman who has a cedar ROOM to store all her fabric in). Now, I get it, though. I made this quilt on the heals of making several block-of-the-month blocks with quilt shop quality fabrics and I have to say...there IS a difference. I still intend to use up my stash of discount-store fabrics but I'm going to try to just buy good stuff in the future.

Clara's quilt!

Unfortunately, I didn't even think about getting a picture of her with it at the baby shower. Oh well!