Saturday, March 20, 2010

Green and Purple Continous Strip

Did I do any quilting at this quilt retreat? Thursday evening I pieced the President's block. Friday morning I pieced the mystery block for retreat, no picture. Friday afternoon I worked on Ocean Wave alternate blocks, they continue to come out *wonky* due to bias edges, a pressure foot that allows too much skating, poor trimming; you name it, frustration continues.

Saturday I jumped into some no-think-um sewing; started and finished another Continuous Strip quilt; this time I used a 2" strip instead of 2 1/2" and it took 4 hours of sewing to piece the top. Fun!


The color palette, strips pulled from my 2" precut strip bin


Joining the strips on the diagonal


Four strips wide


Sixteen strips wide


32 strips wide

I love it! And I always enjoy seeing where the colors fall since the method creates a free-style placement of fabrics. Several ladies at retreat wanted to know how to make a quilt like this so here are a few details.

For this quilt, which measures 41" x 44" you'll need to sew one continuous strip 2 inches wide by 35-36 yards long. To begin, take left over fabrics from a variety of projects, cut them into 2" wide strips of random lengths. Any length will work, but I don't use anything over 22" because it adds more variety. Decide on a color scheme for your quilt and select a big pile of strips from your strip bin to match that palette. Join the ends of the strips on the diagonal, easy how-to here. Press the diagonal seams to one side, then fold the strip RST, sew down the entire length on one side. Cut the bottom open and press the seam to one side. Fold the strip again RST, sew down the entire length. Cut the bottom open. Continue to fold, sew and cut open; when your quilt is 16 strips wide, the strips run vertical; when you fold RST and sew the two 16s together, the strips will run horizontal and your quilt top is done. This method always creates a square-ish quilt. There are more pictures and how-tos in January 2010 post and March 2009. Judy and Patty, I hope this helps!

2 comments:

Fabricfaire said...

Those "strip" quilts are contagious!

Lena Möre said...

A most wonderful retreat!
What kind of birds do you show us in the blog?