Tag: quilting with rectangles

Turkey Tracks:  April 27, 2008

Quilting the Last of the Rectangles

For those of you following The Scrappy Quilting Project progress, I’ve used up the last of the 2 by 3 1/2-inch rectangles I have been cutting for over 10 years.  I had BAGS of them–all ready to be used.

This quilt, as yet unnamed, is on Lucy, the longarm right now:

I really like this quilt.  I’ve always wanted to make a bar-type quilt, and I like the “Chinese Coin” bar arrangement.

I have another set of the rectangles in shades of cream that I’ve sewn into this same kind of barred formation.  Hmmmm.  They look good with browns:

I took the very last rectangles and made them into eight funky placemats, using fabrics from my stash for borders, backings, and bindings.  They turned out to be surprisingly cute.  And, given the experience of other placemats I’ve made, they will last forever and only get prettier as they get worn.

These placemats, I discovered, do best when they are NOT overquilted.  Here’s one that is overquilted, so you can see what I mean.  These placemats are reversible, so this one looks great on the other side!  Anyway, a simple meander works better, given all the color and scrappiness.

I paired the placemats with an array of different-colored napkins and some cute napkin rings (brass chickens) and sent them off to the four older grandchildren in Charleston.  There are six for the family and two for me and John–which was a nice way to signaling to the children that we are coming to visit soon.  Wilhelmina, the four-year old, got this concept right away.  My reward was a big belly laugh from her.

Here’s the picture I got back from Tami of the placemats on her table–as arranged by Talula:

I had told Talula that I was making something for her when I talked to her about the quilt she helped make for me.  And, I called and told her the “something” was in the mail.  She was so excited when the package arrived.  She called me right away, and we discussed who was to get which placemat, which one she liked best, and could I help her make some in the near future.  When she comes next, I’ll turn her loose with rectangles, some pins, and see what she designs on the design board in my quilting room.  Then we can sew some placemats together.  She will be old enough to operate the sewing machine before we know it.

She was so excited that the chicken napkin rings almost got lost.  They were at the bottom of the package in a plastic bag.  I can see from this picture Talula has used some of their napkin rings.

So, here’s what’s left of the rectangles at this point…

Except for some rectangles I put aside for another project…

And, except for the ones I’ve cut in the past few weeks…