More 2 1/2" loveliness

Crazy Mom has decided to run another one a day 9 patch virtual quilt along and seeing as I missed out last time, I thought I'd tag along. My enthusiasm seems to wain with quilt alongs (I still haven't quilted my Old Red Barn quilt!) but I loved the outcome of her previous one a day and I have lots 2 1/2" strip scraps so I have nothing to lose!
I thought the best method for me would be to cut a whole bunch of squares, mentally noting what fabric goes with what other fabric and then I could piece them in batches. Seeing as I work and as much as I'd love to see my sewing machine out full time (or have a dedicated sewing room....wouldn't that be bliss?), I'm not going to be able to manage one a day but rather batches of patches. I've spent the last couple of nights cutting and I just love these little squares all packed in this lunchbox. It never ceases to amaze me that little bits of fabric once joined become one swathe of fabric. Gorgeous.I've also finished the quilting on my 2 1/2" experimental quilt. I love the finished quilting...still a few threads to tie off. I 'ummed and arrgh'd' over the binding and finally decided not to spend any more money on the experiment and chose something from the stash. Sadly, it's too white against the calico. But seeing as it's an experiment and will probably either be a give away or shack quilt, I'm not fussing. Here it is all pinned and ready for the hand stitching.And speaking of the stash, here's a pic of R's old wardrobe. It's having a make-over! I've taken the doors off, removed the daggy odd mirror panels that I always hated and am having glass installed. I've ordered cornicing for the top and Joe made some shelves. This old wardrobe is now my quite tidy fabric stash cupboard! Let's see how long that lasts! Oh....and there's lots more room for more fabric too!

I'm dreaming of.....

little 2 1/2" squares and have had them running around in my head for weeks. So much so, I had to do something about it so a quick quilt experiment was in order. Mind you, don't assume that because a quilt is small, it's going to be quick! That was lesson 1.

I extracted 6 x jade colour strips from my existing Moda Sweet jelly rolls. I have two, so that gave me 12 strips each 2 1/2" wide. I pieced each strip with a 2 1/2" strip of calico. Then I cut each set of strips into 2 1/2" wide rectangles. Then I matched each rectangle with an upended partner to give me a square checkerboard block made up of 4 x 2 1/2" squares.

I laid them out as 8 blocks x 12 blocks and because my colours were limited, I opted for a patterned repeat rather than random mixing. That's where lesson 2 comes in. I really think an odd number would have given me a better size. Perhaps 9 blocks across x 11 blocks deep would have given me a squarer top rather than rectangle. So I should have tried a few more ways before I started stitching and of course, the size ends up completely different once stitched than when it was laid out on the floor!

I've almost finished piecing the blocks and will add to the sides with left over calico to square it up and maybe the top.

Lesson 3. It will still be gorgeous even if it's not exactly right and the next one will be even better!