The Quilt Size Dilemma

I'm working on a new pattern. It's been years since my last one! 

From experience I know that quilters like choices, so I've been researching quilt sizes in order to offer multiple size options.

Wow, is that a jungle to wade through!

First off, "ranges" are hard to do for anything that actually has to go on a bed. I think for beds you have to figure out the mattress size, then how much of a "drop" you want and do the math from there.

But even that is NOT easy. I'd never heard of a "Wyoming King" or "Alaska King".

Olympic Queen? Maybe, but doesn't that sound like the name of a riverboat? California anything? Yes. XL? Yes.

In short, I'm still trying to figure this out. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, a sneak peek at the pattern.

Scraps

One of my 2024 goals is to significantly reduce all my scraps. What do you classify as "scraps"?

Over here, anything that is too small to fold and put away is a scrap. I also don't save very small pieces of fabric.  I have friends who will gladly adopt these.

My first step was to take ALL the scraps and cut them into 2.5" wide jelly roll strips. I was AMAZED at how many strips I ended up with! I then sorted them by color because I am not a "just grab one" kind of girl. "Intentional scrappy-ness" is more my kind of thing.

Our guild donates hundreds of quilts to local charities each year.  That, combined with the fact that I'm getting a new quilting machine soon (stay tuned for a post full of excitement) and will need some quilt tops to practice on, kicked me into gear.

The first quilt was one I posted a couple of weeks ago, inspired by one I saw at show-and-tell at a guild meeting. I love it but it took a LONG time to put together.

So, the search began for a simpler pattern or two.  Pinterest is a mecca of jelly roll quilt inspiration.

Up first, the Color Stack quilt from Jennifer at Hopeful Homemaker.

Here's the result:

It took about a day to piece and I kind of love it! Her tutorial is great but, if you don't feel like figuring it out yourself, there is a pattern.

Being someone who does not like repeating things and gets bored really quickly, I am now on the hunt for the next idea.

Stay tuned.

Challenges are fun!

I recently joined another small group, the focus of which is to challenge your creativity. And it's so much fun!

Every quarter someone from the group presents a challenge word or phrase and we have 3 months to make a little quilt interpreting that phrase. We are restricted to a maximum size of 20" x 20".

Sometimes I'm really inspired, sometimes not so much.

These are my quilts from the last 3 challenges:

"Round and Around We Go"

"Slow"

"Twisted Triangles"

I encourage you to challenge yourself! You'll be amazed at how creative you are, even if you think you're not.