Did you see Bonnie  Hunter’s find in Nashville?  I LOVE that flying geese quilt.  But then I love flying geese 🙂

Based on Bonnie’s photos, I’ve drawn this classic quilt in EQ. That’s 480 flying geese, each finishing at 1 1/2″ x 3″ for the sashing around 9″ navy/midnight squares.  The quilt will finish roughly at 70″ x 88″

I’ve got too many shirts for my space, so I’ve got to use them up.  So this afternoon I made a few geese to see how they’ll look in the plaids.  I think they’ll do.

I’ve made four of each since I plan on using the Quilt-in-a-Day flying geese ruler.  When I need to make tons of geese this ruler allows me to make then quickly and precisely.  Of course every quilt and quilter is different, so it is always important to know more than one way to do things.

According to my calculations, I’ll need 120 plaid 4 1/2″ squares. They’ll be scrappy of course, so no yardage to calculate.  I’ll need to get 3 1/2 yards of the blue — I think I’ll bind it in the blue – and 1/2 yard of the orange.  Oh, the sky fabric?  About 3 1/3 yards.  I should be able to find it in my  big bag of muslin.

I’ll work on the geese and then seek out the navy and orange fabric.

This week, in addition to playing with the treadle machine, I cut 2 1/2″ strips into 16″ lengths to make Scrappy Trips, a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  I have no idea how many strips I’ve crammed in to the shoe box.  My original intent was to use a 40 strip set, but then realized the resulting quilt would only be 30″ x 40″ and I want a larger quilt — closer to 60″ x 80″.

So, I pulled the 2 1/2″ strip box out, and started cutting 16″ strips of fabrics I thought would play nicely with the original strips.   I kept cutting until I was out of strips, then pulled out the “scraps” my friends gave me a week ago since those colors play nicely with the original fabrics.

I’ll count this fabric when I get the quilt made.  So, nothing out, and nothing in either.  Although it was tempting to run back to JoAnn’s yesterday afternoon.  My sister and I ran over there to get border and backing fabric for the quilt she’s working on and when we got it home I thought the purple she bought would be a great border for the floral quilt I made a couple of weeks ago.  I tell myself it’s big enough for a child (it’s 48 x 60), but then at the same time, I know I prefer to make quilts in the 60 x 70/80 range.  I could pull more florals from my stash and make another 10 blocks and the quilt would by 60 x 72.

So, the numbers:

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 80.11 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 23.141  yards

Net Used for the year -56.97 yards

To see how others are doing check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

For this week’s ingredient of Ranch Dressing Mix I made Zesty Ranch Crackers.  Well, actually, my young quilting friend made them.  I manned the camera.

I originally found this recipe on a quilting blog I read. The quilter got the recipe when she went to a retreat or sew-in.  Naturally I can’t find the posting to give credit, but I have seen the recipe in numerous other places.

What you need:

• 3 sleeves of unsalted tops saltine crackers
• 1 pkg ranch dressing mix
• 1 pkg Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup canola oil
• Large mixing bowl with sealable lid

Pour oil into bowl.  Add dressing mixes, pepper flakes and mix well.  Slide in crackers. Seal bowl, gently flip bowl two or three times to coat crackers.  Flip bowl every 15 – 20 minutes until the oil is absorbed.

If there are any crackers left store in dry air tight container.  I only got about 3 or 4 from this batch.  They were supposed to go home with my friend, but I don’t know if they made it.

To see what others did with their Ranch Dressing Mix hop over to Patchwork Times.

This evening I finish kitting up the blocks for Nifty Thrifty from Scraps & Shirtails by Bonnie Hunter.  My quilt will only have 20 blocks in it.  Unless I change my mind.  Since I’m not going to start piecing this one until my summer quilt retreat, that could happen.

I’ve bagged the book and fabric and put it in my box of UFOs.  I’m putting the information here because I’m sure I’ll be turning the whole room upside down when I go to look for it.

My main design wall is bare today.  I finished quilting Checkerboard Plaid Saturday (finished the quilt, binding and pillowcase before the book I was listening to) which is what I’m showing today.  I took a picture of it hanging, but the lighting was terrible and it was hanging funny.  But I have to say I’m impressed the with holding talents of my niece and her fiance.

The quilt is Checkerboard Plaid from Evelyn Sloppy’s 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts.  Most, but not all of the plaids are from recycled shirts. There are a couple of homespuns in the mix because when I started the quilt I didn’t have the shirts that I have now. The off white is a muslin bought/given to my mom in about 1991/1992.

It is quilted simply 1/4″ on either side of each seam (click on the picture to see the quilting).

It’s bound in a dark green “marble” type print I bought at Hancock fabrics around 2005.  The backing is a 60″ wide tiny windowpane.  I ended up with a whole bolt of if in 2008 for about $15.

In addition to the quilt I made a coordinating pillowcase.  The body is the backing, the wide portion of the cuff is the back of a shirt (there’s some of that fabric in the quilt as well) and the narrow band is Luninosity Prismaglass in Red.

Quilt Statistics

• Top Started 10/14/12
• Top Completed 10/28/12
• Quilting Started 3/25/13
• Quilting Finished, Bound, Labeled and Washed 3/30/13
• Measures 67″ x 81″
• Warm and Natural Batting
• Quilted on my DSM
• Superior Omni Thread – Light Tan in top and bottom
• 11 1/4 yards fabric for quilt and pillowcase

To see what others have on their design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

This week I’ve got both fabric in and fabric out — which actually made it into a quilt — not just passed to someone else!

The inbound fabric is pictured on the post from Friday.  The outbound fabric is the backing, binding, and pillowcase for Checkerboard Plaids, plus the floral blocks I made to complete the floral top.  I really need a better name for that quilt.

So, the numbers are as follows:

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 14.0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 80.11 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 6.363 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 23.141  yards

Net Used for the year -56.97 yards

Looks like I’m just short of being on track for using 100 yards of fabric this year.

To see how others are doing check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

No, this is not the same picture as the last post.  In this post all the blocks are sewn together.  The top is currently 48″ x 60″. I guess really that is a good size for a throw and I don’t know if border wouldn’t just look like I was trying to make it bigger.

So, I may just call this a top.

Sure enough it was quick enough to make 5 blocks.  I think this is the arrangement I’m going to use.  But first, it’s time to put the binding on Checkerboard Plaids.

Last weekend my quilting buddies went to a quilt retreat.  I had to stay home and work.  🙁  But it wasn’t a total disappointment.  One of the quilt shops they stopped at had  “scrap bags”.  They bought several bags and then divided up the fabric, bringing me what is pictured above.  🙂

With the exception of one FQ in the bottom row, everything is full width, including one piece which is 120″ wide.  There are a couple of pieces which are 5 or 6 inches long, but most are in the 9 – 12 inch range.  One of the red pieces is a yard long and the bundle on the right consists of 3 pieces totaling 3 yards! And to think this is “scrap”!

The scraps above the full cuts range from strings, to 9″ squares.  The white fabric on the top left looks like it excess backing.

I can’t wait to start playing with this fabric.  But first, I’ve got a quilt to finish.  I’m 3/4 of the way through the quilting and with the help of my quilting buddies have picked a binding and a pillowcase cuff – all from my stash.

These floral blocks which I found yesterday (and added to my UFO count!) got me inspired to figure out how to get this into a quilt top.  I have a whole box of florals that I tend to ignore.  So, this evening I pulled floral prints,  pink and lavender tone on tones and some white on white fabric.

With a few minutes (ok, perhaps an hour – had to pet the fabric) I now have 5 blocks kitted and ready to stitch.   Will this become a quilt top before April 15th?  Only time will tell.

Now back to my book on CD and quilting Checkerboard Plaids.  A few more 8 more passes then I’m half way done.