Sunday, March 20, 2011

Strip Tease

Except for burying a few thread tails, my Strip Tease quilt is finished. It's not a pretty quilt, nor was it meant to be; but it turned out nicely just the same. It is a collection of fabrics that either I didn't like, didn't want, or couldn't figure out how to use in a project.

This is a very old ufo, started ten or more years ago as a project with an online group. Then it evolved into a quilt meant for my two little dachshunds. Both my dogs passed away a few years back, so now I'm giving it a local shelter that is trying to replace bed coverings on 17 of their twin beds.

The quilt was surprisingly easy to put together. I sewed strip sets with four strips to a set, then cut the diamonds from the strip sets. Next I sewed the diamonds together in long rows, as long as the bed it was meant for. Then the rows were sewn together. The seams nest together perfectly, so the rows are a cinch to sew.

The photo above shows the top before I trimmed up the ends. I guess I didn't think it needed a border, so there's none on there.

I used Bonnie Hunter's idea of sewing together 10-inch squares for the backing, which gave me the opportunity to use up more un-beautiful fabric. Same thing with the binding--I used half a dozen different dark green strips and sewed them all together.

At the end of Bonnie's article here about her scrap user's system, she explains the rationale for using 10-inch squares for a quilt back.

I used up just over 12-1/2 yards of fabric in this quilt, so it was a good stashbuster too. I plan to make another sometime soon, as there is no shortage of ugly fabric at my house.

The pantograph I used is one of Keryn Emmerson's, called Lida. First time I've used it, and I really like it.

8 comments:

Jan said...

I love this post, and also have a seemingly unending supply of ugly fabric. I made Bonnie's Bargello quilt with mine, and I can't decide if it's hideous, or not so bad!

Lynette said...

Hey, this is really cool! I'll have to do something like this next year to bust up some not-so-loved stash pieces!

Purple Pam said...

Your scrappy quilt is great. I have some of those fabrics. I think of those fabrics as ones that need a "lot" of love! I use strips from those fabrics in Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Bargello pattern. I really like that pattern. I find that it works up quickly, too.

Julie Fukuda said...

Gee those don't look so ugly to me. And all those bias cut pieces meeting at the points ... love the back too.

FeatherDuster said...

I can see why some of those fabrics were your "un-favorites" but the over-all effect is great. :-)

Sheila said...

Your quilt is fabulous! I was a member of that group and always loved this pattern. (Loved all of them, actually... too bad it went by the wayside.)

Vicki W said...

What a great scrap quilt!

jovaliquilts said...

It's terrific! Even if you don't much like the fabrics, when you put them all together, they look good.