Something old to something new

       During the cleanup of my fabric bins and scrap baskets, I found a number of finished blocks left over from earlier quilts.   I found so many flying geese units (many already sewn together) that I am not sure I even made a quilt with these.  These may be from an abandoned project, but not for long!   I took the sewn units apart, pressed them all, and have a plan for them, having seen some pictures of crazy flying geese quilts where the geese fly all over the quilt, instead of in the normal straight lines.   



Flying geese blocks that I had sewn together



Here are some of the flying geese taken apart



The flying geese on the design wall

      But, the flying geese quilt will have to wait. 

     My first leftover project is a quilt using these fence rail blocks, which were the remnants of several baby quilts I made for nieces and nephews.    I saw a baby quilt featured in a recent Fons & Porter magazine, and being inspired, decided to try my hand at a scalloped border quilt using up these leftovers.

Leftover blocks from various baby quilts

Close-up from a baby quilt from 2002

The full baby quilt



Jackson's baby quilt from 2012

        I sewed together the various blocks and then decided to make long strips of different widths and go with white as the background.  I like to put frames around center designs, and I found a light yellow fabric in my bins that seemed just right.  



The blocks sewn together provided material for two new quilts

The strips cut into two lengths  (3 1/2 and 1 1/2 inches) divided by white sashing

Adding the yellow frame

      I put a 6-inch white border around the framed piece, and will soon add the backing and will quilt it and try the scalloped border.  

The completed front of the quilt

      I also found a yellow fabric that I didn't really care for, and pulled it out to use as part of the backing. Does anyone else use unwanted and unloved fabrics for backing? I realized, however, that while I really disliked the yellow stiped fabric in any large quantity - it might make a wonderful binding. I love striped or polka dot bindings!   

The yellow stripe that will soon be the binding

    I plan to finish this quilt up soon. 

Take care,

Gretchen