Tops for Donation (& some math)

Here are a few tops I have decided to donate. I really have lots of tops and I have neither the talent or the money to get them quilted. A very nice lady that I know belongs to a guild that makes quilts for different charities, so I decided to donate these. The first two are a large throw size and the third is twin sized. 

I used 3" strips from my scrap bin to sew this up "jelly roll race" style. You can get an idea here about how these work. I didn't piece my strips on the diagonal- much easier that way. I used mostly fabric from thrift store shirts, so this one is more masculine. 

If you want to do this with strips you already have, to get the length of the initial strip, just do this simple math: 

Decide what size quilt you want- for example a twin is about 75 x 98.  Multiply the length by width to get 7350.  Divide that by the number of inches in the finished strip. Example: a jelly roll is 2 1/2 inches wide but that finishes at 2" after a quarter inch seam allowance. So, 7350 divided by 2 is 3675 inches.  Divide that by 36 to get yards and that makes it 102.08- make it an even 102 yards.   

length X width = A

finished strip size = B

A divided by B divided by 36 = number of yards

You can plug in the numbers if you wanted to use 3, or 3 1/2 or 4 inch strips- It works with any size.  (I had a little trouble figuring this out at first, so if you still need help, call a friend who is good at math).  

 

This used up a jelly roll that someone gave me- it was fun working with the bright colors that matched! The pattern is called "Strip This Quilt" from  Judi over @ Green Fairy Quilts.  Check out her blog- she is a very talented and does some of the most amazing quilting.

 

Here is another that used 3" strips, but in between, I sewed in 3" squares to give it a little different look (and to use up some of my overflowing 3" squares box.)  These were just the more "girly" strips that were left over after making the plaid quilt above. The strips were mostly 12- 36 inches- anything goes!

Anyone who loves to piece and has have tons of fabric or tops that they can stand to part with, you may consider donating to your local guild. I'm sure they have members who would be more than happy to finish them for a good cause. 

Drunkard's Path Quilt... Finished!

I would like to show off a finish- since they are few and far between...

This block was made with the quick curve ruler from Jenny @ Sew Kind of Wonderful. She has designed the ruler and also many patterns to go along with them- more like sew kind of clever!  Check out her blog too, she has lots of neat tutorials and free patterns. She just completed a Double Wedding Ring that I can't wait to try.

You can do so many configurations with this easy light/dark block.  I went with the one on the right.  I made it scrappy because, frankly, I wasn't sure I would be able to make the curved seam. It looks very intimidating. I purchased the ruler over a year ago and never did anything with it.

Anyway, I dug through my scraps because I didn't want to mess up any "good" fabric. Then once it turned out OK, I didn't want to toss any good curvy blocks, so I used them all. I think it turned out really nice.

Here are some close-ups of the quilting.  I just backed it with flannel and didn't use batting and quilted about 1/2 inch from the seams.

It looks like window panes on the back.

I love this red binding- came from Wal-mart on clearance- and also got it in pink, cheddar and lime.

Thanks for stopping by!