Strip-Pieced Quilts

I need to use my fabric stash, and I need to use lots of it.  I have lots of strips pre-cut.  I didn't want to spend time deciding on a pattern and cutting out small pieces and sewing them back together. Using some strips I had cut and cutting a few more, I just sewed strips together until I had enough for a good-sized couch throw.  Put a few borders around it and viola, I had a quilt top. Loaded it on the frame, did free-motion quilting, sewed the binding onto the back, and topstitched it to the front. 

I never thought I could learn anything from a redneck in a plaid flannel shirt with the sleeves torn out, but Larry, the Cable Guy, taught me that there are some things in life that fall into the category of GRD - Git-R-Done.  These are my GRD quilts. I enjoy making them a lot and most of the quilt I make from now on will be GRD utility quilts for people to use.  I've made more than my share of "show" quilts and wallhangings that took weeks or months to do.  No more.  Life is too short and I've got way too much fabric.

Several friends of mine are active in a local Quilts of Valor group that makes quilts for service men and women.  The man who mows our lawn has a daughter who served in Iraq.  I made a scrap rail fence quilt for her and wanted to give it to the group to give to her.  I found out that the group ONLY does hand-quilted quilts and won't accept anything else.  Well, I haven't hand quilted since 1991 and don't intend to.  This is part of that life's-too-short thing.  I quilted this in a day on my longarm machine.  Last month I gave the quilt to Randy to give to his daughter.  He said they'd see her at Christmas.  Christmas!  This was August!  Seems Lauren had moved from Missouri to Maryland and Randy and his wife will be making the trip. 

I love this quilt and will be making another one or two.  The fabrics and colors just sparkle next to each other.  Scrap quilts are my favorite type to make and have been for years.  It was fast, fun, easy, and I have tons of strips already cut.  For those non-quilters, scrap quilts aren't necessarily made with scraps left over from other projects.  It just means that a lot of different fabrics were used.  This quilt probably has between 75 and 100 different fabrics.  Some were really strips left over from previous quilts, but many were cut specifically for the quilt (heavy on the red and pink to girlie it up a little), with many extra strips cut and put in my strip drawers for future quilts.  It may sound crazy, but that's just how we are.  Nobody needs to comment on that "crazy" part. We prefer creative and inspired.