Lots of Strips

I've been wanting to make a quilt from Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle's patterns for awhile now. I've found the colorwork a little daunting in most of them, as they do such amazing work with color. The designs and techniques aren't particularly challenging, but deciding what fabrics to use is the biggest challenge.That being said, choosing fabrics is also often the most fun part of a quilt for me. I finally was able to pick out fabrics for their pattern "Out of Line". It's found in the Quiltmaker's Color Workshop. It's for a family friend of mine, who is an artist himself. I told him that I would trade him a painting for a quilt. Knowing that I love his work and his colorwork, I wanted the quilt to be something special. So I picked this pattern that involves focusing on proportions of color and using them in the right places. I can't post copyrighted material here, but if you go to Amazon and view the book, you can search inside the book and see the pattern.

The trick is, the pattern involves a lot of strips! 155, to be exact. And they all have to be sewn together. So it's a lot of straight sewing and pressing, which is ok, I just know it's going to take me awhile.



I don't mind strips so much, but these are very narrow. They range in size from 3/4 inch to 1-3/4 inches. So you can imagine it's not for the faint of heart. I'm enjoying it so far...I get into a zen-like trance where I'm just sewing like crazy.

I won't be able to work on much quilting this weekend as I'm going to visit my in-laws. I'll finish the binding on the "long lines" quilt though. That'll be #7 for 2009.

I also recently found out that I'll be making another three baby quilts this year. I already have one in progress (x blocks baby quilt in the sidebar), but I got a request from a friend whose wife just gave birth, my coworker is pregnant, and a woman I sit next to in choir is pregnant too. Three announcements in one week! I feel like I should just stockpile quilts so that I'll be ready for any baby shower. :)