Planning and Cutting

But first, we have our internet/TV/home phone restored, YAY!!! Everything mysteriously came back a little after 9:00 last night. I didn't realize how much I'd miss it all until we didn't have it.  

I spent Friday working off-line in EQ and prepping for a new project. DH wants a flannel quilt, and I'll need to get started soon to have it finished for his b-day in November. 

I've been saving his old shirts that are too frayed to wear anymore, and I bought some cuts of flannel in Paducah recently. I played in EQ, came up with a plan, and spent Friday cutting. First, though, I ran the new fabrics through a couple of hot water/high heat dry cycles to preshrink them as much as possible, since the shirts were already well washed and shrunk. Do you have any idea how much lint that preshrinking process generated?!!!  I should have taken a photo. 

I used the die cutter DH recently gave me and was able to make a test block that went together well. Does anyone recall the name of this block?

On Friday I spent most of the day cutting. With no internet or TV, I had nothing better to do, right? 

I cut

• Lights and darks for at least 140 HSTs 
• 70 light squares
• 105 dark squares

With the die cutter, it went well and my day was very productive. I now have everything cut and kitted up in a project box for upcoming sew days with friends. I even got started on some of the HSTs, which came out just right with no trimming needed. What a time-saver!

See that red plaid on the lower right? That's from DH's all-time most favorite shirt, an LLBean shirt that he got more than 20 years of wear out of. We have a photo of him wearing it in 1989, and we didn't take that shirt out of the rotation until after he started wearing a beard in 2012, when the collar became too frayed to wear anymore. Yes, the fabric's a little thinner than the newly bought flannels, but so what, this is a quilt for him to use, not an heirloom. 

So here's the plan, as drawn in EQ, 12" blocks with 4" borders, 68 x 80" before quilting. 

DH has specifically requested wool batting, and I'll use the leftover shirt backs and flannel yardage to piece the backing. This quilt may not be a beauty, but it'll sure be cuddly. 

So as the saying goes, I have my work cut out for me. I'm looking forward to a sew day and camp weekend with friends where I can work on piecing the blocks. 

Since Judy L. has retired from hosting Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times, another Judy has taken over. Check out everyone's Design Wall Monday posts at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Also linking  up with Em's Scrapbag and Love Laugh Quilt