Design Wall at Social Sewing

Recently at PebbleCreek's quilting room, someone was giving away items from a quilter's estate. Among the things left over at the end was a baggie of 6" squares of Asian prints. Someone offered to take them and cut them up for dog bed stuffing if no one else wanted them. Since there seemed to be quite a few squares in the baggie, I said I'd take them and make a simple quilt for the hospice our group supports. 

There were about 50 squares in the baggie. I planned a simple checkerboard setting, something easy to put together during social sewing when I get together with others in the room. 

Although I could have used light prints from the club's stash, since this is a donation quilt for one of their approved charities, I found something in my own stash that's even better and that I'm happy to use here. It's a gold metallic print left over from one of the Cut and Shuffle book quilts I made in 2014. Many of the Asian prints have metallic in them, so this is perfect. 

After figuring out how many rows and columns I'd need, I sewed dark and light squares together, reserving enough for the ends of rows. Then I laid out the sewn pairs and the extra pieces on the design wall in the quilting room. 

Some of the girls in the room at the time offered suggestions about which prints to move where, so much rearranging was done before I had a final layout. Then I clipped the columns together, took it all off the wall, and assembled the top. 

It came out to about 50 by 60 inches, and I'd like it to be a little bigger if possible, so I searched through the club's stash for something suitable for a border. I only found one option, a large scale Asian print with metallic in it, but we all agreed it will work.

There's just enough to add borders all the way around that are half the width of the squares, bringing the size of the quilt up to about 55 by 65 inches. I think that will be okay for hospice. 

While I was working on this, a PCQ member that I hadn't met yet came up to me and asked about the squares. Turns out, during the destashing, she had taken the baggie, taken a few of the squares that she wanted, and returned the baggie. She wanted to see what I was doing with the "leftover" squares. We had a great conversation for awhile, and I learned that she's one of the teachers who certifies newbies on the long arm, so we agreed that whenever I'm ready to quilt this donation quilt, she'll help me. It'll be reassuring to have someone experienced to help me remember what I'm doing. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy living here and being part of this group? 😀

Link Ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts,  Love Laugh Quilt