The latest community quilt top is finished, pressed, and on a hanger in the ufo closet. I had trimmed the strips of Japanese fabric to 2″. Most of them were about that size. Looking at the patterns in my books, I decided on a very simple block using four patches and two rectangles.

All the fabric was dark so I chose white fabric to lighten it up.

It didn’t take long to make the tops. Simple blocks are the best way to go for speedy quilts. I made the sashing first and the blocks fit in perfectly. All the remaining Japanese fabric is in two bags. One is strips and the other is pieces. They will be mile a minute blocks when I want to do some easy block making. I will wait a while to start as I still find pieces of the fabric where it isn’t supposed to be.

I have another top packaged and basted. It is ready to quilt. Then, I decided to take time off from quilting and organize the fabric drawers.

In the first drawer, I found a bunch of 2 1/2″ strips that I bought for $1.00 at a guild quilt show. They were pastels. Instead of putting them back in the drawer, I decided to sew them together. Four strips were sewn together and cut into 6 1/2″ segments. The leftover small pieces were cut into 2 1/2″ squares. The remaining fabric was placed in the mile a minute bin and the trash. Also in the drawer were fat quarters that were given to me at various times. The were mostly pastel calicos and went very well with the strips. I cut the fat quarters into 2 1/2″ strips, sewed them together, and cut them into 6 1/2″ pieces. Twenty-four strips make a good size community quilt. I have ten strip sets. If I use five strip sets for a quilt, with sashing and a border, I can make two quilts. When I go through the remaining drawers, I’ll find sashing and border material. Then, two more quilts in the ufo closet. Winter is coming. I can quilt the quilts then.

There still are a lot of treasures in the drawers. I really am trying to purge, but it is hard.

The long-term project, the hexagon star, is still fun to sew. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished while watching TV. The hexagons are 1 3/4″. The star would be too large with a larger hexagon. Several components are sewn. When they are complete, they are sewn onto the center.

Have a great day and happy quilting.