Flying Geese + Rail Fence Quilt

A good friend of mine gave me a stack of fat quarters recently. The fabrics were mostly beige and brown with some red and green accents. There was a single “surprise” fat quarter with cowboys herding cattle on the prairie in the stack! That presented a great challenge.

I decided it would make a fun comfort quilt for a child in a daycare. So I dove into my stash and found the three red and green checkered fabrics and the green polka dots to augment the set.

I designed this pattern. I wanted to accent the cowboys and maximize the use of the fabrics in the fat quarters. I mixed 12 inch (finished) flying geese blocks with 12 inch rail fence blocks.

The cowboys were fussy cut at 6 1/2 inches, the flying geese blocks are 6 1/2 inches, and the corner blocks were cut at 3 1/2 inches. These are are the unfinished measurements.

The strips for the rails were all cut a 3 1/2 inches x 12 1/2 inches, unfinished.

The center block in the quilt is a 4 patch (cut at 3 1/2 inches) and the flying geese are set to form a star. I used the four patch block because that’s all the cowboy fabric I had left after I fussy cut the 4 large patches! For the 4 large cowboy blocks, I turned the flying geese to form a “window” (forming a square in a square) to highlight the feature fabric. It was fun setting the flying geese blocks two different ways in this quilt.

The quilt went together really quickly. When I finished it, it just seemed a bit long for it’s width. So I trimmed off about 2 1/2 inches from the two narrow ends of the quilt. The only fabric I needed to purchase was the backing, which I also used as the binding.

I really like this design and would happily use it to make other quilts.

Completed Christmas "Lolly" Quilt

Here’s my Christmas version of Tula Pink’s “Lolly” quilt. This pattern can be found in the book, Dear Quilty by Mary Fons and Team Quilty.

Tula Pink used 2 1/2 inch jelly roll strips from one of her fabric lines when she made the quilt in the book. I cut up fabric which had been donated to our quilt guild, scraps I had from making dog bandanas and other scraps that were odds and ends from some other of my projects.

The cutting took rather a long time, but sewing this quilt was surprisingly easy. I thought it would be hard to get all the bars in the blocks to match but they lined up beautifully.

I quilted using straight line quilting, using my walking foot, following the blocks. The vertical stitching is in the ditch between each block. The horizontal quilting is 1/8 in on one side of each of each strip running across the blocks. It only took about 2 hours to do all the quilting!

This quilt will be donated, along with other quilts made by our guild, to be given to children and teens in the hospital at Christmas time. I really had a lot of fun making the quilt.

This is the end of series on quick charity quilts. But I had some orphan blocks so you may see a few doll quilts later this fall!

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Completed Candy Cane Charity Quilt

Here is the completed Candy Cane charity quilt I discussed in my last post.  It has a fairly thick polyester batting (what I had on hand in the right size) that makes it light and puffy.  I know it will be warm and snuggly!

The back is one piece of fabric with a Christmas/Dalmation Dog print.  Below is a close up of the quilting in the solid red strips.

This project was so much fun that I pulled out my stash of Christmas fabrics to make a another quilt. I'll share that quilt in my next post.

An Idea for Using Donated Fabrics for Charity Quilts

Our quilt guild has an active charity quilt program.  We make lots of quilts for children as well as some for veterans, seniors and even dog shelters.  We are blessed to get lots of donated fabric from a variety of sources.

This year our Charity Coordinator has decided to try something new.  We have been assembling kits using 10 inch squares, 5 inch squares, 5 inch strips x width of fabric or whatever is available width-wise, and 2.5 inch strips.  Several different small groups of members have spent some pleasant summer mornings hanging out and cutting up fabric using these guidelines and assembling kits to be distributed in the Guild this Fall.

Last time I went, my friend passed me a stack of 9 pre-printed cut and sew jumper patterns. JUST the bodice piece and printed sewing instructions, not the skirt! "See what you can do with these," she said. Hmmm.

Bodice of Cranston's VIP "Candy Cane Girl's Jumper"

I found I was able to cut a 9 x 5 inch block from the front bodice,  5 inch squares from the back bodice and a few 2.5 inch squares which will get used for something else.  I still had 2 panels left to cut when it was time to head home. So I took the set home to make sure it all stayed together.

I really enjoyed working with this navy blue, red and green pattern.  I've seen lots of light blue holiday quilts (think snowmen) but navy blue is unusual. I liked this fabric so much that I decided to go ahead and make a quilt.

The 9 x 5 inch blocks didn't meet our criteria so I needed to create a design.  I thought about adding a strip of fabric to make the blocks 10 inches but life is short!  I decided to put them in horizontal strips with an assortment of 5 inch squares I already had. I supplemented those by cutting some squares more from my own scrap stash. 

There is one 9 x 5 inch block in each wide strip and then assorted 5 inch squares to make the strip the desired width. In between the wide strips there is a solid color bright red 2.5 inch strip. Those bright red strips are eye catching and as a bonus, they also eliminate the need for perfect piecing!

I really like the quilt top.  Despite it's dark color, it's going to be a bright and happy quilt!

Yes, with a bit of imagination and ingenuity you can make a beautiful quilt from even unlikely fabric donations!  If you have fabric you aren't sure how to use, give this a try!  It's a lot of fun!

Quick Charity Quilts using Strips

Variation of Modern Textiles' Strip Quilt, approx 42 x 50 inches

The quilt guild I belong to, Proper Bostonian Quilters, makes dozens of quilts for charity every year. Quilts of all sizes and shapes are collected but quilts for toddlers and preschool children are especially welcome.

I was so excited when I saw the free tutorial and pattern for the Strip Quilt on Modern Textiles website. It's perfect for a small quilt that works up quickly. I especially love the way the wide strips can feature a special fabric. (The pattern has options for a variety of sizes. I made the crib quilt).

The pattern calls for 5 1/2 inch wide strips. I added 2 1/2 inch strips of solid colors to widen 38 x 50 inch pattern to that takes full advantage of a 42 inch backing.  3 extra strip seems perfect.  (The quilt above has 4 solid strips because the patterned strips were cut 5" wide).

I chose to do linear quilting and used some of the fancier quilting stitches on my machine. But free motion quilting would also be great.

Here's a another Strip quilt I recently made using a fabrics from a single collection. Sewing quilts using this pattern is such a happy activity! I really had fun.

Lavender Floral Strip Quilt Variation, approx 42 x 50 inches