Obsessively organized

In a couple of weekends the next sewing days with Country School Quilters will roll around and I don't have a project to work on.

I had been wanting to make a sample quilt using the Color Wheel fat quarters. At the Birds of a Feather conference Anne won a basket with this pattern and it seemed perfect. I like to go to sewing days with my projects already cut out and that's what I set out to do Sunday evening.  If you look at the pattern you can see that the quilt is worked in sections so that's how I decided to cut it out.

The pattern also uses a special ruler but I didn't want to buy a ruler for one pattern. Instead I use Electric Quilt to print out rotary cutting instructions for the block in ever size (4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 inches). Yes, I could have just taken notes but didn't trust myself not to make a transcription error.

The pattern calls for 6 or 8 fat quarters (I don't remember) and I have 10 so I knew I had plenty of fabric and knew I could get the binding out of this fabric too. I cut 2 strips off each fat quarter for the binding first. As I was cutting the blocks I also cut a few 2 1/4" wide pieces that I can use before I start sewing to test my seam allowance. I test the seam allowance with every quilt.

You can see the sections clearly in this photo and this stack of pieces in one section. I needed to keep the sections together.

I used plastic bags for the sections and labeled each one. After a few hours of work I had everything cut out and I have enough leftover fabric that I can recover from a mistake if needed.

I'm officially ready for sewing on March 9. This quilt will only take a few days to put together so while the cutting table is clean I'm going to cut out and kit up the Antelope Canyon quilt. That should have me set for a few months of sewing days.