Retreat Quilt

It's never too early to start gathering fabric and ideas for our annual PTA retreat project. This year I've decided to make an easy strip pieced quilt for the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project. The idea behind this project is to create a bedsize quilt or a finished top. Tops will be sent on and quilted by a long arm quilter. If you donate a top, they request backing material to be enclosed also. I love the sewing part but not necessarily quilting such large pieces on my small Bernina so this is perfect. So many people were affected by hurricane Florence and Michael from the Carolina coastlines, this seemed like a very worthwhile project. For more information go to www.frommycarolinahome.com  and thanks to a very wonderful lady - Carole who got this whole thing rolling.

After looking through my scraps, I'm finding so much of the Moda fabric I purchased years ago. I have made 3 quilts from this stash; this will be my 4th. It is sweet and I picture this in a little girls room.

Years ago, while in a home improvement store with my husband, I happened onto this "fabric" in the plumbing dept. It's called soil separator cloth and used to line large pipes to create a barrier and prevent dirt from getting in. It also resembled pattern duplicating material found in sewing stores. You might recognize it better with a grid of red dots...It's basically a very thin nonwoven synthetic fabric. I use this for everything and in this project will serve as a base for my strips. The best part is it runs @ 11 cents a running foot so a yard is 33 cents. I think I originally bought around 100 yards so I'm still using that.

Also at the same store, I was able to get some plexiglass scraps for very little money. My husband is a woodworker and has lots of power tools, so I cut several different size squares to use as a template. Not everyone has access to power tools but I know many stores will cut pieces to size for a small fee.

I speed cut squares bigger than what I needed (@ 1/2" bigger all around...wiggle room). Soil separator cloth is so thin, you can do 10 at a time...

then cut fabric strips in several widths, pinned likes together and hung them on a hanger with large pins.

I've made several sample blocks (which I highly recommend doing) to see what works and what doesn't....anyway, this will need lots of tweaking. It's a soft palette so I think the dark colors need to go...also not sure of the blue, don't think that works either...so it's 30 degrees out and a good day to stay inside and play.