While on Standby, A Quilt Top Finish

Well, the surprise for this week didn't turn out to be the unexpected early arrival of our first grandchild but the Ernie Interrupted quilt top that I wasn't planning on finishing with all of the maneuvering which happened earlier this week.  Long story short, the first grand baby is due next week, for a short time it looked like it was going to be this week but no, still looks like next week.  Let's say the grandparents-to-be are more ready this week than they were last week.

I should have worked on the other two baby quilts I needed to finish for the Blanket Ministry but I wanted to play while my mind and body was on standby.   I chose to work on Ernie Interrupted which I started in November and have been wanting to finish it so I can cross it off on the Project List.  This quilt is #4 of the Ernie Series which my friend Mary Etherington started last year. (you can read about it here). Basically it's a quilt made with blocks of  two 2.5" strips and it's a very versatile pattern and a great stash buster since you can make the block any size you want.  The Ernie Interrupted Quilt was a new idea and used scraps from past projects, although some of the strips were cut from new Cotton + Steel fabrics.  The solid strips were cut 2.5" x 8-1/2" and the other strips were made from four patches of 2.5" low volume squares.  Each block had three rows of solid strips alternated with three rows of four-patch strips and measures 8-1/2" x 12-1/2".  This quilt is made up of forty-two blocks and measures 56"x 72".  The reason I named this quilt Ernie Interrupted is because I had an idea to make the blocks looked like solid patches of fabric being interrupted with rows of low volume patches which made the sewing slow because I have to carefully lay out and sew the strips in the order they were cut.  It turned out this desired effect can't be seen except on a few blocks since some of the connections were hidden by the seam lines. In hindsight, this could have gone a lot faster if I didn't have this brainstorm.

I have to say that making this quilt was tedious with all of the cutting, ironing the four-patch strips with the seams open, laying the blocks out to make sure the strips were in order and each of the four patch strips had different prints and then sewing the blocks which made me wonder why I was spending all this time on a project which mostly used old fabric and that I should be making something with new fabric.  But once the blocks were sewn together, I really, really love how this quilt turned out.  I would make this again but without worrying about the solid strips.  Now the plan is to quilt it with horizontal straight lines but then I'm thinking maybe making this a coverlet with gray Minky on the back--wait, no more brainstorming and I'll stick to the original plan.

Since I started my blog,  my goal is to post once a week and then link up with Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday which is why I like to have a project done.  I really thought  I wasn't going to be able to post this week but wanted to because of my participation in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop. If I didn't finish Ernie Interrupted, the best I could have offered was a pincushion I made from a leftover block for my new table caddy.  When it comes to accessories for my studio I tend to take more of a MacGyver Make Do approach rather than a Martha Stewart Let's Make it Pretty approach. Empty tuna cans and plastic containers from salad mixes work fine for me.  My pretty but small caddy wasn't working and I saw this large plastic caddy for $2.50 at Walmart and thought this would be the perfect replacement.  I just didn't like the empty space beneath the handle, so I thought a pincushion would look nice there.  The new table caddy is definitely for the studio only and I will use the pretty caddy for outside the studio.

I'll be the first to say that the Ernie Interrupted Quilt makes a more interesting Post than the table caddy makeover.  Here's hoping for a happy post for next week.

Minus 100 Yards Challenge YTD Total:  -52.25 yards