When life falls to pieces make quilts

Over the last few months I have spent odd bits of time using up my 2.5" squares of scrap fabric in a quilt idea inspired by Bonnie Hunter and her "leaders and ender's". Tuesday and Wednesday this week I've spent time putting all the bits together.

I am really pleased with the result and now just have to consider borders, binding and backing.

I started by making strips of 5 squares with a white triangle at each end. The centre of each strip was a 4-patch of 1.5" leaders and enders and the end square of each strip was the darker of the two adjoining 2.5" squares to create a good contrast with the white ends. I joined the strips together into blocks of 7 strips. Once I'd made 18 such blocks I spread them on the table. The quilt that inspired this one had a strip of another fabric running straight down between each pieced strip. But I noticed that if I offset the blocks when I joined them I ended up with a white zigzag pattern running down the quilt.

However I then had to work out how to fill the empty top and bottom of each strip to offset them. A few scribbles on graph paper and I got excited. Each alternate strip has a different corner filler section.

That was on Tuesday. Of course I then just had to finish putting it together.

The irony is that when Stephanie saw me using the little pieces she donated her stash of 2.5" squares to mine. This was great because it made a wider colour range. But I've ended up with more little squares than I started with. I guess I'll just have to make more quilts! I might even add another strip to this quilt to make it more square?