Got Green? Place Your Bet!

We are not gambling here at Crazy by Design! The green refers to green fabric scraps, which is the color of the month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. And “Place Your Bet” is the name that Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict gave to one of the quilts she designed for her Rockin’ Rectangles series earlier in the year. I’m making one for the donation quilt pile, but we’ll get into that later in the post.

For now, let’s talk about the green blocks that have come together in the sewing room this week. First, since I have so many green strings, there are 8 string blocks. They measure 9.5” each.

This year I am taking the 6.5” crumb blocks I made last year and sewing them with black sashing into 13.5” blocks that I call Crumbcakes. I had 16 dark and light green 6.5” blocks that made 4 Crumbcakes. But I sewed 4 more 6.5” crumb blocks, which is what I’m counting in my tally of made blocks, and that got made into another block for a total of 5 Crumbcakes.

The green scraps have been put away for this year, but you can see more fun green blocks at Angela’s Scrappy Saturday linkup.

So now it’s time to Place Your Bet!  As I’ve mentioned before, this year I’m trying to focus a little more (not exclusively, but more) on charity quilts that are either gender neutral or for boys. I realize that in this day and age, the traditional pink for girls and blue for boys isn’t always a hard rule. But what 10-year old boy is going to want something pink and flowery? When Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict introduced her cute Place Your Bet quilt as an idea for a quick donation quilt for Hands 2 Help, I was smitten. I have had way too many car-themed scraps left over from the Hot Rod quilt I made for my brother last year.

I began sewing small strips together with white on either short end. Stacking them this way is called a coin quilt, hence Sarah’s name of Place Your Bet.  I used two constants to tie the myriad pieces together. The first was a dark navy swirly print (in both of the next pictures) and lighter blue-gray with reddish dots (thanks for the scraps, Mari!).

I went through my bin of multi-colored scraps - those that don’t neatly fit into one color category - and added anything with blue, green, red, gold, gray or black. And every single transportation-themed thing I could get rid of find.

It was easy sewing, and by the second afternoon, I had a flimsy. Now, I know it’s not the most exciting quilt, but I think it will be a good addition to the donation pile. The white is Kona White and the gray is also Kona, but I can’t remember which one and I’m not going to go pull out my color card to check.  :-)

I still have to piece the back, but most of it will be this leftover Joel Dewberry print. The rest will be more gray. It’s just pinned over the top for now on the design board. That’s how I make sure my quilt backs are big enough.

I did manage to finish something this week, too. One of my Finish-Along goals for the first quarter of the year is to get at least 4 kennel quilts made using leftover parts (blocks, squares, etc) from the Parts Department. This is goal #11 on my list, which is HERE.

These kennel quilts measure between 12-15” on one side and between 15-20” on the other side. They are scrappy, combining the cat fabric parts with other scrappy leftovers from my stash. Kennel quilts are sewn simply (right sides together with batting, then turned and stitched closed. They’re topstitched around the perimeter (reduces bulk of the turned batting, gives it a finished look, and doubly secures the edges).

Then I quilt them very simply with a walking foot and a wavy stitch. These aren’t washed yet, but they will be before sending them off. The backings are pictured below. These four will get mailed off next week to one of the Nebraska pet shelters that is asking for help because of all the flooding. Must keep the rescued fur babies warm and comfortable!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to this week. What are you sewing? Will you be participating with Hands 2 Help? Do you do other charity sewing? I’d love to hear what you do!

Oh, one more thing..... I had the best day yesterday. One of our local quilt shops, Quilts, Etc., is having their annual March Madness sale yesterday and today. I have been looking forward to this since last year - it is absolutely the best sale of the year of any of our local quilt shops (and there are plenty). I got there 15 minutes before opening yesterday, and there was a line a block long already. Seriously. They had a room of $4.49/yard fabric and even a table of $2.99 fabric for charity quilts (I got some blue elephant fabric from that table). My treasures also included a couple dozen other pieces including a couple large cuts for backing, lots of basics, some pirate fabric and some giraffe fabric for donation quilts, AND the last of a bolt (less than 3 yards) of an ombre fabric (blue-green-yellow) from which I’d like to try some sort of forest or jungle or under-the-sea type quilt. I’ll have to think on that one!