WIP: Just Can't Resist While Cleaning Up...

One thing I like about quilting as much as the actual sewing is the grouping together of fabrics and imagining future projects. I pull fat quarters and half yard pieces out of my Ikea chest of drawers and combine them with focus fabric 1+ yd pieces I pull from my closet. Sometimes I combine them in little groupings and store these future kits or projects in scrapbook cases, perfect for the task.

While finishing a large project, this foray into fabric wonderland is a great diversion and break; and dabbling with my fabric is not starting new project, not really. After most recently finishing my 72"x72" Sunny Spring Frost (7/24/13 post), I had fabric combinations spread out everywhere. One particular combination was so cool that I had to preserve it. The fabrics were bought months, maybe even years, apart from each other. The fabrics were bought from varied places – local and distant shops and craft shows. There was never any plan in mind when these fabrics were purchased. Some were bought on a whim from a clearance bin. The coincidence that they came together before my eyes was Kismet.

I've had a classic car fabric for a while but only 1-7/8 yard, not enough for a shirt for my husband. This classic car focus fabric needed just the right colors to go with the cars' paint jobs. The red was not a true red, just a bit on the paprika side, and the blue was more periwinkle that sky blue. I just happened to have fat quarters in the perfect colors. The travel symbol print was a whim clearance fabric and it really carries out the transportation theme. Its beige background also hearkens back to the beige dots in the periwinkle.

So, with no intended recipient and no clear cut pattern in mind, I decided to whip up a large block and strip style quilt to use this grouping before I forgot I had formed it. Should take only an afternoon, right? (OK, now I have crossed the line and started a new project.) Well, I am on day two and still enjoying it, so I do not feel too guilty about my impulsively jumping this quilt to the front of the line, ahead of other projects I want to do. Since a strip quilt generally uses the full width of fabric and I only had fat quarters of the paprika and periwinkle I decided to stretch it by making some strips a checker board. They use checkered flags in racing, right? So the concept fits right in.

I had a white/red grid fabric and, believe it or not, it was also a good red – not too cherry and leaning a bit toward the orange. I found firetruck fabric that was leftover from a pillow case and it tickled me that it blended with the vehicle theme as well as blending in with the black/blue/red/beige color palette. I had a quarter yard and could have run a narrow full width strip of the leftover firetruck fabric but decided it would compete with the classics cars since it, too is a black background. Anyway I liked the way the disjointed firetrucks peek out at you.

I think I will use just two full-width strips of the car focus fabric. Each will be tall enough to showcase the vehicles but a bit less than the fabric repeat so the two strips look different. I will incorporate several narrow, 2 or 3 symbols tall, full-width strips of the symbol fabric. Maybe I will flank the classic cars above and below with the transportation symbols. Aha! There is that checkered theme repeated with the symbols...

Maybe somebody I know will have a baby boy that would like this. Or maybe my husband will want it instead of the shirt I could not make from the focus fabric. Maybe it will be a charity quilt. In any case, I will get to practice my FMQ... which I seem to keep putting off in case, you have not noticed from my ongoing project list. Anyway, I am having fun sewing and blogging about it.

I am off now to work on this quilt. Later I will check other folk's WIP progress this week at http://www.freshlypieced.com/    Here are my stats:

Completed projects since 7/24/13 WIP post:

1. Fire truck pillowcase (not yet posted)

Ongoing projects:  

1. Grinch quilt (May 22,2013 post) - all borders added, need to back, quilt, and bind
2. Jack O'Lantern Trio (February 2, 2013 post) - awaiting FMQ
3. Chicken quilt - awaiting FMQ
4. Overlapping square wall hanging - awaiting FMQ
5. Mask quilt (October 19, 2011 post) - hidden away awaiting inspiration for arranging hexagons

New projects since 7/24/13 WIP post:  

1. Christmas pillowcases - cut out awaiting stitching
2. Classic Cars strip quilt

Stats since last WIP:

     Completed  projects - 1

     Currently in progress - 5 just in waiting

     New projects - 2