Somehow I ended up with a very short stack of pale/pastel batik fabrics in my stash. Not enough for a project and not enough to make the effort to store them in a sensible place. There were, maybe, a dozen partial fat quarters.
To use them up, I decided to pull out some more stash batiks in pastel shades along with a few darker batiks, and turn them into a modified, scrappy Rail Fence quilt.
Because I started with some smaller fabric pieces, and I'm not a big fan of strip piecing, (crazy, I know, but I have my reasons) I cut 1-1/2x3-1/2" strips along the lengthwise grain from the pastels, and 1-1/2x 4-1/2" strips from some darker colors. Four pastel strips for each darker strip.
Sewed two sets of two strips randomly.
Then the two strips sets became one 4-strip assembly.
In the middle of this process, I found a couple packs of pre-cut 5" squares, chopped them up, and added them into the mix. Just the right color combo to go with the initial short stack.
Add the darker strip to one end.
The block is 4-1/2" square.
This isn't exactly a rail fence, but it's a rail fence block concept.
Lather, rinse, and repeat.
I made a lot of blocks.
A lot, a lot.
Like 280 blocks. Enough to make a twin quilt.
Then I laid the blocks out in rows on the workroom floor. I stacked up the rows and started sewing the blocks.
I have to admit, after about the first fifty blocks, this isn't a terribly exciting project. A lot of repetition.
A lot a lot.
To keep things sorta interesting, I'm alternately starting a wedding gift quilt. So I sew a row of these 'rail fence' blocks, then piece a bunch of things for the wedding gift. Working two things at once slows things down on both projects, but it's better than losing my ever-loving mind on the batik stuff.
I'll get the good karma going on the batik quilt again once the blocks are sewn together and I'm onto the quilting. But for now, it's a bit of a slog, honestly.
The real motivation is stepping back and knowing that I've used up a bunch of things - the short stack of not-really-fat-quarters, two packs of batik pre-cuts, and a bunch of batik stash fabrics!
That's a lot of wins! A lot a lot!
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
Joan, I love all your great ideas. I want to be just like you when I grow up! Thank you for sharing all you knowledge. Patty
Grow up? I suspect that’s way over-rated! *Wink!*