Day 13

Today I went to the quilt store (which is a 30 minute drive from my place) only to find out they are also closed on Mondays! The store's sign with the hours of operations does not mention this - there is an entirely separate sign stating they are closed on Mondays, and I did not notice this when I went there on Saturday. It was a bit frustrating, but then I ran into some good luck. :-) I spotted a JoAnn Fabrics on the way back home, and stopped there to pick up the red, yellow, green, and blue fabric to be used around the 12 white squares. I was torn between getting primary/bold colors and lighter/softer colors, but decided that since this quilt will be large enough to be used for several years, an older baby and young boy would prefer the bold colors.

The first thing I did was prewash the fabric. I washed the yellow in one load, the red in another load, and the blue and green together in a 3rd load. Each load had a color fabric sheet in it for color that bled in the wash. Unlike the pictures and graphics that I had previously washed, these did have a bit of color show up on those fabric sheets.

When I took them from the wash to the drier, I used a scissors to cut the frayed edges that were in knots, threatening to strangle the fabric. Then, once they were relatively dry, I ironed the material.

They were then ready to be cut into strips. Each strip is 1" x 8" (or 1 1/2" x 8 1/2" with the 1/4" seam allowance on all 4 sides). I got out the rotary board, ruler, and rotary cutter, said a quick prayer that the cutter would not slip, and went ahead and cut 8 strips of each of the 4 colors.

I cut 1 1/2" strips first the long way.

And then I cut those strips to 8 1/2" in length.

I had extra material left over, which is good in case something goes wrong... One thing I noticed is that I bought the wrong type of material for the yellow fabric. It was in the same area as the cotton material, but when cutting it, it felt much thicker, as if it was in between ribbon and cotton. I am hoping no one will notice since the strips are pretty thin. :-)

When the strips were cut, I ironed them flat.

Then I stacked the strips onto piles, and set them aside.

They are ready to be sewn together... :-)