Do you sometimes just want to 'kit up' a quilt to have your fabrics ready to sew? Even when you already have other UFO projects to do or quilts ready for quilting, you just want to gather some fabrics together and 'design' another new quilt. Well, I do, because that is one of my favorite parts, putting the fabrics together! This color scheme was brought together by two charm packs that I have on hand. The packs are similar in color so I think they'll work well together.
I recently received this book,
Color Shuffle, by Karla Alexander as a birthday gift (it was on my wish list). As I thumbed through it, I found a quilt in the very back of the book which used the charm packs or 5" squares. Since I have two packs which total 80 squares, I thought I'd found the pefect project for them. I was not really thinking how many more I'd need to make 280 blocks but that's okay, I had plenty of stash to pull from.
Here are just a few of the 5" squares in the packs. I chose approximately 15 to 20 fabrics that blended with the charm squares and began cutting strips 5" wide and then cutting again into my squares. When I got finished, I was still lacking 85 squares so I was back into the stash to pull more.
Here you can see some 5" stacks cut. Next to it are some 'leftover' pieces which I just automatically cut into strips. Generally I now cut 2.5" strips since they are the jellyroll size and then I just make up my own jellyrolls. As you probably know, there are many books out there to 'help us' use those. I have a bin for 2.5" strips, 2" strips and Mixed Strips which take any that are not the above designated. They are great for string, log cabin or many other scrap quilts.
So, three hours later, here are all my 5" squares neatly stacked, ready to be recut into square in a square blocks, four patch and then some will just be left whole. Now my "kit" is all ready for me to sew when I get ready!!
My "Next Door Neighbor" quilt is complete, binding and all. It was on my UFO list - one of my older projects. 
Here is a close-up where you can see the quilting a little also. Paisley Flower is the quilting design, but it blends in mostly with this quilt.
And, always, the back. This backing reminds me of the first time I did "backart". I made a quilt for my sister (when I hand-quilted even) and we had taken a class from Roberta Horton at Houston International Festival. She had showed us pieced-backs and so I tried it. Think I put three fabrics, similar to this. I was really stepping out of the box then in the late 80s. I really like interesting backs of quilts, even if it's just pieced as opposed to using something you don't like. Just adds something special to the quilt!
