A Really Nice Quilt Idea

Occasionally, I come across a stashbusting quilt idea that is novel, but easy to do. This is a baby Rail Fence quilt with a twist. The quiltmaker is Stephanie Driel in Australia who is a member of our Stashbuster's group. She uses half-square triangles in the center of each rail. What a great way to use up fat quarters! This would look great even on a queen-sized quilt. Easily, this would go together very quickly with quick cutting techniques for the HSTs. The solid-from-a-distance fabrics really make this work for me as it gives the eye someplace to rest.

Rail Fence Busts Stash FAST!

I want to first point out the the example quilt was all new purchased fabric, not stash. That said, if you have novelty fabric or a large pattern you want to show off, this is a very fast pattern to make and would use stash quickly.

This was the original inspirational drawing done by a member of QATW in EQ5. I like the orientation of the rails as well.


To make my rail fence alternating blocks quilt, here's what you do. Fussy cut your novelty fabric(s) using a 6.5 inch square. If you have an overall pattern, you can just cut fabric into 6.5 inch strips, then subcut to squares. Select 3 (or more) solid-from-a-distance fabrics that look good with your novelty. Cut into 2.5 inch strips. Sew 3 strips together. Press to one side making certain that you don't don't get any little folds in the front. Using a 6.5 inch square, trim off selveges, then cut 6.5 inch squares. Repeat until you have enough rail fence blocks. Decide on an orientation and sew row-by-row. I start on the bottom and work up-I find it easier to catch mistakes along the way.

Stashbusting Paddlewheels

Here's my stashbusting quilt, the Paddlewheel Quilt. This is a fast to make stashbusting pattern. All the blocks and the border were finished, from cut to sewn, in a weekend. The quilting always hangs me up, but there is no reason why you can't tie this quilt. This pattern uses a surprisingly small amount of background fabric. I enlarged this quilt to nearly a queen size and used just over a yard of background. One fat quarter of paddlewheel fabric makes 3 blocks. I know this pattern dates back to the 30s (a windmill variation), but this one has been simplified to minimize seams. The pattern can be found in Thimbleberries Book of Quilts by Lynette Jensen. This is the second quilt pattern I've made from this book. Clear instructions, goes together quickly. This quilt features 9 inch finished blocks and I just made more blocks to fit my bed. Stash usage: about 17 yards.

Stashbusting Tip - Block Of The Month

I'm still working on my stashbusting Paddlewheel quilt. I will have the borders on by the weekend.

Every January, oodles of online places (as well as quilt stores) start a Block-of-the-Month series. Why not join one and use your stash!? Even better, plan on joining one and quilting it at the same time with either a Quilt as you Go or Reversible quilt options. That way, when you are done, it's already quilted and you just put it together. I'll have to make a decision once the first blocks are revealed. If I want to do a lot of quilting, then I'll have to buy a solid or muslin for the backing. If not, then I have plenty of fabric for backings. Either way, I'll be using Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting. (tip, it helps to precut your batting squares and border pieces and just keep them in the same bag. Cutting one at a time is a real pain).

So, in the spirit of that, and getting some immediate use out of my Christmas present (EQ6), I am joining QATW (MSN group) 2007 BOM. I chose a Debbie Mumm fabric that I've had for a few years (heck the store closed and I still haven't used it in a tote bag which is why I bought it!). I plan to primarily use this fabric in the border, but will include small amounts in some of the blocks. I only have a little over 1 1/3 yards, so I have to be creative in carrying it over.

Here are my selected fabrics. Backgrounds in front. Some of these fabrics are also being used in another project, but I only need small amounts, so it's not a problem. Note that I have few darks. I'm trying to avoid having more overly dark quilts and using more mediums and a few jewel tones to add spark. We'll see how that goes.

These are the fabrics where I have enough yardage to use for sashing and border fill-in. The sashing is best with an allover pattern, so my best choices are the blue and the goldish/red (on top). Decisions based on yardage...Hah.

Stash Usage

Stash Usage: Sister's Choice: 2 yards greens and beige.

Most of the Sister's Choice quilt was scraps which I wasn't counting.

Year total: 24yards (isn't this pathetic? I have hundreds of yards!)

Hearts Block

Here's a great stashbusting pattern to try! Now, granted, I'm making this primarily from precut 2 inch scraps, but if you strip pieced it from your stash, you'd be done with this quilt in no time! Darlene, on the Stashbusters list, recently posted a photo of this block that inspired me. I looked and found the same block done in one of Shar Jorgensen's early books. That is what my 4 heart block is based on. You can use any size square. The white strips are a little smaller than the finished squares. Just looks better that way. In the hopes of actually using this quilt sometime during the winter, I'm thinking of quilting it section by section and putting it together like a reversible quilt. That will also use a bunch of stash for the back since the pieces only have to be a tad larger than this block.

Sister's Choice Stash Usage

Here's the Sister's Choice quilt. Although mostly scraps, I did use about 2.5 yards worth of stash yardage and fat quarters for it. The backing and binding will also be from stash! Most importantly, my 2.5 inch square box has been emptied a lot. This great stash using pattern is known as Farmer's Daughter, although identified by Bonnie as Sister's Choice. Here's a link to Bonnie's version as well as a link to the pattern.
http://www.quiltville.com/sisterschoice.shtml.