At-Home Quilting Retreat - Day 1

Photos above show what I got done today.

Background fabric (bottom) is cut 13" x half width of fabric (WOF).

Colored strip is 2.5" x a bit more than half WOF.

Decided not to cut the colored strips unevenly, and to make vertical cuts truly vertical, not angled. Music notes won't be as wonky as I first envisioned, but construction should be easier and quicker.

Colored strip laid over background piece

Background sliced in half diagonally with colored strip between

Colored strip sewn to background pieces

First four sets

Spacer strips to go between "note" strips

Cut 12.5" x 1.5"-2.5" for variety

Strips paired up, held together with pins

Pairs of strips placed in box, to be drawn at random

Getting ready to cut set into 2.5" vertical strips

Strips cut. About 14" tall, will trim to 12.5" tall after spacer strips sewn on.

First three strips

Another view

Spacer strips sewn on. Sets will be trimmed even with spacer strips.

First eight strips with spacers, trimmed to 12.5".

Close-up

First two sets of strips/spacers

Four sets/spacers done

Four sets ready to be trimmed and cut, with two black note strips in the center.

Design notes

I'm happy with what I got done today. I'm pretty much making up this quilt as I go along, so I'm not positive how it will look at the end. But it's kind of fun, adventurous and a great exercise in creativity. Tomorrow I'll get the rest of the strips/spacers done, which I hope will be enough for four rows of notes. I'm thinking about four-patch and plain blocks to go between the rows of notes. In addition I'm considering throwing in some narrow black strips to divide the rows, and to represent bars between measures. Also, I have in mind to use a border of the black treble clef fabric to finish off the quilt.