"Streak of Pockets" - upcycled blues #46 finished

This is the third of the eight upcycled blues tops that I had left to finish. Only 5 left to go!

What? You say, This is mostly gray and black, not blue!

You are right.

The pockets on this quilt were all blue, though. I had no more blues including navy to make any sort of streak, so I resorted to grays/blacks.

I think you realize that in this project I not only wanted to use the fabrics, but I wanted to use labels AND pockets - and so I did. This is the second one with extensive use of pockets. The other “special ones” were #3 Premium Labels where I used the labels from the back of the shirts, #34 Pick a Pocket which was all pockets and number 17 The Kitchen Sink used up a few pockets, but I still had a lot of them!

Once again - just like all these here at the end - it is super simple. it is because I was using up the ends of my second hand blue fabrics.

The design is based on the common “Streak of Lightning” design where the blocks go across the quilt diagonally based on color. Usually the blocks are much smaller than these are, however - maybe 4” or 5” square.

The simple “Streak of Lightning” layout of a quilt with plain blocks but effective use of color.

Rachael made this one!

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about only my sis made this one with sashing - lots of them don’t have sashing in between the blocks:

For the quilting I straight line quilted using the edges of the pockets and blocks as my lines and then randomly placing another line between the two. In the end I was pleased enough. I didn’t want to quilt densely in the places where there wasn’t a pocket as it would make the pockets “puff out” too much and look weird.

It wasn’t quilted extremely densely but I think it will hold up just fine.

I cut out the pockets with a 6.5” square - why that size? Primarily because I have a nice square 6.5” ruler and it made it easy! Plus, I did find that a lot of pockets fit that size well.

I really stretched it to find enough grays in the colors I needed in my upcycleds- as I didn’t want to go shopping first!

The quilt roll:

Close up of the quilting: It’s just straight line quilting with the walking foot.

Since this is part of the upcycled blues series - I am showing my upcycled fabrics backing.

For whatever reason, as I was making this backing, I had a brain freeze and that purple strip was just grabbed from my 2” strips which are in my sewing room - and it isn’t a piece of second hand fabric. However, because I had already made the backing by the time I thought about it, I said, “Forget it”. Forgive me, OK? I’m still calling this series my “upcycled blues” series - 100% upcycleds in spite of that.

Thanks.

While I’m not actually sure who wants a quilt like this - I think a kid would love to have a pocket or two in their quilts - so I’m going to try to remember that!

As you can see - I quilted using the base of the squares themselves and the pocket edges as a place to quilt and then randomly at other places. I know that it is spaced more widely than other quilts I’ve been doing lately, but this batting holds up fine with it - this is poly - and my tied quilts held up well when I was tying them, so I can’t see why this would be any different. I used the edge of the walking foot or just eyeballed distances.

I was a tad bit afraid the blocks would be so big that it wouldn’t be effective. However, I think it turned out okay. These blocks were 12” finished.

And now you know! I’m getting there. The weather has turned nicely cool for me so quilting is “just fine” in my sewing room!

Have a great day wherever you reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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