Frame It! - top finished
I had a 2.5” strips roll that I bought a couple of years ago in Georgia, I think it was, from a store called Tuesday Morning. It’s a discount store, sort of like Big Lots, and I found this Benartex roll of fabric. I had heard about them being that store, which is why I went to look for them there as we were back in the states for some reason.
Remember, I’ve hardly ever bought “jelly rolls’”, and up to that time, my sis didn’t have any at all in her store.
So I brought it back to Poland with me, in all its rolled up bundle of temptation! “What’s in there?” I wondered. There was no name on this roll - just Benartex - nothing for me to google or try to find out.
Close up of that one fabric I loved. I did really like the two lights above the floral in the center - though - the diamond design on cream. Love it.
Well, in my quest to kind of attempt to use up the odds and ends around me, PLUS, I will admit, curiosity over what was inside that bundle, I broke open that plastic, took off the big rubber band and ribbon that was holding it its tempting spiral formation and took a look the other day.
Seriously disappointed. Seriously.
One strip that was amazing.
One. Not one design. One strip.
The rest? They actually looked like they took leftovers from various other series of fabrics - possibly three - and kind of matched up the colors and called it a bundle.
These were the leftovers from what I had. I don’t know if you can tell here, but the lights in the strips are pretty much white. The lights behind the little calicoes and the diamond are decidedly cream colored It took me back.to have both such colors in the same bundle. It still “feels” like to me that there are at least 2, if not three fabric families here.
Hmm… I didn’t know what to do.
I really didn’t.
I mean, the whole POINT of buying a bundle like this is to have nicely coordinated fabrics.
You all know from my cutting spree that I actually have plenty of 2.5” strips.
Understatement!
So if I just wanted “sorta coordinating fabrics” I could do that by pulling strips from my 6+ bags of 2.5” strips.
(I didn’t want to just throw this roll into my bags of strips. I did think about it though!)
I buckled down and tried to figure something out.
So, instead of dwelling anymore on the serious disappointment the set of strips was (colorwise, that is - the quality is top notch - love touching it!) I began to think of what I COULD do.
(I’m learning in life to quit focusing on what you can’t have - and just start making lemonade - not that my life has been full of lemons but in our situation, there are lots of things I wish I could do/have but can’t because of our life situation. But I do know that creativity actually flourishes when given boundaries/restrictions—that’s why ‘challenge quilts’ are so successful!)
I left them sitting on the table where I could look at what I had for a day or two while I did some other things. Inspiration was not hitting. No, not at all.
Any “design” needs strong lines. Most of these strips were “light”. In fact, I had exactly 9 that I would call “a dark or even medium color”. Out of 40. I wanted to keep them together and not go adding or switching things around.
For me, the POINT of having the strips was to try to keep them together - meaning not just throwing them in a pile and picking out different ones to mix and match. I know, someone has said that you should replace 1/10 of them, I think it was, for more color interest. Well, in this case, I was actually in a quandary. All the different blues and blue greens - I was intrigued that someone actually threw them all together.
The featured fabric I focused on. And as it would seem it goes, they gave me only ONE of those pretty floral strips - other less interesting ones - I got two of.
What I found fascinating was that some of the strips had a white background - though maybe not stark white, but some of them had a cream background. That is what I found odd. The creamed based calicoey floral seemed like didn’t belong.
You’ve certainly played those games where they have you choose “what doesn’t belong” and given you a group of things to find the commonality about and then choose the one that doesn’t belong. Well, I was struggling with the small floral and a couple other strips.
Anyway, I felt like I had no choice but to go back to my old favorite - the 9 patch. I could have done something fancier like making strip sets, sub cutting them into triangles - but frankly, I didn’t like the fabric enough to start finagling with such a pattern.
I’m leaving this one big here so you can see the difference in background colors. Is it just me? Is this normal in a “strips roll” to vary the backgrounds so much in such a fabric family?
So, I pulled out the ONE fabric I love from it - this floral print - and decided to just make those 9 patches and frame them with a color taken from that print.
But how? EQ (Electric Quilt) offered me this very nice frame option. I plugged in the 9 patch (you could put ANY 6” block in this design) - decided to put the cream next to the block, surround it in sage and set those blocks on this tomato red background we got in Morocco a few years back.
I had three choices for the background - this color, a tan or a brown. When I ran it past my colleagues at Quilted Twins, they said they liked the red, so I went with it.
In the end, I’m pleased. Quite pleased. I have no idea who would want such a coloration of a quilt, but that’s not my worry right now. My next concern is quilting this massive thing! It’s a nice sized queen - but a long one - which will help with tucking it in.
And there you go - One could easily do this with any of your leftovers that you are trying to somehow “bring together” into a cohesive unit.
Oh, I left out some of the strips - will be using them for binding and adding enough of any leftover green to make the binding long enough. I only used 48 blocks in this!
After my experience here, I was a bit afraid to open the next two identical strips rolls I had - they were bluprint - I believe my sis has them in the shop - not on line at this point, I don’t think.. And I shouldn’t have feared. They are gorgeous. You’ll see. I’ve already started on the top for it. Having the “next one” I broke open be more like I was expecting restored my faith in these things commonly called “Jelly Rolls”!
Anyway, with all the leftovers shown above, I will probably make a throw pillow to go with this - just a simple patchwork one. Why not? The pieces are already made and I kind of “feel like” doing it. Then I’ll probably find a special couple to give it all to.
And there you go - that’s what I’ve been up to.
Have a great day wherever you are reading this.
Stay safe!
Don’t forget -
Just for Fun! A Give-Away -
10 days straight excluding Sunday
Day 5
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!
Yes, we are going to be having a drawing every day for 10 days (excluding Sunday)…your chance to win one of these bags - a reusable Polish folk design shopping bag. If you win, YOUR responsibility is to contact me. I will put a list up on May 11 at which time the winners need to send me your address via email at customerservice@quiltedtwins.com or PM me at Becky Tillman Petersen via Messenger.
Today’s question - you HAVE to answer in the comments below. If for some reason you can’t answer down there, send me an email to customerservice@quiltedtwins.com . There are a few people who don’t seem to have the comment box.
Please, put either your whole name or something distinctive - not just “Susan” or “Donna” or “Linda”. We seem to have a lot of people here with those first names. Thanks! If you don’t want to put your first and last name put your first name and two more letters.