This is the original idea that I saw on You Tube when I made the 5 strips together roll. Remember that roll of strips?

It’s here.

Actually this photo is only half of it, but I made another bunch about the same amount again.

As of writing this blog post I have used about half of what I made.

I originally finished a different top first, but I’m going to go ahead and let this one be number 1 since it was the original idea I followed to even make the strips roll.

Let me say that I ended up liking the top far more than I ever imagined I would.

I think it appropriate that it be the first one in this series. I know I will have at least 5 tops from just the strips I’ve made already and I suspect maybe 6.

Why?

Because that is how many strips I already made and I want to use them up. I do have several ideas and hope to just push through and make the tops. None of them will be difficult because the strips are already supposedly the hard part, right?

Hmm.

Actually I do have one that might be more involved, and I’ll have to decide if I actually want to make it.

In fact, I’ll show you. I’m just debating as to whether or not I can figure out an easy way to make that main block. Isn’t it cool?

It’s actually not that hard, I don’t think. I’m sure because I already have the strips all sewn together - on that roll —the hardest part would be the pointy star point on the sashing strips.

BUT because I’m making all of these quilts QOV (Quilt of Valor) size, for me, they are on the small-ish size.

So there’s that. All are much quicker than a huge queen or king size quilt.

Anyway…on to this first one - the BIG Courthouse Steps quilt top.

I ended up loving the red blender I found in my stash. I got it back in 2013 I think and probably loved it too much so that I never wanted to use it up. However, I decided the other day that that idea was a silly one and that I should be quite willing to use it.

So, it was perfect. Bright, colorful and interesting.

The red blocks were trimmed to 10” square. My strips blocks tended to be about 10.25” wide so I ended up trimming off a bit of each round once I had sewn the blue strips to the red. I used a LOT of these strips this way.

Yeah! But for me, it isn’t just about using strips, but about liking what I make. I’ve already made a simple Jelly Roll race type quilt and didn’t really care for them all that much.

I think I made about 7 huge ones for charity and made myself sick of them.

Let me see if I can find pics of those. I could only find 4. Maybe it just felt like 7! It was enough for me not to want to make them ever again. This was back in 2013 and 2014.

(For those tops shown above, I just used strips - and managed to make a huge dent into my bags of strips at the time. However, dealing with one of those on a large scale - not interested in doing that again for so many reasons. I did combine 3 colors of scraps to make a sort of controlled scrappy top.)

This top does need grooming. I find that the more scraps I use - the more grooming the top needs! :)

But in the end - I do really like this one!

From the other direction.

If I had wanted to make this a queen size quilt, I would have needed to make it one more round. BUT I didn’t want this one that big. I want it small enough to qualify for a QOV. At this point it is about 69”x77”.

Here is another close up.

I may look for some QOV recipients over in this part of the world. If I could, I would ask about finding a mom to be a recipient of this one as I do have some fabrics that would remind her of the kids PLUS plenty of florals. But we’ll see. I mean, men are botanists, too, right?

So this one is nr 1 in this little mini series. It won’t be a big series like some of my others. I’m already looking forward to the end of it. :)

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

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

Feel free to browse the site.

"The Big Courthouse Steps" Quilt - Blue Strips Roll quilt #1