As if I didn’t already have enough projects, I started two new quilts this week.  As usual, I have created my own busyness.  Thankfully, however, I find this type of busyness very stress relieving rather than stress causing.

First I picked up this stash of fabric from a member of my guild.  She had cleaned out her stash over the holidays and her request was that if you take any, then you use it to make a charity quilt.  Our guild makes and donates charity quilts to the foster care program in the county.  So I took what ended up being approximately 4 yards of fabric, and decided to make a lap quilt.  Some of these are already made blocks, some are smaller than a fat quarter, and there are two pieces that are just over 1 yard in length.  I also decided that I have to make it right now or I may never get around to it!

So, I cut the fabric into strips…

I decided to make the quilt using a bento box pattern.  This is where you sew the strips into a large square and then cut the squares into fourths, mix them all up, and sew them back together again.  I didn’t have enough of the fabric that I picked up for all the strips I would need, so I have been using fabric from my scrap box to fill in where needed.   I love that I’m able to use some of the scraps I’ve been saving!  I would love to make an entire quilt with scraps.  Maybe one day… so far I’ve only been able to fit them into projects here and there.  Edit: I remembered that I have made a quilt with all scraps.  I made a wonky star last year.  I just have so many scraps, and I keep adding to it, so it doesn’t look like I’ve even put a dent in it.  So my goal is to make another quilt with just scraps.  🙂

I just finished piecing all the squares last night… today after work I’ll trim them up, cut them into fourths and lay them out to determine how I want to rearrange them.  Hopefully I’ll be sharing another finished quilt with you next week.

I haven’t gotten as far on the second quilt I started.  I picked up two charm packs last fall during a shop hop, which gives me four 5-inch squares of each of these fabrics.

Well, that in itself isn’t enough to make a lap quilt.  So I either need to add a neutral, such as cream or white, or more fabric.  I have decided to follow what Aspen Hill did here with her charm pack.  This means I need to add both white AND more fabric.  So I went through my stash and found fabric that I think matches and cut an additional 74 5-inch squares.

So that’s where I am with this quilt.  I have 154 5″ squares cut out and ready.  I still need to cut the white strips.  My plan is to do that and start piecing once I get the other quilt finished.  I probably won’t provide many updates on this quilt since it is for a friend that may read this blog.  But, know I’ll be working on it and will share it with you when I can…

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.