Rident Returns

You can use the RIDENT label at the end of this post to read my previous posts for this big brother quilt for the older child of our youngest nephew and his wife.  Baby No. 2 is due in April (that quilt - Ohana - is made but needs to be quilted).

Tuesday evening I pulled these strips out of the closet planning to use them for mindless evening stitching, only to discover I had less than half of what was needed for the pattern I'd chosen.

Serious OOPS.

So I had to do a bit of quick thinking, which isn't always easy in the evening when I've already used most of my daily allotment of brain cells.

I pulled the shorter pieces out of the 2.5" strips drawer and added them to the longer strips shown in the first photo.  

I then created random sets of four strips.

The general game plan is to sew the sets together to then be cut into as many 8.5" squares as possible to create either a scrappy rail fence or column-based layout.

Of course Chase had to get in the middle of things once morning arrived and I started stitching.

Now that the strip sets are all sewn (some longer, some shorter), they all need to be pressed.

The lingering question is how many squares will these strip sets actually yield?

I have also pulled out the long strata I created as a center for the backing - and that, too, is being redesigned to fit this new plan.

Once I have the final size of the quilt top, I'll cut the long strip in half lengthwise and fill in on either side (and down the center) using more of the green Jumble to make the backing wide enough.  

If it isn't long enough, I'll add more Jumble to the top and bottom.  

* * *

The good news is I'm pretty sure I'm going to like the end result of this improvised / make-it-work approach far more than I would have liked the original patterned idea.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it . . . including YOU."

Anne Lamott