North Market is the last remaining public market in Columbus. It is a fabulous energetic place and I've volunteered there apparently for about 15 years. The reason I say "apparently" is because that's about how many years worth of t-shirts and aprons from Apron Gala I have stuffed in drawers. I realized I wasn't using them so what should I do to clean out those dresser drawers? The baby quilts I've been working on are now with their new little owners. And the work I was commissioned to do is done. So what now? A quilt for me!
But where to start? It was totally overwhelming to look at it all.
I know I don't want each piece to be cut in even squares with sashing, but what to do? I Googled, I looked at examples of quilts I liked, but I didn't know where to start. So, as anyone with a support group would do; I packed up the majority of the t-shirts and aprons to show my Magpie friends.
They felt my pain and helped with a number of great suggestions. A few of the aprons which are made of canvasy duck cloth have been set aside for a tote bag (thanks for the suggestion, Angela!).
Then after much trepidation, I took out my rotary cutter and (gasp!) I cut each one into the largest piece I could. The t-shirts were backed with a stabilizer. I made a note of the size of each piece and then laid them out in a design that balanced out the colors and designs.
Today was the first chance I've had to work on my new creation. For this block I decided to cut the design into vertical strips and mount it on a coordinating red fabric. Here's how it turned out:
I am pretty darned pleased with it so far. Maybe tomorrow I'll move onto...a wonky star? Whatever it is I know it'll be fun because every block is going to be slightly different, so stay tuned!
