I am really excited about this

Yes, I know, it doesn't look like much but I am amazed that it looks like it is supposed to! What is it? It is part of the border for the quilt I am working on. The quilt that is eating its way through my baskets of 1 1/2" strips like crazy. The pattern calls for 1 1/4" strips but whenever I make anything really strippy like log cabins I like to use a wider one and trim down. I get straighter strips that way. Besides I have more 1 1/2" strips hanging around. Here is a section of it closer up.

As I said I have been using strips like crazy. Many of the blocks are courthouse steps with the same fabrics on all 4 sides so I have been doing lots of sorting. Probably the tool I have been using most is my lint roller. Gathering and sorting all these strips that have been wrapping themselves around each other in baskets for months generates lots of little stray threads. And here in Boise it is still fleece season so I have to constantly roll myself. And the ironing board.

So what is it I am making? Not this. This is the reason I bought the book. When we went to the Twin Falls show we made a preliminary stop at The Gathering Place in Rupert. I mean Rupert is only 30 minutes or so farther east, so once you have invested the gas to get to Twin you may as well head for Rupert, right? I wasn't in much of a shopping mood that day, though. I only bought this book and 2 patterns the entire day. Anyway one of my traveling companions showed me this picture first thing at the shop and the book immediately had to be bought. Isn't it cute?

But what I decided to make is the quilt on the back cover.

I am truly in love with it. Now, mine will not be quite so brown as I am using a variety of dark strips. And I am not going to do the stars. I don't think the quilt needs them. If you look closely around the edges you can see where the borders fit in. This is interesting construction. Instead of doing something like setting triangles you make the borders with graduated sizes of strips. I am glad I didn't have to do the math for this quilt! The thing that is amazing is that the seams in the 5 border strips that you sew together are supposed to be offset by 3/4" and mine are coming out just that way.

This quilt has many blocks. It has the courhouse step ones like I mentioned plus plenty of log cabins. The log cabins are random browns and golds. I didn't have alot of golds either in strips or in the stash so to call some of them gold is a bit of a stretch but I think it will work out.

Here is the stack of blocks waiting to be laid out. You can see why this one is a strip eater, now can't you? I thought I would finish the borders before I started laying it out. I am anxious to see how it looks.

Stay tuned. Oh, and there are more pics from the Twin show. I just thought it was time to show you that yes, I really have been sewing!