A New Project

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try to make a Chinese Coins quilt. I started doodling and came up with this plan:

OK, I know... But to me it makes perfect sense. I had some Amy Butler (at least that is what my daughter said they are-please let me know if I am mistaken) fat quarters that I had cut just one strip from so I had 12 rectangles that were approximately 17" x 19". I also had some extra pieces that I had saved from the purse I made; these will come into play later.

I cut each of the fabrics into 5 strips measuring 3" x 17" (and one strip at 2 and 1/2" for a scrap binding). That gave me 60 strips for the body of the quilt.


I sewed 10 strips together at random to make 6 rows 17" x 25 1/2".


Here are all my strips at this point:


Carefully (read-this was harder to do than I thought it would be!) Cut each row in half to make 2 strips 8" x 25 1/2".

Then I sewed 3 sets together to make one long strip 8" x 75 1/2". Repeat to make 4 long strips in total.

At this point I had planned to just sew five (5) 8" strips of white fabric alternately between the pieced strips. Well, I did not have enough of any one fabric in my stash to do this. I tried to do it with 2 fabrics, then 1 fabric but making the quilt a different size, yada yada....

But then the quilt kept talking to me. I went shopping Monday and bought a pale pale yellow Kona solid and a bright green fabric that Katie said was perfect. The quilt told me that instead of plain fabric between the pieced fabric, it wants a appliqued VINE with leaves made from my extra pieces. So much for my quickie quilt! I plan to do the applique by machine but it will still take me a little while.

I will keep you up to date on how the quilt is coming along.