A couple of months ago, one of the ladies in our quilt group did a class on borders. I figured that was yet another great way to use an ugly fabric, especially one with a repeating geometric pattern. I fussy-cut the fabric out in the following example, and used a courthouse steps pattern to make the blocks. If I were making a whole quilt like this, I would probably applique something in the center of the blocks, just to add another dimension to the quilt!
Admittedly, the fabric patterns for a successful stack and whack should be a bit more busy, but I like the way this fabric turned out with this block – and there are a couple other repeating patterns in it that would make it possible to make at least three, if not five different stack and whack blocks – especially by just turning the fabric the other direction (horizontal vs. vertical) when cutting out the triangles! What do you think?
I have to teach our monthly quilt group meeting tonight and the subject is ugly fabric. Now, none of us may admit to buying ugly fabric today….but, I bet if you looked through your stash at fabrics you bought a few years ago – you may decide that one (or more) are just plain ugly! Or the fabric design isn’t in style anymore.
The first time I heard anything about ugly fabrics was when I saw Mary Ellen Hopkins talking on a television show (years ago) that there was no such thing as an ugly fabric. She said if you paired it with the right non-ugly fabrics, you’d take the eye away from the ugly and it would blend in so you didn’t even notice it. I totally agreed and decided then and there that while building my stash, I would buy fabrics on sale, even if they were ugly.Â
After reseraching the topic for a while last night, I found some quilt designs that are perfect for ugly fabrics. The first was a foundation pieced string quilt. I found a great history of string quilts here and some more great information about them here.Â
This is what I came up with for my blocks:
First, I sewed my strings of fabric to the foundation muslin.
Then, I squared up my block so it was 12″ square
I made four blocks and pieced them together – and what a fun and simple quilt to make, using up some stash scraps as well as hiding the ugly fabric in it!
Last year, I put together my first crazy quilt, but haven’t had a chance to finish it until this past weekend. My cousin in Iowa is a part of ABATE (A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education), and they are taking donations for an auction for their Toys for Tots run in the near future. My friend Meloney handled the fabulous quilting. I’m happy to donate and happy that it’s going to a good cause … not to mention I love my cuz to pieces and would do whatever I can to help her find joy.
