Cool Regatta

This has been an odd week around here, but it's also been a great week for me to get things done. Many of the the things I normally do in a week got cancelled this week, so I had a little bonus time on my hands.  I did a lot!  Let's see. . .I wrote a couple of paper proposals for conferences, worked on learning the ins and outs of graphics software, did a bunch of laundry, and one more thing I can't remember.  Oh, yeah-- and I finished this happy little quilt!

This is one of the smaller versions of the Regatta quilt that I've been making to use up a solid jelly roll that had been hanging around here for far too long.  I'm making two, one in cool colors and one in warm colors.  Obviously this is the one in cool colors, but I had to throw in one red stripe, just because.  Don't worry, the warm one has a blue stripe, too, just because!

I made this quilt in quilt-as-you-go style, which made it very easy and very fast.  The only problem I had was the pinked edges on the jelly roll strips.  Those are a pain in the butt, aren't they?  That's one of the reasons why I don't buy these any more. I've actually started cutting the pinked edges off of the warm strips:

This makes them a little smaller (about 1/4 inch) which will make the warmer quilt a little bit smaller, but it will be a bit easier to construct.  One tip I have for the quilt-as-you-go process is to use a couple of dots from a glue stick on the edges of the strips to hold them still while you stitch the next strip on.  You'll still need pins, but fewer of them.

I like this little quilt and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but I think it could use a little more quilting.  It's not going to come apart or anything, and it's very cuddly, but I think it might look better a little more densely quilted. For the next one I plan to stitch down the centers of the strips as well.  I think that should help a lot, at least to my eye.

This quilt finished up right at 40 by 50, which is exactly where I wanted it to be.  For the binding I used some more of the strips from the jelly roll.  I think that this means that I'll use up all but about two strips, which means that the jelly roll will be gone and almost all the parts will be in a quilt!  Yay!

This little quilt is destined to be donated to Sarah's Hands to Help drive a little later this year, along with its warmer-colored counterpart. I have a couple more ideas for donation quilts, too, but they're going to wait for just a bit.  I'm excited about the Monet's Wedding Ring quilt that I just started and another quilt I'll be starting this coming week.  That one is a free-pieced quilt, which I find quite relaxing.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm not sure what we're doing, but I'm hoping it involves something fun and some chocolate, too!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, crazymomquilts, and Finished or Not Friday.