Coloring with Fabric
When I lived in Corona, CA, I was part of a quilting group that used donated fabric to make quilts to give away. This must have been in the early 2010s. We could make the quilt tops, then a couple of the women had long arm quilting machines, and they would sandwich the quilts and finish them up. Here are a few I made. I experimented with sizes and patterns depending on the fabric I was able to get. I liked to take the brightest colors because other people wouldn't, but I personally do not like brightly colored quilts. I called myself the off-kilter quilter because mine were never quite "right." I decided after I made a few that what I typically do is "color with fabric."
This is one of the first ones I made. I was totally new to sewing tops together and had never made a quilt. I could handle sewing strips. Most of the quilts were lap sized or about 40-50"square. Later, we began to make twin sized quilts for the shelter for women and children. They could take the quilts with them when they left.
No, I didn't cut all these blocks. I cut long strips out of the ugly fabrics and sewed those strips together. Then I cut perpendicular strips across the long strips to make it look like smaller blocks. After that, I sewed the block strips together. Easy. I was too lazy to cut all those blocks, so I figured that out by myself.
This one was made with a finished center block that someone had donated.
The colors didn't look much better in person, but we were just taking photos to document, not really to show, so the lighting is not good at all. I used the same strips idea, but made different widths of strips. These were not width of fabric strips. I just used whatever size there was. Then I used wide strips of the aqua to fit them together. I was generally more interested in completion than design.
Here's one that I made by sewing together various unfinished blocks that were donated to the group. At least it was warm.
I really liked this cowboy one. We just happened to get all these neat fabrics. I think I had the center block in my stash.
I love this one. I wish I'd kept it.