Blanket Chronicles

Making Strip Quilts

On a recent Saturday, 9 blanketeers got together to make strip quilts at our meeting location, the Bunny Hop Quilt Shop.  One of our blanketeers, who specializes in strip quilts, led the session.  She brought an amazing variety of fabric strips cut in different widths.  The blanketeers sewed strips together. Then another volunteer ironed the seams open.  The strips grew in size until we had four teen-size quilt tops.  You can see photos of them here as they are being sewn together.

At the end of our Saturday session, a few blanketeers volunteered to take the strip quilt tops home, add batting, backing, quilting and binding.  You can see the finished quilts below.

Project Linus labels were attached and the blankets were ready for delivery!

Our Blanket Saturdays are probably not much different from the quilting bees a few generations ago.  The good news is that we have so many quilting tools like   rotary cutters, good light overhead and electricity to run sewing machines. Hand quilting is lovely, but takes time to do.

As the sewing machines hummed along, there was lively conversation and lots of laughter.  The bond that develops between the blanketeers is stitched into those quilts along with the hope that each blanket will provide some warmth and comfort to a child in our community. Blanket Saturdays are good for our spirits…..we can have fun while creating something for someone else.