Two for one

A while back, I purchased a bunch of fat quarters in a clearance sale.  I had no plan in mind, but the price of about $0.80 each was too hard to pass up, so I just picked up some coordinating colors.

They sat on my shelf (for close to a year, I think)  while I waited for inspiration to strike.  Inspiration came when I found the perfect coordinating fabric that combined all the colors:

The plan was to make a strippy quilt using the floral fabric to tie it all together.

I cut strips from each of the fat quarters, but I also needed strips of white fabric to sew in between them.  This was another time when my Stripology ruler was the perfect tool for the job:

You lay the slotted ruler down one time, make several cuts at once, and when you remover the ruler, you have all your strips cut:

Next step was to sew a white strip to each of the colored strips.

Strip noodles anyone?

I lined up the white/fabric strips on my design board until I got an arrangement I liked:

This was looking nice, but would not be wide enough for a kid's quilt, so I went back to the beginning and created a second set of strips:

Now the resulting quilt would be too big.  Just like Goldilocks, I needed to find the combination that was just right.  I cut one set of strips in half,  and then  I liked the proportions.

I sewed it all together, and added more floral fabric to make a border:

But...what to do with the leftovers from the strips I cut in half? That was easy, make a second quilt! I cut a 3rd set of strips from my original fat quarter bundle, added the white strips and created a second quilt.

I did not have enough of the  floral fabric left for a border on this one so I just made the outer white borders a little wider.

When all was said and done, I had two quilt tops to donate to Quilts for Kids. 😄

With the leftover bits, I cut out some squares for the upcoming months of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Being only 2 months into the challenge, we have not done aqua, green or blue.  I've got a head start!