Nifty Thrifty by Bonnie Hunter - Quilt-A-Long- Week One

When I cleaned out the studio last month, I unearthed TWO completely cut quilt tops.  I used recycled men's shirts and the Nifty Thrifty pattern by Bonnie Hunter.  I'm pretty sure I did this back in 2014 when I was making quilts for all the grands.  Somehow, I must have jumped ship and these have lain ever since.  It's time to resurrect them.  (Picture at right is of Bonnie's quilt)

Everyone knows that we all get more accomplished when someone else is either working along with us, or watching our progress.  With that in mind, I had a vote in our Facebook group for a quilt-a-long and Nifty Thrifty won.  How cool is that?  I think everyone just took pity on my but I don't really care.  They are gonna get done.



I went to retreat at the beginning of this month and managed to complete one entire top thus enabling me to have a better idea of how to break it down for the quilt-a-long, which I intend to do the second one along with everyone else.  On the 15th of this month, I posted the first step of making the sashings and cornerstones.  It's now a week later and time for the second step to post.  Perhaps I should get the 1st one done along with everyone else.

At 9:17 a.m. I pulled out the strips that were cut in 2014 and started to sew, working my way through the stacks.

I just chained one strip right after the other and kept going until I was about 3/4 of the way through my larger strips.

Then I flipped them around and did the same thing on the other side of all those strips, creating a lovely snake behind the table.

 I have no idea how close I am.  Remember, these are shirts.  Not definitive yardage.  It's a guessing game.  I  decide to stop and do some cutting before sewing any additional strips.

That means a trip to the iron -

Followed by some time at the cutting table.  It turns out I'm a few short so I quickly stitch up enough to complete the task.  We are pressed and our picture is taken at 10:30 a.m.  Not too shabby AND I even folded a load of laundry in there.  I promised an easy week and it was.

If you wish to quilt-a-long with us, this pattern can be found in Bonnie Hunter's Scraps and Shirttails book.  You better hurry though, as it is about to go out of print and is clearanced out in her store at quiltville.com.