Orange to Zig and Grey to Zag

We went to visit my in-laws in Missouri over Christmas and one thing I like to take advantage of is all of the quilt shops there. My mother-in-law likes to quilt and it's something fun to do together. (In this case, she enjoyed helping me spend my money!!)

The fabric prices there used to be about half of what I would spend in my area, but not so much anymore. The shops set up in people's homes or garages are still a lot cheaper, but the larger commercial shops are now about the same price. But they have nice shops, good selections, and it's always more fun to shop with someone else.

So I may have picked up a "few" new fabrics. I got the idea to do a grey quilt, but of course I needed a least one other colour with it. I decided on orange. And then I went to see what I could find:

We found a lot of great fabrics. I have arranged them from dark to light to dark and the order above is the final one I settled on.

I wanted to make a zig zag quilt pattern that uses no triangle pieces. I mean, triangles are fine and all, but the simplicity of the rectangle pieces this pattern was made from really appealed to me.

So I cut three length-of-fabric strips from each colour:

I then arranged them so that 1.5 strips got sewn to the colour on its right and 1.5 to the colour on its left.

It was quite an organizational process!

I then pressed the seam and then the strips open:

Pressing is so satisfying!

Then I cut the strips into squares:

Arrange the squares right and you get zig zags:

The top half of the quilt.

And the bottom half.
(Obviously the whole thing doesn't fit on my
curtain/design wall.)

The width didn't fit on the curtain so although it looks a little long and skinny, the final quilt will be two blocks wider.

I got all of this progress done in one weekend (!) and had a great time doing it. For no good reason, I don't enjoy sewing in the room where my machine is set up right now. Being disappointed that I wasn't getting more sewing done, I pulled the machine into the living room and sewed on the large coffee table. It worked.

I've put it away again and I think I will be happy with this progress for now. And I'll enjoy looking at the squares on my curtains. A little brightness in what can be a colourless season.

I hope to have it done in time to show at the fair (end of July) and putting together the top shouldn't take long. It's all straight piecing and besides the corners of the squares, there are no seams to line up to make the design.