Stash-Busting Batiks

A year ago, as DD Emma was about to graduate high school, I began a purple and gold quilt for her out of batiks called Bento Box.  The 2.5" strips used were from several packs of batiks, which I picked through for all the right colors. This left me with a lot of strips that had been gathering dust over the past year. A week ago Monday, when I was quilting with Sharon at her house, I just grabbed all the strips and my machine. I had no clue what I would make but since I had no other immediately available project ready for transport, this was my grab-and-go decision. How's that for spontaneity??

I recently shared a quilt by Terry of the Frankfort quilty girls that used 2.5" strips, so I used one of those as inspiration. I'll show you Terry's quilt again.

Now, I'll give you a glimpse of the blocks I've done so far.

The pile of strips.

The pattern, courtesy of Terry.

Progress.

A partial block.

And another.

Terry's quilt is well-planned and orderly, whereas mine is as random as can be. In assessing the look so far, I'm thinking I will try to be a bit more calculated in my placement for the last row around each block.

This started out being a very fun way to use up a pile of fabric. I had no intentions of using these strips or making these blocks, but I am very glad I did. Being spontaneous resulted in my feeling pretty darn good about this project.

Now I do have a potential unintended consequence. In order for the blocks to be more "planned" in the last row, I am considering buying just one more pack of batik strips. So much for stash-busting, huh?