A Bluestocking Knits

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching — less than two weeks left of classes!  I have been volunteered, nominated, and elected, from a pool of exactly none, to be in charge of uniforms for the marching band next year, requiring not a little bit of prep now, and David offered my services as librarian to the director to re-catalog the instrumental music library (which, to be honest, although is time-consuming is the kind of thing that I really enjoy!).  And Girl Scout day camp is not long after the last day of school, and since I somehow ended up (see "pool of none") as the assistant director of the day camp, I have been busy helping to sort out kerfuffles small and very large indeed ("What do you mean, somebody else has booked the park that week??").  On the bright side, I get to be a unit leader again this year, my favorite part! after having to sit it out last year and administrate.

So, ha-ha, I need another project kind of like I need a hole in the head, really, but there it is — I want to make something for an upcoming baby gift, and I remember how useful a smallish quilt was for my girls, so I've decided to make a quilt.  I was thinking of something rather spare and architectural, a riff on a Hopewell quilt, perhaps, then saw one that was more-or-less the Chinese Coins (also known as Stacked Coins) pattern but without any sashing between the "stacks" and with the "coins" of irregular sizes.  Almost at the same moment, I saw Moda's "Boro" collection fat quarter bundle, which is no less than thirty fat quarters, most in various shades of beautiful indigo, with some browns and tans for a bit of contrast.  I think this will make an interesting quilt that is not only handsome it itself but also isn't the traditional "baby" look.

My idea is to trim the fat quarters to a uniform width (the long way) and then cut each into thirds, which would result in pieces roughly 6-7 in. wide (depending on shrinkage) and cut those into varying heights between, say 1 1/2 and 3 in., then "stack" them into 5 strips each 5 1/2-6 1/2 in. wide.  These five stacks sewn together would make a quilt roughly "baby size," which is about 30 x 40 in.  Or, if I want to end up with a larger quilt — closer to, say, 52 x 36 in., the "standard" toddler/crib size — I could cut the fat quarters in half instead of thirds.  I am not even a mildly experienced quilter, mind, so if anyone reading this spots right off that it won't work, please speak up!