April quilt date report

Here’s another reader who tried the April quilt date of piecing very thin lines – and even had a second date. Linda Laird tried the technique on two challenge pieces.

The first is a 16" x 16" quilt for Sue Bleiweiss' internet challenge group, on the theme "Passages". Linda used straight cuts, and varied the widths of the pieced-in strips. By using different colors for her strips, she highlights the over-and-under "weave" effect of the piecing, which tends to disappear if all strips are the same color.  I particularly like the way the lavender strip disappears for a while just above the center of the quilt, due to the stagger of the reconstituted slices.

The second was made for the San Diego Quilt Show. Linda explains, “The theme is ‘Calm,’ and the blue-green batik in the horizontal stripes is the challenge fabric. I cut these strips on the bias to see how much curve I could get before the background fabric bubbled. I also pieced the background fabric from torn length-wise strips, and then ‘pierced’ thru it with the straight cross-grain strips.”

Good work, Linda! I love seeing how different people take the same basic concept and go in different directions.  Thanks for sharing.