Free Quilt Progress

If you have followed Lollyquiltz for awhile, you know that I am always sewing two quilts at once, using leader/enders in an intentional way to create another quilt besides the one I'm currently sewing together.  Since I haven't talked about it for awhile, I thought the new year would be a good time to do an update on the Free Quilt I'm currently working on. 

 Usually, my Free Quilts have been  lap size projects, many of them donated to Rwanda. This time I am tackling something more courageous. I'm putting together a bed size postage stamp quilt using two inch squares of scraps and Kona white.

 Since last summer I have been creating these four patch blocks, a little here and a little there. That's how Free Quilts come about....slowly, but with little effort. First I sewed a white and a print together till I had a bunch.  Then those were paired to make the four patches you see here. Every so often, I have to replenish my stash of squares to keep going.

 To make it easier to keep track of how many blocks I have, I like to pin the finished ones together into groups of ten. I figure I need 638 four-patches to make a twin quilt. Doing the math, you realize that's 2552 total squares......whew!

Once my pile gets really large, I store them in plastic bags, with the number written on the outside so that I don't have to keep counting them over and over. Today, I pressed another batch and now have over 500 made. Yay!  I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The next step will be to sew these together into 16-patch blocks (still using them as leader/enders). Once that is done, I'll assemble my blocks into a bed quilt just as I would any  other project, and begin yet another leader/ender project.  I have plenty of time to decide on that, I think!! 

In case, any of you weren't reading when I originally posted about how to make Free Quilts, I think I will republish that  post. Try it in 2011. I think you'll love it!!