Summer is Coming

I know that summer officially arrives later in June but, I believe like most people, I think of Memorial Day as the beginning of summer and Labor Day as the end. All the summer holidays are patriotic and so I display all my red, white and blue quilts from Memorial day until Labor Day.

Last year in the spring I made some hutch mats in spring fabrics and made some for fall but I used red, white and blue regular sized place mats on the hutches in the summer. They were OK but after I used the ones I made specifically for the hutch I found they were much more useful as they cover the entire surface where I set things at meal times.


Hutch mat 14 x 28

Yesterday I looked through my red, white and blue scraps and it was a meager bunch. I bought a fat quarter bundle to augment my scraps and I set to work. In the end I didn't use anything from my FQ bundle. I looked through my 1 1/2 inch and 2 inch log cabin strips and found some I could use and I opened up a shoe box of long ago left overs from a RW&B Pineapple quilt. I had all the little strips sorted by size and color and wrapped in muslin strips waiting for the day when I would make another Pineapple quilt. Not only am I using these strips but what is left will go into the general pool and I will have an extra empty box. I plan to make one more hutch mat like this and I am thinking about if I want to make one to cover the top of the coffee table with it's always dusty glass top. If I do it will need 3 pineapple blocs along the length and then the chevron strips. I am thinking it might be overkill with the runner/mats and after I make one more hutch mat that might be enough RW&B sewing for me.