Just One Slab - Albertan Relief Quilts

Last night I was browsing through Quilter Blogs and stumbled across a great charity project:

Naptime Quilter Blog

Here's the run-down: As you may be aware, southern Alberta suffered a horrible flood recently and while the immediate danger is gone, many people are still suffering and in need.  Cheryl Arkison is organising quilt block donations - just the blocks - which will then be sandwiched and quilted by local quilters and donated to recovering southern Albertans.  Sounds absolutely awesome and brilliant!

I've long thought about making a scrappy quilt.  I'm one of those people that hates to throw away even small scraps, be it fabric or pretty paper, so the idea of using up those little bits really appeals to me.  However, the OCD part of me often struggles with the complete randomness and lack of cohesion scrappy quilts typically embody.  But the colourway slab idea that Cheryl is using is awesome - scrappy but organised enough to make me happy inside.  I also love that there's no pattern involved, no measuring - just sew randomly as you please; it's like a fun jigsaw puzzle figuring out how to put all those scraps together in the best possible way, such a fun challenge.

So first thing this morning I dug through all of my fabric and picked out scraps and pieces of fabric I knew I wasn't going to use or was happy to donate.  Here's my piles:

It doesn't look like much here but there's plenty even for 15.5" blocks!  Next I sorted everything into colourways and got started sewing.  Oskar made sure to lend a hand with the tedious job of pressing the fabric.  He's extremely helpful that way.

So far today I've sewn four blocks and I have plans to continue with more.  I'll take photos to share tomorrow when there's better daylight so stay tuned for more.  I've been enjoying sewing these blocks so much I'm even thinking of making one for myself after I've done a set for the charity; they're just so fun and easy to whip up and they look really striking - a modern twist on the scrappy.

If you're a fellow quilter, I encourage you to please visit Naptime Quilter and help Cheryl with this thoughtful project - a little goes a long way!