A quilter whose work I really admire is Sherri Lynn Wood. I've never met Sherri, but I keep up with her thru her blog, daintytime.net.

Here's one of my all-time favorite quilts in the world -- made by Sherri a few years ago --

I snagged that photo from Sherri's blog, by the way.

Sherri also leads a Facebook group called The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, which is also the title of a book she published, a copy of which I own.

So, suffice it to say that I'm a Sherri Lynn Wood fan.

Sherri's latest project is something she's calling #makedochallenge and giveaway. You can read all the details on her blog, but here's a brief synopsis: Concerned about the huge, world-wide problem of textile waste, Sherri is encouraging quilters to make more quilts from discarded fabric. That is, to recycle. Of course, quilters have been recycling for years and years and years. (Think "patchwork.") And some folks who don't know much about quilting think that's all we ever do. But they're worng. Nowadays we quilters are much more likely to run to the fabric store or the internet and invest in new fabric every time we start a new project. I know I do. Sherri's prompt got me thinking, though, and I'm determined to try to use more recycled fabric.

One part of Sherri's project involves our posting photos of our projects in which we've used recycled fabrics. Here are two of mine, below, featuring men's plaid shirts I bought at Goodwill. I still have the pockets and collars and cuffs and plackets and plan on using some of those in some project or other in the future.

... But Loose" is what I'm calling this top I just finished piecing --

Made from re-purposed plaid shirts I bought at Goodwill, this top is composed of 4-inch squares, 6-inch squares, 8-inch squares, 10-inch squares, and 12-inch squares. Each square is fine-line pieced using the method devised by Kathleen Loomis, an art quilter whose work I very much admire. Here are her instructions for fine-line piecing, which I adapted a little bit.

My plans are to machine-quilt this top, in moderately dense straight horizontal lines -- but I might decide to add a border first. What do you think? Should I add a border? If so, what color? How wide?

If the weather allows, I'll leave tomorrow to drive out to daughter Coulter's YaloRUN Textile Studio in Water Valley, Mississippi, to teach the second half of a beginner Rail Fence quilt workshop. I look forward to seeing what the seven students have produced. A few of them have posted some fine sneak peeks on Facebook. I can't wait to see all of them! Check back in a few days for photos and a report.

“Genocide at Horseshoe Bend”

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