Strip-easy Beach Cottages Wall Hanging

While my husband is ‘working’ in Hawaii this week, I dream of being at the beach. More than dreaming, I made this wall hanging entirely with strips from my scrap drawer, keeping in line with the Strip-easy Quilt Challenge which is coming up at this blog on May 26. It measures 32″ x 18.5″, pieced using Aurifil threads as always, quilted using matching variegated thread.

I started by stitching together the strips. I had no idea what to do with the resulting strata, so I cut it into 8 rectangles, and waited for inspiration. When I heard my husband was going to be in Hawaii, and seeing I had a strip of Hawaiian fabric in there, I turned each rectangle into a house by adding squares to the top left and right corners. As the cottages needed to be on the beach, I searched for beige fabric strips. Then, I wanted more beige/brown strips for the log-cabin-style borders, and there you have it. The ocean? Well, it appears on the quilting…

Here is the full wall hanging. Remember, I don’t necessarily have many strips of one fabric, so the borders have different strips on the left and top borders vs the bottom and right borders, as you can see better on the first picture. My eyes are drawn to the cottages, which is the effect I wanted…

How do you like it? Have you thought about what to do with all the already cut strips you have in your stash? I will keep coming up with ideas and posting them until the 26th, when we will have our linky party here.

Before I leave you, check out this picture I took last week while purchasing threads for embroidery:

A baby kangaroo! Isn’t he cute? He is part of the pet therapy program at the University of Utah. The lady was explaining how he will grow to be 5 feet tall and then… well, I have no idea what she said because I started petting him! A kangaroo at a craft store in Utah – have I seen it all? 🙂

Happy Wednesday!