![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5MwiSgsCNsECg7Tu8U0MepKPGCvEhlNdKqkWKD-lhY9ggg-ZF-Wnw_CuGKgGtpVL1wVlf_bqmAEjUfFWgGk2k9N30WRpyBvjG930LMPUKHMAFslJnSdCpyEdXMMkr1GFlngGs9PgT1-jo/s200/Cement+%27thank+God+we+live+in+America%27.jpg)
Oh, I meant spring strip quilts...just thought this picture might get your attention! Between Cincinnati and Maysville KY there's a huge garden shop that displays a parking lot-full of cement works of art. As my sister Mary Frances and I drove through, I snapped pictures right and left. This was my favorite. The grouping makes me think it needs a caption. Something like,
" God bless America where we can walk in the sun-both clothed and nude."
Back to strip quilts-there's hundreds of different patterns you'd call 'strip quilts' and all they have in common is that fabrics are cut into strips and then sewn back into blocks. If you're not a quilter, don't question the logic of cutting up perfectly good fabric and then sewing it back together again. And if
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you're married to one, just be glad that quilting keeps us off the streets and out of the bars.
Back to strip quilts once again: strip quilts can be scrappy, funky, and informal or quite elegant. The Shadow Box quilt (image from an ebay listing) is one of the simplest of strip quilts: start with a square in the center and sew until the quilt's the right size.
A little further up the strip quilt tree is the Log Cabin pattern. Again start with a square but this time divide your strips into light and dark groups and sew the work into smaller blocks.
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When you have a pile of blocks, then have even more fun by arranging the blocks into some interesting overall pattern. The quilt pictured here (ebay image) is quite an individualistic take on a Log Cabin arrangement called Sunshine and Shadow. I like the way it's off-center and even has a few all-light and a few all-dark blocks. Like, "Fooled you! You thought this was an average Log Cabin-naaa!"
Then there's the queen of strip quilt patterns and the most dressed-up-to-go-to-town Log Cabin, the Pineapple block.
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It also starts with a square but eventually blossoms in eight directions. In the 20th century, pattern makers for quilting columns in the newspapers got ulcers trying to draft this thing but I make the Pineapple old-style: cut strips, lay down on a backing block, sew, and then cut to size. Works for me.