Scrappy Two-Colour Quilt in Progress

You may have read about my upcoming Two-Colour Mystery Quilt-along, launching on February 29th.  Can you believe there are already close to 1,000 quilters signed up to participate?  I'm thrilled that I'm not the only one excited about it.

One question I've been asked more than once is whether you have to use a single dark fabric and a single light fabric.  That's how I designed it, but the question made me think beyond that.  What would a scrappy version look like?  I tried to mock it up but I find it hard to colour a scrappy quilt in EQ.  

What's a quilter to do?  Attack actual scraps, of course.

You can see I've restricted my selection to a single color and chose prints that read mostly dark compared to the white I've chosen for my light.   Some of the prints include white in them, but I rejected white-on-red prints that had large white parts, like the large white-on-red dot below.  The white accent was too large.  Where the white dot bled into the background, the line between light and dark wasn't as crisp as I wanted.

I could have chosen assorted white-on-white scraps for my lights as well, but I'm woefully short of white scraps so I'm using yardage of white Grunge that I had on my shelves.

I don't know how well the design would work in scraps of multiple colors, but I'm happy to report that "controlled scrappy" in a single color family is working out really well. 

I need to stop sharing now.  I really, really want to show you what this test looks like up on the design wall, but that would spoil the mystery so I'm stepping away from the computer!  The sewing machine is more fun anyway :)

Happy quilting,

Joanne

Quilting mom vs sane mom

As I was working my way through green scraps, my daughter sauntered into my quilting corner asking if I had a runner she could use on her dresser.  Apparently, contact lens solution occasionally splatters onto the dresser when she opens the packaging and she would like something to protect the dresser surface.

What's a mom to do?

Sane mom:  Suggest that she could simply take 5 seconds to wipe up the splatter when it happens.

Quilting mom: Root through the scraps for leftovers from daughter's bed quilt and whip up a little matching, improv, quilt as you go runner.

What can I say?  It was an excuse to use up more scraps in my ongoing scrap mitigation project.

Thinking outside the pattern

As you know if you have been reading along these last few weeks, my plans for this year include making a temperature quilt and reducing my stash of scraps.  Just look at what Amy, who blogs at A Quilting Sheep,  has done with my free temperature quilt pattern and scraps.

I had been wondering how to use up my small scraps, and a perfect design was sitting right there on my design wall as my tempearature quilt takes shape.  I can start a whole new quilt, skipping the temperature part for this one but using the block design and layout to use up scraps! The wheels in my head are turning...

Amy has written a great blog post with suggestions for using my free pattern for quilts other than a temperature quilt, and even shares her measurements for larger blocks.  I encourage you to hop over there for inspiration.  Thanks for reaching out to me, Amy, and for thinking outside the pattern!

I might have started a valentine project using my red scraps and Amy's creative nudge...

Scrap Mitigation

I previously stated that one of my quilty goals this year was scrap busting.  Having now assessed the state of my scrap bin, I think that may be an unrealistic name for what I might accomplish.  These are just the little bits.  I also have plastic  shoe boxes of larger scraps sorted by color.

A word to the wise:  never, ever take the lid completely off the scrap bin!  All I wanted were the greens, as that is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge's color this month, but everything else made a break for the floor when the lid came off.

While everything was on the floor I figured I might as well sort it. I bagged each color in two-gallon ziplock bags to keep them sorted and put all except the bag of green scraps back in the bin.  I happily went to work making 16-patch blocks to deplete the pile of green.

I made more after I took this picture.  The count stands at 35 now. I tried very hard to just sew strips together without too much planning.  The color placement is very random and it's making me a little bit nervous about the final product.  Maybe those olive green bits should have been left out, but they are not coming out now!

As these were coming together, I felt very industrious. Just watch me use up those scraps! That feeling lasted until I looked at the supply of green scraps at the end of the day and found that I had hardly made a dent.  This led me to a few decisions:

1.  I won't be busting my scraps this year.  The best I can hope for is scrap mitigation, making the scrap problem a little less daunting.  It is by no means going away! I may have added a few new green scraps already...

2. I do not have the patience to make crumb blocks out of little itty-bitty scraps.  Just slapping strips together to strip piece these 16-patches taxed my patience.

3.  I give myself permission to toss some scraps.  I may toss them into a pillowcase to make a pet bed for the local shelter, but not every scrap needs to be saved.  That mostly applies to small bits (see #2 above), but also to slightly larger bits in fabrics that I just don't like.  I'm not sure how they snuck into the scraps.  Presumably, they came from a project, but I just can't imagine why I would have put them in a project in the first place.  I guess my tastes must have changed.

4. I really don't work well without a plan.  Halfway through making these blocks I just couldn't stand it anymore.  I had to sit down with EQ8 and figure out what I was going to do with them before I kept going!

I might tweak this a little, but I have a direction.  I also have white on white scraps, enough of one grey from trimming backings, and small bits of red/orange/yellow.  I can make this whole top without buying and cutting yardage and thereby adding to the scraps.  I might possibly manage an all-scraps pieced back too.  This might just be a net reduction in total scraps.  Fingers crossed!

Oh dear, those 3 dark greens in a row in the block above are going to bother me now.  How did I not notice before?

Linking up with

Scrap Happy Saturday
Oh Scrap!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Scrappy entry

It's Blogger's Quilt Festival time again, and this time it didn't slip past while I was otherwise preoccupied! Thank you Amy for organising and hosting again.  If you are new to my blog, coming over from the Festival post,  welcome!  I hope you stay and visit a while.

Without further ado, here is my entry in the Scrap Quilt category.  If you've been reading my blog, you've seen it before and I hope you don't mind a repeat viewing.  It's one of my favourites from the past year.

Lucky Bugger quilt, 50"x 60"

Lucky Bugger (so called because that was what the doctor called dad) measures 50" x 66" and came mostly from my scrap bins.  I had to raid the quilt shop for the dark blue background/border fabric.  The design is mine, based on traditional blocks. 
 

It's basically a traditional Ocean Waves quilt, with a little careful color placement tossed in to get the stars. 

The sailboat was cut out of a piece that I pieced from scrap strips.

This quilt was entirely quilted with my walking foot.  Have I mentioned I love my walking foot?

I'm off to view all the other eye candy in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Spring Bloom Block Tutorial

After I posted pictures the spring blooms quilt I made last spring, I received a lot of requests for a block tutorial.  It's been slow coming, but here it is!

Fabric and Cutting

For a single 10" block you will need:

      4 - 4" squares assorted scraps (A) (I used different prints of one color)
      4 - 2" squares background (B)
      4 -  2" x 4"  background (C)
      4 - 2" x 5 1/2" background (D)
      4 - 2" squares green (E)

I made my flowers from scraps,  but I used just one fabric for all my block backgrounds to make the blooms float on the quilt.  It might be interesting to use a variety of neutral scraps for the background and see how that looks.  If you give that a try, please share a picture!

Pressing instructions

As much as possible, I plan my pressing so that seams will nest when I join units. I find my corners match better when I do this.  If you follow the pressing directions as given, you will be able to nest any seams that meet within the block, as well as when you join blocks together side by side without sashing.  I don't know about you, but I love it when that happens!

Piecing Instructions
  
1. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of each 2" square (background and green).

2. Place a background square B on one corner of a color square A, right sides together.

3. Sew along the marked line. Cut the corner off 1/4" away from the sewn line. 

4. Fold background fabric back to fill corner.  Press.

5. Position the unit with the triangle at the top right corner.  Sew a background C on the right as shown. Press towards C.

6. Place a green square E on the right end of one background D, with the marked line starting at the top right corner.  Sew along the marked line.  (I find it works best to sew towards the corner rather than starting the seam in the corner. When I start at the corner there are even odds that the corner will get caught up in the needle plate.)

7. Cut the corner off 1/4" away from the sewn line.  Fold background fabric back to fill corner.  Press.

8.  Sew the DE unit to the ABC unit as shown.  Press towards the ABC unit.

9. The quarter block unit should measure 5 1/2" square. Repeat steps 2-9 to make 3 more units.

10. Join pairs of quarter blocks as shown.  Press seam to the side with the green triangle, as indicated by the white arrows in the picture below.

11. Join the two halves to complete the block.

12. Press half the seam towards the green triangle in that half of the seam.  Press the other half in the opposite direction, towards the green triangle in that half.  In the middle, on both sides of the center point, use your fingertips to push gently in the directions that you pressed.  This should open up the seam at the intersection of the four blocks into a little four-patch.  Press. 

Read more and watch a short video 
about spinning seams this way

 
You now have a completed Spring Bloom Block!

Make a few more and decide whether to set them in a straight set or on point, with or without sashing. Just play and have fun with your Spring Blooms.  OK, it's currently late summer, not too long until fall, but if you start soon you can have them for next spring!

In the quilt pictured below, the blocks were set on point with no sashing. If you would like to set your blocks this way, cut the side setting triangles by cutting 15 1/2" squares diagonally twice.  For the corner setting triangles, cut 8 3/4" squares diagonally once.  For more guidance, read my blog post about setting blocks on point.  

This one has blocks set on point with no sashing.
Approximately 56" x 71"

Go here to see what the on point layout would look like with color setting triangles!

For more bloom inspiration, check out my collection of flowery quilts.

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