Scrappy Strings Quilt

This was another quilt I finished back in January and photographed when we were in Florida that month. It was a gift for my oldest brother and his family. I started on it at the end of November, just picking up some scraps on a whim and making string blocks on 8.5" squares of printer paper as foundations. 

The technique is similar to the string quilt in this book, only I changed the size of the blocks and I cut my strips to all different widths without measuring, some of them at slightly wonky angles. That really made this project go fast for such scrappy quilt.

I'm not 100% happy with the back. I wish I had made those pieced strips just as scrappy as the front blocks, but I was lazy and just chopped up 4-5 fat quarters to fill the space I needed. The gray is actually a tiny sketchy black and white print from Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics collection. I love that choice, but it would have looked a little better with more colors against it. No biggie. Just one of those choices you get  a better perspective on after everything is finished. 

The binding is a deep purple Joel Dewberry woodgrain print. 

The quilting is a little hard to see in places, and equally hard to do in those places. I did dense straight lines that crossed thru the solid star. But then in the leftover areas I free-motion quilted in scallops growing out from the star. By the time I got to the edges of the quilt, I was doing lines of scallops that got way too wide to be done very easily, but in the end it worked out. I like the contrast in the two quilting styles.

I can't remember exactly, but I think it ended up about 60" square. My sister-in-law especially appreciated the gift because she has started to really get into sewing too, even a little quilting. It's always fun to see someone new take up your obsession! My younger brother's wife is also a very good quilter, so between us and my mom, we somehow ended up with a family full of sewing women. One day when we aren't scattered all over the country we'll have girly sew dates together :)

In the meantime, my mom and I will be going to Sewdown Nashville together in just a couple weeks! I'm getting really excited about the workshops (seriously, check out our AMAZING teachers!) and fun social sewing time. Anyone else going??

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Scrappy Stars for Ruth

I started this project back in May (or maybe June?) I knew it would be a slow-burner that I took my time with. I really like having a project like that always going on in little chunks between the other things I finish more quickly. It's soothing and satisfying and eats thru the ever-growing bags of scraps. 

This one is just for Ruth. Ruth was one of my very best friends from 7th-12th grade. She is one of those people who everyone loves, and I was lucky enough to hang out with her constantly during my formative years. She was a big fan of the scrappy + & x quilt I made last year so she asked me to make her a crazy colorful quilt like that. For her? Of course. 

The block design is from Elizabeth Hartman's first book, Practical Guide to Patchwork. I just treated each block as it's own color story and pulled fabrics from my scraps, trying to use a variety of values for the backgrounds and star points.

 I also put my flying geese for each block together using the no-waste method instead of the traditional way.  I was always especially excited when I got the directional prints to all point the right way using that method. Like those lions. Geese victory!

The backing fabric is not the most original choice these days, but it's just too perfect for a scrappy quilt like this. The large script print is from Ikea and looks so striking on the back. The quilting is just dense straight lines made with my walking foot, about 1/2" apart. The feeling and look of that quilting is always worth the extra time to me. I took these pictures before washing the quilt, but man-oh-man was the crinkle awesome after I washed it. 

The binding is Domino Dot in Jewel by Violet Craft.  I love the way that color tied things together. And dots always look nice in binding form, I think.

I would have been finished with this quilt a little sooner had I not made really stupid mistakes with the backing. With the wide Ikea selvedges left on, the backing was exactly as wide as the top. So I went ahead and pin basted it without adding any wiggle room. Not a wise choice when you are planning to do this much quilting. So when I had the middle half of the quilting done and it became apparent that there was no way around that lazy decision, I had to take the pins out of the sides, trim off the selvedges and add on those long strips of dark gray. Re-baste. Finish quilting. Then, after all that, the bottom edge had shifted so that the backing didn't cover a little bit of the corned there. So aggravating! Such a rookie mistake to not making the backing a few inches bigger on each side. But I fixed it with a tiny sliver of quilt-as-you-go (pictured above), which didn't end up being very noticeable in the end.

The quilt is a large throw, about 60" x 72". Ruth should be picking it up from her post office box any time now and I can't wait for her to get it!

I'm entering this one in the scrappy category at the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I'd love to be nominated as a finalist because this is probably my new favorite of any quilt I've ever made. Even so, I was still happy to send it off to such a good friend who will really appreciate it. And it helps to know I will probably begin scheming up a new super-scrappy project to replace this one any day now. I can't resist the lure of my scraps.

Scrappy Trip Confession

Yes, I'm doing this too. I almost feel guilty and weak about it, because at first I swore I wouldn't succumb to the craze.  Then one day, without putting in much thought, I just grabbed my entire stash of blue fat quarters and began cutting them up in order to join in the #scrappytripalong that started spontaneously on instagram. 

It's fast and fun and satisfying each and every time a block is finished. It's based on this great tutorial. However, it's not so fast if you decide to make 56 of them for a queen sized quilt.

I'm now halfway there, with 28 blocks done. The top picture is my first 16, but after that my Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets arrived and all the blue ones were immediately cut up, along with some blues from her Constellations line, which I got at Sewn Studio. I'm loving the blocks even more with all those mixed in now.

I'm hoping I get to make more progress next week, after I finish the new baby quilt I shared with you last week. Sometimes it's just fun to join in, no pressure, no prizes or deadlines. Lots of people are finishing up their quilts now- check out the Flickr group for lots more inspiration. Or search the #scrappytripalong tag on IG. (I'm alittlegressica)




I also wanted to let you know that if you're a newer quilter in the Cincinnati area, I'm teaching a class on this block on Saturday February 9th at Sewn Studio. Check out their site and call the shop for more info.

Slow Progress vs. Instant Grat

This weekend I thought about all the projects I should be starting on, like my For the Love of Solids swap items or my play mat and town... Then I continued working on some slow cookers instead. I now have 19 Japanese + & x blocks done, plus a few more cut out. You can see all of them here. And now that the secret is out, I can tell you about the whole reason I became addicted to these and started this scrappy quilt. The first two I tried were for a sneaky collaborative quilt for Rachel, made by a bunch of us in the do. Good Stitches charity bee. What's funny is that she saw my first post about these blocks back in December and she loved them and was inspired to start the scrap-attack quilt along going on over on her blog. My first thought was that I had potentially ruined our secret gift quilt idea, because if you follow Rachel, you know she moves FAST. I was positive she would just whip up her own + & x before we could get ours together. Luckily, she went with her awesome scrappy triangle design instead, and of course she loved the gift quilt. And I guess it would not be horrible to have two + & x quilts? Anyway, I just thought it was really funny that her inspiration for the Scrap Attack was actually inspired by her. So meta...

I also completed a second Swoon last week! It's a little daunting that I still have 7 of these to make. (and they certainly take me more than 2 hours, more like 4!) But man, each one you finish is really satisfying in itself. 

And I just love the middle square on this one. So fun.

 As much as I love chipping away at my big quilty projects, today I needed to make something super quick. Something that I could see put to use immediately. So I grabbed a couple scraps and made headbands for our friend Lily who was over to play. There, my sewing put to good use right away. That's better!

Also, this one decided to take her first couple steps this weekend! I love that little baldy face!