Quiltville Challenge

A couple of blocks are twisted the wrong way, but you get the idea... 

I'd hoped to get more done over the course of Jo's challenge, but life was too busy for me to get much sewing done. I made some spools, and some lozenges, and I think I've got more than enough pieces cut to finish off  the lozenge quilt... a little progress on three quilts is definitely better than no progress at all, right?

Lots of Cutting for a Little Bit of Sewing...

My goal of the moment is to finish five scrappy little trip blocks a week. That doesn't sound like much at all, until you consider how many different fabrics it takes to make those blocks. 

Twenty-four different fabrics for a 12x12" section of quilt. And somehow I still think this is a good idea....

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and Jo's Country Junction.

Scrappy Little Trips Around the World

I've been working on Lozenges and Spools and hoping to find that ruler sometime soon so I can start cutting Tumblers. As soon as saw the fabric from the Craigslist ad on Wednesday morning, I started to think of which of my scrappy UFOs I could start cutting pieces for. 

Scrappy Little Trips was at the top of my list, since there are fabrics in my newly enhanced stash that I know aren't in here already. I've almost given up the idea of trying to make it without any repeats, but it's still tempting. I've got the  fabric... it's whether or not I have the patience. 

(The idea for this one isn't my own -- I saw the 6" Scrappy Trips blocks that Karin at Cascade Quilts had made and fell in love.)

Jo is starting a new “finish a UFO before Bonnie Hunter has her new mystery out” linky party tomorrow. I've got so many irons on the fire right now that I  doubt I'll get one of my quilts finished, but I can definitely make some progress!

I'm in no hurry here...

I tend to rush through the baby quilts and the projects I'm making for tutorials, because I'm usually anxious to share them with you. When it comes to the scrap quilts that I'm making for myself, though, I'm in no rush. Little trips is a perfect example of that.

The blocks are fiddly -- in case you haven't seen this one before, I'm doing Bonnie's Scrappy Trips Around the World in one and a half inch strips, so the blocks finish at 6" square. It's not hard, but it does require some focus.  My dream version of this quilt would be sixty inches square and only use each fabric once. I've got the scraps to pull that off, but I don't think I've got the organizational skills to keep myself from repeating fabrics, especially since the same prints tend to turn up over and over in scrap bags from different sources.

And then there's the color placement. When I was cutting scraps for the green baby quilt, I cut green strips. What I need will go into this quilt, the rest will go into the bin for my Lego quilt...but now I've got twenty green strips and they're going to have to go into twenty different blocks. So before I do any piecing,  I need to do more cutting.

So that's why this one is sort of a UFO, but not one I feel at all guilty about.

these blocks make me happy

Little Trips wasn't one of the NewFOs I had on my list for 2013. Then I started seeing everyone else's Scrappy Trips Around the World and pulled out Quinn's green quilt to finish it. And I saw that Karin at Cascade Quilts had made some blocks with 1 1/2" strips...

 

You know there's no way I wasn't going to try that!  

 

 

I love the bigger blocks made from the 2 1/2" strips, but these are something else entirely. It's easier to get 1 1/2 x 9" strips from my scrap bags, and they're just more fun. The blocks don't take that long to piece, but selecting and pressing and cutting the fabrics is going to be a long term project.

 

I'm trying to see how many blocks I can make without duplicates.

I've got yellow magnifying glasses left over from the binding of my Nancy Drew quilt, and some orange spiderwebs Mom gave me, which I love because they're orange spiderwebs!, and that green leafy pattern is from an old print with moths and flowers. I had a brown colorway of the same print and used it in a lot of my first scrap quilts. It's the one Heath could always pick out from a distance, so we'll see if he notices it in this one...if I let him  close enough to the finished quilt! Those pink flowers on the black background look an awful lot like some fabric I had fading problems with in an earlier quilt, but they aren't.

I'd planned to start my Keep Calm quilt for my February NewFO, but now Alex wants a low volume quilt and I just bought the neatest pattern for a star quilt. I guess I've got until tomorrow to decide between the possibilities. Maybe this challenge is helping me with my quilty self control....or maybe I'll wind up starting all three!  

This post is linked up to the NewFO Challenge at Cat Patches.
     

THIS is fun!

Next time, I need to put something next to the blocks for scale. I don't think you can tell from the picture that this only measures 18x24"

There are 72 different fabrics in these twelve blocks. I want to see how far I can get without any duplicates. I don't think I'll run out of fabric choices before I start to lose track and make unintentional repeats. But that's okay. However it turns out, there's going to be a LOT of different fabric in it!

I've been sorting through scraps and I've got a whole pile of new-to-me fabrics to cut 1 1/2" strips from.  The extra length from those strips goes into the little shoe box for my Lego quilt. And if the pieces are big enough, I cut a couple of bow ties, too.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

Scrappy Trips with narrower strips

 

My constantly evolving plan for this year includes making the fifty baby quilts and, because I know I'd get completely bored by all baby quilts all the time, making some big scrap quilts for myself. The cheddar bowties are top of the list, followed by my barely-started lego quilt and Scrap Vomit.

 

And this one, which is brand-spanking new and just got started last night: 

 

I've been seeing Scrappy Trips Around the World all over this week. I love that pattern, and a super-scrappy one has always been in the plan, but the fabric selection scared me. I don't know that I could get that many 16" strips out of my stash -- not in the variety of colors I'd want... And what if they fell in wonky places like my Blue Bargello? (I've finally made peace with that one and decided that it's one of my favorite snuggling up quilts. But I still don't love the placement of those dark blue strips.)

Then I saw what Karin over at Cascade Quilts had done with her Scrappy Trips -- 1 1/2" strips! Hers are from a honey bun and all nicely coordinated. Mine were raided from the pile of strips for my Lego quilt.

1 1/2" x 10" strips? I can cut those from almost anything!  I've already been going through my bags of strings and running the ones that are wide enough through my Go!  for the Lego quilt. If they're long enough, I'll take a strip for this project.

Everyone's pretty pictures make me want to hurry up and get Quinn's green Trip Around the World quilted, but I think I want to do that one on the longarm. Which is going to require scheduling.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.