Because I've Got Fabric With Polar Bears on It...

I had four yards of fabric with polar bears on it and one finished blue baby quilt top. So I made a second top. That left me with enough fabric to back a third blue baby quilt, so I pieced another top. 

The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World. To keep the quilt symmetrical and baby-quilt sized, I used 2" strips.

Aside from laying out the strips to see if any of my blues were oddly glaring, I let the colors fall randomly. Am I the only one who sews the blocks together and then waits until the light is good for picture taking to actually look at the finished quilt?

The backing and batting is cut to size and I've got just enough fabric for one more quilt, as long as I keep it small and/or piece the backing a bit.

I've got to admit that I'm not a fan of this fabric, but it's quilt shop quality and suitable  for babies and - at probably fifty cents a yard - it was definitely the right price!

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.