Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Scrap-A-Palooza Mash-Up

A little secret is I kind of pride myself on being able to judge fairly closely how many blocks I can get from a pile of scraps.  And most of the time, I am pretty accurate.  So I was quite surprised recently when my scraps that were supposed to yield me over 50 blocks only made about 36 blocks.  Hhmmm....Not nearly enough for me to make the quilt I had planned!

After I cut the required fabric for my Irish Chain Twist Quilt Along from all of my 1930's scraps, I decided to cut the leftovers into strings and make a baby quilt.  I was going to use the same technique I shared on the Scrap-A-Palooza string quilt.  Now with fewer blocks, I knew I would have to come up with a different layout.




 Then I remembered the layout for the Scrap-A-Palooza Ripple quilt I made.  So I decided to combine the quilts and make a Scrap-A-Palooza mash up!





I used Kona Snow for the solid and decided to add a few Snow strings into the blocks.  
I really like how it looks.




Because I only had 36 blocks, I just kept playing with the layout until I was able to use almost all of the blocks.  I think with this layout using 12 blocks in the center, I had two extra blocks that went into my Orphan Block Suitcase.  I will hopefully find a use for them at a later date.




I was even able to stretch a 1930's print I had with the use of a lavender solid for the backing.  I love it when a bit of creative problem solving results in a sweet finish!


A Quilting Chick 

And as awkward as it can look, I do sew my string blocks as a leader/ender project.  Working on your own leader/ender project? Don't forget to link up with A Quilting Chick this week.


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Linking up later this week with:

Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Richard and Tanya Quilts

12 comments:

Barb Neiwert said...

It's so pretty! I'm glad you ran out of fabrics, because this is spot on perfect!

Mystic Quilter said...

I'm a sucker fror string quilts and this one is lovely!

Kat Scribner said...

This is a beautiful quilt. A break between the string blocks is a bonus element. Love it.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

That is a really lovely quilt to finish off the scraps you had, and I appreciate you describing the honest process on how you came up with this design. How big did this quilt finish?

Jasmine said...

I really Ike this layout. The white really makes it extra sweet. A lot of times if I have a couple extra blocks I put them in the backing, but you are lots better using orphan blocks than I am.

Beth said...

Love this. I love string quilts and this really looks great with the white added in.

Lara B. said...

That is a great gift to be able to guess how many blocks you'll get from your scrap pile! this quilt, with its block shortage turned out to be quite serendipitous though Cyndy - it's a great design!

Anonymous said...

That has great visual impact! We so rarely see a string quilt in those softer colors, and with the white, it really is appealing. Thanks for sharing that.

Anonymous said...

Very much like how you resolved the shortage of blocks. "Necessity is the mother of............." and wha-la! Success (most of the time!). Have "pinned" the idea!

Judy Nichols said...

You used such a variety of scraps in this quilt and it turned out to be so very pretty. Love the use of the white, its the perfect compliment to bring it all together.

Loris said...

Lovely and inspiring!

Michele said...

I really like your solution. It looks great.

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