Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #5 Part Three

With so much to do outside as well as inside this time of year, I am finding I am not getting into my sewing room as much as I would like.  Happily, I am usually able to find at least 15 minutes a day so progress continues to be made on sewing up those scraps!

We left off last week sewing together the blocks needed for this quilt.  I shared two possible blocks formats and even revealed some potential layouts.


Now it's time to get these blocks onto the design wall and come up with a final layout.

The layout of the blocks is fairly simple.  Depending on the colors you use and the blocks you choose, you can easily create different effects and make the final design your own.









To use up some older blue fabrics found in my stash, I decided to incorporate three different fabrics for my "streak" colors.  I just alternated them across the quilt.


You can see my streaks are different widths.  I acheived this simply by using a combination of the two block configurations.


Note:  The more variation you put in the quilt (blocks, colors and "streak" fabrics), the more difficult the layout becomes.  I relied on my design wall heavily when sewing up my blocks to ensure I made the correct configuration.

To help visually in laying out this quilt, it might be beneficial to build your blocks by laying out the "streak" first and then sewing the pieced part of the block onto each strip.  

Until you get going on the layout, it can get a bit confusing!

Once you get all the blocks on the design wall, you just need to sew up the rows.  On my quilt, the blocks were so busy, worrying about my points always matching up perfectly wasn't really necessary.

So the blocks go together really quickly....Love!







With all the piecing on the edges of this quilt, a quick tip to keep your seams from coming undone is to stay stitch along the edges of the quilt.  I do this on all of my quilts that don't have a border capturing these seams.

And finally, an outdoor shot of the finished quilt top.  While some of my fabric choices really blend in with the black and white fabrics, I still like how this quilt turned out.  Now to go dig in my stash for some fabrics for the back. 

This quilt has a real casual feel to it.  I can't wait to get it quilted up!

And speaking of quilting, due to the layout of the blocks, this would be a great quilt to slap on that walking foot and quilt long diagonal lines.  The piecing will help keep your lines straight - simply use the points on the squares as a guide.

Or, use the seams as a guide to quilt some serpentine lines and create a fun pattern on the back of the quilt.

I hope you try something slightly outside your comfort zone when you quilt up your scrap quilts.  They are perfect to practice on!

Here's an overview of the important stuff to do before the next step!

• Decide on a layout and finish up your blocks
• Sew up the top
• Dig in that stash for a backing (it is in there - just keep looking!)
• Try a new quilting pattern - something out of your comfort zone.

And remember, you can check out all of the previous quilts made in the Scrap-A-Palooza series by checking out the gallery tab. Not only are the steps to each part linked up but I have also shared quilts made by others so you can find lots of inspiration to sew up those scraps.

It always amazes me how far scraps go in making a quilt.  I must have really had this storage bin crammed full because even after making this quilt.....

 

 

...I still had this many squares left after I finished the top! 
 

 

I'll meet you here next week with my finished quilt!

I will be sharing this with My Quilt Infatuation, Sew Fresh Quilts, Freshly Pieced, i have to say, and Sew Much Ado.  Check them all out for more sewing inspirations!