Are all of you having a hard time like me pulling yourself away from all the great blogs participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day? I have to keep reminding myself there is a LOT of sewing to get done this month!
And one of the projects needing attention is the December Scrap-A-Palooza quilt.
To refresh your memory (or for those new to my blog!), this month I am using scraps to put together a stacked coin quilt. And rather than use a solid for the background, I will be using a large floral print I trimmed from the backing of a previous quilt.
Because I have a limited amount of this floral fabric, I need to get the best yield from these pieces that I can. So the first step is to measure all of the pieces. Here is what I have:
- 16.5" x Width of fabric
- 7" x 67"
- 4.5" x 75"
This means I will get 3 strips from the large rectangle. So if I add all the lengths together (75 + 67 + 40 + 40 + 40), I get a total of 262" when all the strips are sewn together..
I would like a quilt that is about 60" long (262 / 60) so with this fabric, I will have 4 vertical strips that are 65" long.
To determine how wide my scrap strips for the coins need to be, I need to do a little more math. If I want a quilt about 55" wide, and I have 16" in these vertical strips, I need to come up with about 39". If I put coins between these vertical strips and up each outer edge, cutting my coins to 8.5" wide will get me what I need.
Now it is time to cut some fabric! I do try and have lots of sizes of rulers on hand. Because I am cutting at 8.5", having a ruler just the right width makes the cutting so much faster. And so does having the ability to cut with both hands!
I did start with some of my bigger scraps. With the narrow vertical strips and the wide coins, visually, I wanted some larger pieces to keep the quilt from getting too busy.
As I cut pieces, I just loosely placed them up on my design wall.
I used the floral strips to pull my scrap colors. You can see I am using a tiny bit of orange, black, yellow and green to work with all of those purples.
Once you get the bulk of your coins cut, you can start sewing the strips together
This night-time shot really doesn't show these colors all work together. Boy, there are some really old scraps in this one!
I will keep sewing up my scraps and will be back in about a week with a finished quilt top. Not only does this quilt really use up some scraps, but it can be sewn together really quickly! In just a few hours, I made a ton of progress.
Hope you find time this week to sew!
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12 comments:
This quilt is really coming togeter so quickly and it looks great!!
Great scrapbuster! Loving those punchy orange and yellow accents. Thanks for linking up to #scraptastictuesday!
Interesting how that big print changes when you put the coin blocks next to it. Really like how it is turning out!
You are so right about getting sucked into the Sew Mama Sew giveaways! haha! I was much more productive yesterday than I was on Monday. I like your tip for starting with the wider coin fabrics, and yay for quilty math!
What a great use for the floral scrap. I like how wide your coins are.
This is looking lovely & scrappy, and I love the colour combo! Look forward to seeing the finished quilt! Linda
Love the idea of using your scrappy floral for the vertical strips. The colours you have pulled look great too.
Very fun! Love the floral.:)
I love the colours you've chosen and that bold floral for the sashings is inspired!
Your color sense is great. The coin colors tamed down the beautiful, very bold floral stripes. I can't wait to see your finished quilt next week.
Ah, such a neat idea to work backwards from finished size to figure out the dimensions of the pieces! This quilt is looking rich!
Great colors. I love how this quilt is turning out
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