Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #7 Finish (Part Four)

Oh how I love playing with scraps and color!  This month's Scrap-A-Palooza quilt was really fun to work on so I finished it up very quickly this month!  I still have another week in the month and my lovely quilt is already quilted and bound!

 It all started the first week with a sketch and a pile of jeweled colored strings.  

For someone who says she doesn't buy much blue fabric, I sure do have a ton of blue scraps!

The second week was spent making the color blocks.  I had a great time playing with different string widths and fabric prints to come up with all my blocks.

To speed up the process, I rough cut my strings, sewed them together then cut the blocks to size.

Last week, my time was spent sewing in the sashing.  I made my quilt in three columns so the piecing was really simple.

In no time at all, I had the quilt top finished.

Well, here is the finished quilt!  I can't wait for the temperatures to cool so I can try it out. The colors in this quilt really do glow...it is hard to believe these beautiful colors were hidden away in the scrap bin!.

As I am really trying to purge some older fabrics this year, I used a wonderful purple batik on the back.  Because I didn't have quite enough, I added a lime green inset that runs vertically on the back.  And for the binding, I used the striped fabric that I trimmed off the back of the floral quilt I finished last week.  I thought it worked perfectly!

I always promote using these scrap quilts to step out of your comfort zone on the quilting, so I used variegated threads on this quilt.  I have never been a fan but many of my customers love them so I have a large supply of them on hand.  I really tried to keep an open mind but I gotta admit, still not sold on them.  How about you, are they something you like to use?





Why Scrap-A-Palooza?  Because Quilting is more fun than Housework!

And now for a few statistics:

Large Lap Quilt

Size: 56 x 66"

Fabric: Tone on Tone greens, blues and purple strings.(at least 8" long)

Total Color Blocks: 18 at 7.5 x 17.5" unfinished

  Background Fabric Used: approx 1.5 yard

Before I share what others are making, I want to remind everyone that links to this quilt and all the scrap quilts from previous months can be found on the Scrap-A-Palooza quilt gallery tab above.  If you have scraps, I am sure you will find lots of inspiration on how to use them!

 

Diann over at Little Penguin Quilts has been playing with her green scraps.  You can read about her quilt here.  I am really looking forward to seeing this quilt come together.

So are you curious what Quilt #8 will be?

I think it is time for one of my go-to string quilts.  And because I am growing tired of cool colors, I think I will pull out some hot colored scraps. I will have to see what inspires me!

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Pretty Bobbins, TGIFF, Richard and Tanya Quilts, Fort Worth Fabric Studio, My Go-Go Life and Sew Can She.

Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #7 Part Three

I don't know about you, but I am not finding much time to sew lately.  I have a number of projects I have been itching to work on but each day goes by in a flash and I haven't even visited my sewing room.  

So sad!

One of the projects I have been working on is this month's Scrap-A-Palooza quilt.  I was really starting to second guess the background fabric I had chosen so I wanted to get the top together to see how it looked.  Could I have made a big mistake?

Last week we started sewing together our color blocks.  For my quilt, I decided to use up the many green, blue and purple strings in my scrap bins.


I chose Kona Stone (over Ash) for the background fabric.


 




For this week, the first step is to get all the color blocks sewn up.  My design had a background strip sewn to the green end of each color block.  I also flipped every other block to create a staggered look.

Once the final layout is chosen, it is time to add some sashing.

I decided to sew my blocks in three columns.  My original design had wider sashing but because I was questioning my color choice,  I decided to make them thinner.  I cut my sashing at 1.5" x 17.5".  I pressed all my seams toward the sashing material to reduce bulk.

The thinner sashing required me to sew up more blocks to add another row on the bottom of the quilt to make it the size I wanted.  No worries, I still have plenty of scraps!

Once I had the three columns sewn, I measured the length of a column and cut some thin sashing to length.  I pinned and sewed in the sashing, matching up the horizontal sashing.

I also added a 2" border from the background fabric around the entire quilt.


I am happy I chose the Kona Stone.  It is such a wonderfully warm neutral.

I tried to get some outdoor photos but the wind kept messing up my shot.

And when I laid it out on the patio, I was nervous a neighborhood crow was going to "bomb" my quilt.  You can see his ominous shadow as he sat on a birdhouse just a few feet away.

I am very pleasantly surprised at how pretty this quilt is!  I love the vibrant jewel tones.  When this one is finished, it might be tough to give away!

Now, I am off to find a backing fabric.  With all the colors in this top, I am sure I have something around here that will work.  I think I will keep the quilting simple on this but play with thread colors.  I will share what I come up with before the end of the month!

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

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

• Finish up your blocks and decide on a layout
• Add sashing and 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. 

Scrap-A-Palooza!  Every month there's a party!!

I will be sharing this with My Quilt Infatuation, Sew Fresh Quilts, and Freshly Pieced.  Hop on over to see more sewing inspirations!

Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #7 Part One

Recently, I was reading a great post by Rachel over at Stitched in Color.  She was talking about that fabric that you have fallen out of love with.  She calls it unloved fabric - in my world, I refer to it as the Got2Go fabric.  No matter what you call it, it is time to accept that the love is no longer there and get to using it.

Rachel goes on to talk about ways to use this fabric and one option is to cut them in small bits and use them in patchwork as value-based.  Because then the fabric starts to be about the color and not about the print.  (The success to scrap quilts in my opinion.)

So I thought it would be fun to take this concept further this month and use our scraps as color and work through some of those "unloved" fabrics.

So my vision for this month's Scrap-A-Palooza quilt will be to use scraps and create a gradation quilt.

In the past, I have used my scraps in two different ways.  The first is to use busy prints and group them so they create a block of color.  I did this on my scrappy windowpane quilt.



















and the Geese Migration quilt (published recently in Quilty magazine).









The other method is to use fabric bits that read as solids (tone on tones) and gradate the color across a portion of the color wheel.  I am currently doing this on my Basket Weave star blocks.








A group I sew with recently did this on a donation quilt we made.  All from scraps - old, new,  modern, vintage, you name it, the prints are in there.

One of the things I found while cleaning out my sewing room was a bunch of thin strings I had cut for a project I have decided to abandon.  Many of the fabrics are batiks and most are really old prints.  I got out my graph paper and my colored pencils and sketched up a quick pattern where my plan is to gradate some blocks from green to blue to purple and stagger them in three columns across a quilt top.

My blocks are going to be quite big and my plan is to make a large lap quilt so I can burn through the huge supply of jeweled tone scraps I have accumilated.  Next week, I will share the measurements and how I make my blocks.  You may decide to make something a bit smaller or completely different.  The exercise is simply to start looking at your scraps as colors.

And you don't have top work in the cool colors.  Here is a little quilt I did as a class sample in yellows, reds and oranges.  For your project, just check your scraps and "unloved" fabrics and see what colors you have the most of.

For this quilt, we will also need a fairly large chunk of a background fabric.  I haven't decided on a final color yet but I did pull some of my larger solid pieces and will decide next week which one to use.

 

So how about it, are you ready to sew some scraps and build your color confidence?!?

I am keeping the homework simple this week.  Here is an overview:

• Dig through those scraps and determine your colorways.  We will be sewing with strings.
• Design up a pattern (or feel free to follow along with mine)
• Pull some possible background fabrics
• Most importantly, get creative and have fun!

Each month, I see more and more of you joining in.  I always love to share pictures and links to your projects. Feel free to grab the button in the sidebar to share with your readers so they know what you are up to.

And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Now let's get this month's party started!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation,  Richard and Tanya Quilts, Fabric Frenzy Friday , Fresh Sewing Day and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Hope to see you there!