Scrappy strip blocks

Sometime last year I cut a bunch of 2.5" strips to make a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt, using the directions on Bonnie Hunter's very generous free list of scrap patterns. This has been the project that I've taken to shop sewing nights, so it has taken me a while to work my way through the 256 strips that I started with. Last night I finished the last of the 42 blocks, so now the task is to decide how to assemble them. Here are the choices:

Scrappy Trip Around the World, blocks all aligned parallel. Ho hum.

Scrappy Trip Around the World, blocks arranged in diamonds.

Scrappy Trip Around the World, blocks arranged in chevrons. 

Scrappy Trip Around the World, arranged as one classic TATW

Scrappy Trip Around the World, nine blocks twisted away from parallel

Scrappy Trip Around the World, twisted arrangement #2 (but with some mistakes)

Scrappy Trip Around the World, more complex (but regular) twisting arrangement. I think this is the winner!

Maybe something more random and chaotic will win in the end, but for now, I'm leaning toward that last arrangement. I like how it looks like the lines are spiraling into and out of one another in a quasi-labyrinthine fashion. Time to take these blocks down off the wall and get started with the t-shirt quilt that my friend has been waiting patiently for over the last few months.

I'm excited about tonight, when my journal art group meets to pass along our color books, after two winter-weather cancellations.

Celtic Solstice: Denouement

Thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime series of circumstances -- specifically sniffly children occupied with post-holiday gifts and vacation television, a husband who cooks, a snowstorm followed by an Arctic cold snap preventing anyone from going out, a first-Friday sewing night, and NFL playoffs -- what was only three days ago a box stuffed with 3" patchwork units is now a completed, and rather large, quilt top.

Bonnie generously uploaded the final set of directions at midnight on New Year's Eve. (No, I did not get started right away!) I started mid-day on Wednesday, and had all of the blocks assembled by Friday morning. I took them with me to Lisa's on Friday night and came home with seven separate rows. After lunch today, I sewed the rows together (finished: 2:00 pm), cut the inner borders and attached those (3:30), stitched the pieced border triangles and attached those (5:30 pm), then got the outer borders on using strips of both yellow and green (because, you know, scrappy) by the middle of the fourth quarter of the first playoff game!

Celtic Solstice scrap quilt, 76 x 76"

Celtic Solstice: Week 5 units

Finished these Week 5 units in the nick of time for the Patriots game (go Pats!), and there's still another seven hours of football/sewing time! Woohoo!

I pieced these the regular rotary way, but I may consider using the special ruler if I ever find myself doing zillions of little triangles again...lots of the other mystery solvers seemed to find it very useful.

Cute little split-triangle units

Running total: 458 + 75 = 533. Maybe one more week of piecing before we start assembling the pieces? The homestretch is so exciting...

Check out the other posts at Bonnie's weekly link-up!

Celtic Solstice: Weeks Two, Three, and Four

Having now completed my Buddy-the-Elf I-got-a-full-forty-minutes-of-sleep! phase of the year, which included an unscheduled 500-mile drive to Pennsylvania for a really terrific family holiday and a football game (of all things), I actually have a few moments to try to catch back up with the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. It feels like the pieces are absolutely microscopic, but I think it's going to be a pretty neat quilt once it's all together.

The Week Two chevron units were devilishly grueling. Most of the time that it takes to cut 600 pieces involves ironing the heap of jumbled bits that are tossed into my color-sorted scrap bins. This is what the bins look like when I start:

Blech.

It took forever to tame the scraps into these little bits.

The directions for piecing these chevrons were very easy to follow, but the season being what it is, I only finished piecing and pressing the seams just this morning. I suppose they do look different than flying geese, but it bothered me that there was so much fabric waste. I will be interested to see the finished pattern so I can think about why they were pieced thusly instead of as twin sets of flying geese, which I can make with no waste.

Does it really matter??

Anyone want a pile of tiny triangles?

Finished chevron units. They're pretty, but time-consuming.

The Week Three diamonds didn't take nearly as long, although the Pittsburgh trip kept me from doing them right away.

Finished pinwheel units.

The fourth set of directions came out just before the final gift-stitchery weekend, so she made it pretty easy. Four patches? No problemo! These went together so quickly that I had time to catch up on the chevrons and finally take photos to get this post up for the Link-Up before the next set of directions is posted tomorrow.

120 four-patch units.

I love how all the colors of all these tiny pieces look stacked in their UFO box:

The collection of all the bits so far looks like a box of candy!

Math geekery: We need 625 3" units to make a 75 x 75" quilt. So far we have 96+92+100+50+120=458, which leaves 167 more units (although some of that area could be borders, which would throw off my calculations). What will tomorrow bring??

Celtic Solstice: Week One units

Cutting and stitching and pressing and trimming...these are a few of my favorite things... Actually, the trimming isn't that fun -- I can't trim 188 units in one evening, but I got the first 50 or so done tonight. That pace should have me ready for the next clue on Friday.

Here's what I've got so far (trimmed units on the board, scraggly units-in-waiting piled up in front):

Week 1 triangle-in-a-square units

This photo also gives a pretty true representation of the new color on the walls in the family room (which I, of course, think of as my "studio"). This is a really cheerful and well-lit place for making things! The color is called "Luscious Lips" which really cracks me up; it makes me think of this:

Now I really need to dive into Anna's "country music" journal page, which is hanging me up a little because I don't really like ANY modern country music, and I'm torn between kind of funny choices or more serious/artistic ones drawn from a previous generation of songs...

Celtic Solstice: A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

I had a lot of success with last year's mystery quilt (still unquilted, for those keeping score) that Bonnie Hunter provided, so what the heck -- I'll give this year's a try too. I really like the cheerful color palette that she chose:

Although the instructions specify a mix of print-on-white fabrics as the background of this quilt, I don't have a lot of those shirting-style fabrics (and I don't particularly like them), so instead I'm using a 2-yard cut of a great multicolored dot; all four of the paint chips looked really nice sitting on it:

The first "clue" came out this morning, and it was a doozy. I have been spending most of my time making quilts with really BIG pieces that showcase the awesome contemporary prints on the market these days, but this was the exact opposite. I'm considering it a chance to clear out some space in those ever-deepening scrap bins. Cutting all the little pieces for the first clue took over five (!) hours, and I still haven't started stitching the 188 units.

92 3.5" orange triangles -- so pretty in the morning sunshine!

These ones took forever - 188 pairs of blue side triangles

All 564 pieces fit neatly onto my little mat. The stacks of sorted blue triangles are fairly precariously balanced.

 Anyone else stitching along on this project?

Scrappy Trip

I have been cutting strips for Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt all summer. I wasn't thinking big when I first started the cutting, but the strips just kept appearing, so at this point I'm anticipating that this will be nearly queen sized. I have the first 11 blocks done:

Scrappy Trip Around the World: A first look

Scrappy Travels

In a desperate attempt to tame some of the scrap bins (again), I have started cutting strips to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt. In working my way through the green bin, I cut 55 strips already. Not a bad start. Now that I have the fabrics for finishing last year's Craftsy blocks, it's time to get started putting those together!

Stay warm, my fellow snowbound New Englanders!

Borders on Easy Street

The borders are ON my Easy Street quilt! Lisa found me the perfect purple batik to use as the inner border, and I had a lovely print of ginkgo leaves that worked perfectly, even to the slight hint of purple that coordinates with the scraps I used:

Ginkgo Leaf Woodland Mist, from Northcott's Stonehenge line

Voila! Now, to get this monster quilted...I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any "Finished" photos anytime soon, Faithful Readers...

A big finish!!

Easy Street: DONE. I owe it all to our viral contamination and subsequent quarantine. My goal for yesterday was to assemble the nine setting blocks, but once those were done, I decided to start stitching the rows together so I would have less to do today...and when that was done, I decided to sew just two of the rows together to get that out of the way...and then two more...and before I knew it, the whole quilt was in two big chunks. I left it like that overnight (my eyes gave out), then this morning -- after an insane fit of kitchen scrubbery that left me exhausted but with sparkling clean cabinetry -- I pulled those two chunks down and stitched them together.

Main block.

Setting block.

The whole shebang!

Despite its immense size, I think this still needs a simple border. I am really impressed with how Bonnie managed to break this huge project into manageable chunks. If I had seen it completed, I would NEVER have chosen to make this. There is a slight possibility that someday I may even make this again, using the vibrant colors that she suggested in the first place.

And tomorrow, I am re-entering the world!!!!!!!!!!

Easy Street progress

Still stuck in the house with sick boys. One now has a prescription for bronchitis, the other was treated for dehydration. Next time that one gets a cold, I will be a HAWK about watching him drink, whether he likes it or not. After a mere 400 mL of saline IV, he is starting to look like his old chipper self again.

So, with the quarantine still underway, I've been getting lots of sewing done. Here's my progress on Easy Street. The 16 main blocks are done and connected to the setting triangles. The remaining 8 alternate blocks are already sewn into rows, which I should be able to get together tomorrow during the first batch of NFL playoff games. Oh yeah, I am ready for some football! I could have this monster finished before the link-up on Monday!

Cruisin' down Easy Street

Another day of quarantine, another day of nonstop stitchery. I spoke to a nurse at our pediatrician's office, and she confirmed that there is just a brutally long-lasting cough virus wreaking havoc on the state, so we will just continue dosing the boys with OTC meds, herbal teas, honey, and rest. At least there's nothing serious to worry about, and I can feel less guilt about spending so much time in front of my sewing machine.

I have now finished assembling all of the corner and setting triangles for the Easy Street quilt, and I have finished a few of the blocks. I did one of each type just to make sure I was doing them right, then two more of the main block so I could assemble one full corner. At this point, I'm tired of working with these fussy little pieces. I'm putting it away for a while so I can do something brighter and with bigger pieces: instant gratification. When I get it out again, I'll work in true chain-piecing mode, so it will all go together at once.

Primary block (close-up)

I don't think I have ever assembled a quilt on point like this before. Bonnie's directions have made it very easy.

Corner and setting triangles: 84 inches is a really big quilt!

The contrast in these fabrics is subtle, which is not my normal style, but the quilt is turning out to be very pretty; it looks like natural colored marble tiling.

One finished corner!

Easy Street Mystery: Last Clue

Bonnie Hunter posted the final installment of her Easy Street mystery quilt this morning. It's going to take a lot of stitching to get all these three-inch units into a 84" quilt top, but I'm already going strong (thanks to the continuing Sycknesse). Here are the three choices of fabric that auditioned this morning as the third color:

I love this bright coppery fabric, but I think it's a little too bold with the dusky greens and purples.

This one looks like fire or lava. I have been wavering between old golds and  dark reddish-oranges, so I thought this one might fit the bill, but it's also too brassy with the other colors.

Here we go! This one is a much more subdued shade, like copper that's starting to oxidize, with hints of really dark olivey yellow and rust swirling together. Hard to describe, but it's just the right degree of muted to work here...and I think it has the feel of the Tuscan sunset that I was hoping for.

Easy Street: Week 6

The Sycknesse is upon our house, so I was glad the directions were easy peasy this week. It took me longer to cut the pieces than to sew and press them, but that is because I do not have a well-organized, sorted stash of scraps. Mine are roughly sorted by color into filing-size bins, each heaped in a jumble that needs to be sorted for size and ironed every time I need something. Oh well. If it ain't broke, why fix it? This project has taken me to the very bottom of the barrel of the light neutrals.

We made 128 of these this week:

Easy Street: Week 5

So much to do today...we're baking and decorating a cookie tree, making custard for tomorrow's trifle, peeling beets for borscht, and taking the bones out of a pound of smelts. But first things first...time to post the progress on Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery project. I (and, I'm certain, many others) certainly appreciate the straightforward simplicity of this week's directions. All we had to make was 64 of these:

I still haven't chosen my third color yet...dark winey reds will be auditioning later between the beets and smelts. Wishing you all much hygge!

Easy Street mystery: Week 4

I wasn't in love with these when I first finished them, because the colors seemed to be blending together too much. Now that I have looked at them in actual sunlight, however, they're not so bad. I like the dark, swampy colors...I keep (mentally) using the word "murky" to describe what I'm going for. I need to pick my third color at this point, though; I haven't yet cut those squares for the fourth week. What should I use? Golds? Oranges? Chocolate browns? Maybe even (gulp) smoky blues?

Erratum: In my haste to calculate percentages, I was a little off last week because I failed to consider the half-square size of the flying geese. I think the correct figure is that we have now assembled or cut 66% of the units for this quilt. (for those of you who like the numbers...LOL!)

Easy Street Week 3

After my weekend of holiday frenzy, I did manage to finish the pieces for week 3 of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery. I pulled out a bunch of dark, olivey greens, leaning more toward yellow than blue. I have been surprised at how many fabrics I have that blend these two colors. I tend to think that fabric choices are like Garanimals, though - these fabrics are all marked with a little A for Angelina, so they all go together.

There hasn't been a lot of sun in this part of the world since Friday, so the photos aren't naturally lit, but they get the idea across.

Weeks 1 and 2 with green fabrics

I didn't use the Companion Angle ruler (because I don't have it) so I did these the old-fashioned way. Only thing is, I cut every one of the 128 tiny background triangles the wrong size. These little squares finish at 3", but I am more accustomed to working in 2" units than 1.5" units...sigh. Having to slice a half inch off every triangle slowed me down quite a bit, but at least I didn't have to start over and cut bigger pieces. The fabric waste irritated me, though. :( But they do look nice, and I like the green-purple combination very well indeed.

Third clue is complete!

By my calculations, we have now completed 45% of the units for this quilt. Huzzah!

Mystery Geese

Back to Easy Street with Bonnie Hunter this weekend...this week's installation was to make 128 teeny flying geese, finishing at 1.5 x 3". That's a lot of little pieces to cut, even using Deb Tucker's Wing Clipper ruler.

I had to commit to one of the colors this time, so I chose dark, dusty brownish purples. For some reason, I have a lot of scrap chunks in this color. "Purple" is, in my opinion, a nearly meaningless descriptor; fabrics that are loosely defined as "purple" never seem to look good with other purples; red-violet and blue-violet are completely different beasts, and I wanted neither for this project. I made a few sample geese just to check the coordination, and the fabrics I had pulled out looked very nice with the light tan backgrounds.

The rows of teeny geese look fantastic all laid out next to each other.

These aren't trimmed down yet, but I wanted to take a few photos before the sun set so I could use natural light.

When I put a few of the four-patches next to the geese, it started to have kind of a warm, rich, wine-country feel:

In terms of color selection, I'm playing this project by ear (wait...my ear can't pick color...I'm not on some weird quilting acid trip). Let me try that again: I'm letting the process determine the colors, and at this point I have a Tuscan countryside color scheme in mind. I'm thinking the next (main) colors will have to be deep olivey green, and a very dark gold/rusty orange. I usually work in brighter, more vibrant color, but I'm already starting to fall in love with my mental vision of this emerging project.

Photo completely lifted from the website of Roberto Carli, a photographer I don''t know, but who takes amazingly beautiful pictures.

Easy Street: Part 1

With all of my copious spare time, I am making a mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. She calls it "Easy Street" and claims it will be "less intense" than previous mysteries that she has offered. Sounds vaguely ominous, but tempting enough to dive in.

Although I absolutely love the colors she picked for this quilt (lime, turquoise, purple!!), I don't think I have enough to do an entire huge quilt in those colors. Instead, I chose a brown print that has been percolating up through my stash for several years. I have always loved this one, and it seemed like a good neutral to replace the grey in the Easy Street pattern.

The first set of directions was to make 194 four-patch units. Instead of black-and-whites, which I can never keep in stock here, I chopped up a bunch of light neutrals for my background:

It took a day to cut, sew, press, and recut the strips. I went to bed on Saturday night with an array of 384 pairs all lined up on my desk. I started the morning by sewing these together and hanging them on the wall.

Wouldn't this make a pretty holiday garland?

Sometime during the first round of NFL games, I harnessed the power of the little fingers in my household to cut these strings apart.

Sweatshop workers. I don't think I need to worry about them organizing.

 I hooked up the embroidery machine to work on some Super Secret projects and got to ironing. Boring! ...but everything looks so pretty when it's done.

Pretty fabrics, pretty patterns

And here they all, Step 1 all done!

I'm hedging on the main colors to use in this quilt. I do love the standard autumnal hues, but I just did an autumn quilt. Is there such a thing as autumn overload? If so, I haven't gotten there yet. I'm considering emerald greens and sapphire blues, with dark chocolate as the accent color (replacing the purple in the original), but I will wait and see what the next directions have before I commit. I still might use the original brights in a smaller version once I have a better idea of how to scale it down.