Playing with Scraps

Just playing around this afternoon with a couple of charm packs of Best. Day. Ever! by April Rosenthal for Moda and some low volume scraps from my stash.

I originally bought these charm packs because I just love the name of the fabric line, and now I find that I am making a quilt to commemorate the day I turned in all the necessary paperwork to retire from teaching.  Eeeek!!!  It is a big step!

I decided I wanted to make a simple scrappy patchwork quilt with a cascade of color from light to dark. So far, it is 10-5 inch squares by 11-5 inch squares.  I don't know what I will be doing with this quilt just yet, but am just planning to have fun stitching it together.  It might make a good Leaders and Enders project.

I love the happy fabrics of this line.  Just fun to play with!

Oops!

Friends, I need your advice!  I have been working on a quilt from this pattern, called "Summer at the Beach" from England Street Quilts.  It is inspired by the Missouri Star Quilt Company video tutorial, "Summer in the Park."  But I made a huge mistake in the placement of my blocks!  Oops!

You start with two jelly rolls; a solid and a pattern.  I chose a Kona Snow jelly roll and a jelly roll of Into the Woods by Lella Boutique for Moda.  I love the combination of white, teal, brown, pink, and red in it.  It is yummy!

After sewing jelly roll strips into tubes, I cut the tubes into blocks that look like this:

Then it is time to sew the blocks back together into rows.  There are eight rows of eight blocks each and they are supposed to go together like this:

But, apparently, I was in my own little world when I started sewing the blocks together, because mine look like this:

A huge difference!  I might like this quilt just as well put together this way, as the original way according to the pattern.  But what do you think?  It would mean lots of unpicking of seams, and I don't know if I want to do that as I already have five rows sewn together out of eight total.

Have you had this happen?  You are happily following along with a pattern, and then "Oops!"  I'll have to think of a new name for this quilt...maybe "Winter in the Woods?"  Something to think (or laugh?!) about!

You just never know...

In my last post, I wrote that I was planning to make a table runner out of some scrappy blocks I had leftover from a quilt I am working on.  But then... I started measuring and trying to square up the blocks and, boy, were they wonky!  I ended up making a pillow cover out of a few of the blocks and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

I quilted it with straight lines running diagonally and backed it with some Kona Crimson from my stash.

Look at the tiny pinwheel that was formed when I joined the four blocks together:

I am finally getting the blocks for the quilt sewn together into rows.  I think I am going to love this quilt!

Linking up with Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Go check out the other fun, scrappy projects!

Scrappy Fun

I have been s l o w l y working on a jelly roll quilt pattern called Summer in the Park, following along with a video tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company and another tutorial by England Street Quilts. 

It is one of those patterns where you sew the jelly roll strips together one way and then cut them into blocks and sew them back together another way! I've gotten this far:

After cutting the blocks for the above pile, I noticed there were some pieces left over that looked like this:

So I decided to sew them together to make blocks like this:

I ended up with ten of them, about 8-ish inches square.  Not sure what I will do with them, but I am thinking a table runner.  That's my go-to quick finish.  And it is so fun to have lots of little quilts to display on your dining room table for different seasons of the year.  These colors make me think of Valentines Day!

I love getting two projects out of one!  Back to work soon!  AND I'm linking up with a brand new linky party brought to us by one of my favorite scrappy bloggers - Quilting is More Fun Than Housework:  Oh Scrap!  Go check out the scrappy goodness!  MY favorite!

Welcome 2015!

It has been fun reading so many bloggers' year end round ups of their 2014 projects!  I have spent some time reading through my posts of the year, and I am happy to have completed several quilts, given away a few, and planned for or started lots of new ones!  It was a good quilting year for me!

My final finish of 2014 is a Two in One Pouch by s.o.t.a.k.handmade patterns.

It has two zippers!  Eek!

And velcro!

This was really just a one-day project, and I love those kinds of finishes!  I used 3 random fat quarters from my stash, a little bit of fusible fleece, and a couple of zippers.  The two-in-one part means that you end up with two sections that are attached at the bottom, so two places to put all that stuff that accumulates in your purse or bag.  

So useful!  Happy New Year!  Looking forward to the next project!