Wednesday, April 04, 2018

on a whim

Several people on Instagram are jumping into the 100 day project challenge, which officially started yesterday. The challenge is pretty open ended...you pick your own creative challenge (drawing, painting, lettering, sewing, etc.) and try to do a little bit each day for 100 days. I had no intention of joining in. None whatsoever. I've done a few stints of 31 day challenges, and boy, were they difficult! I'm keenly aware that 100 days is considerably longer than a month long challenge, so it wasn't even on my radar. But then....Wendy posted that she was taking on the challenge and her focus is working on a scrap vortex quilt over the next 100 days. She invited others to sew along with her. On a total whim, I decided to join in. In fact, I was sewing within the hour. Ha!
I pulled out my drawer of ticker tape scraps (they are SMALL!) and started sewing. Man, it was fun!!
Here's what I came up with for day 1. Not a bad start. The tiny strips are for my pint-sized scrappy churn dash blocks. (They are a great by-product of the vortex piecing. Hurray!)
And here's day 2. More of the same!

The nice thing about this challenge is that it is very low pressure. No finished product is required each day. I hope to sew a little bit on it each day, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it if I miss a day here and there. The one thing that I'm looking forward to the most is watching the blocks accumulate on the design wall. A little bit at a time. Just like any scrap quilt. :)

If you want to join in, you can find the links for the Scrap Vortex Quilt Along here:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5

 Are you doing the 100 day challenge? If so, I'd love to hear what you are working on! 

17 comments:

tink's mom said...

Well I'm trying to do your Scrap Vortex again. Last time I got side tracked and ended up with a couple of really great placemats. Hoping that 100 days, give or take, will work better for me.

EBattles said...

I am in! I’ve had this idea to try your hot and cold quilt, but with the block construction style of the scrap vortex. Fun! Lucky for me, you have shared so many inspiring patterns :) Thank you!

Anorina @SameliasMum said...

I started making an EPP Kaleidoscope Quilt for my 100 challenge, but am now wondering if I should have joined this scrappy vortex one instead. There are going to be a lot of wonderful scrappy quilts 98 days from now :)

Julie said...

I joined in on the Instagram 100 day vortex quilt, and checked out the steps on your blog. I am not a true scrap quilter, I like controlled colors. However I have drawers of precut batik pieces in squares and progressively longer rectangles so that is what I am using. I have two blocks done and love them!

Pamela Arbour said...

I don't do Instagram but I will be sewing along. I have a bunch of strips I need to sew up into blocks plus I have a cubicle box with scraps that would work well with the Vortex quilt. It will be interesting to see how much I can make with those in 100 days!

Laura VanVleet said...

I've joined in the scrap vortex 100 days - I've always admired your quilt and have viewed your QAL many times! The time has now come to tame my scraps! Thanks for all your awesome scrap ideas!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I am intrigued but need to stick to my current 18 in 2018 planning - I'll be saving scraps from all of those to make my own scrappy something later this year. I love your Scrap Vortex quilt.

Carla said...

This is killing me! I so want to join in...... I'm thinking maybe a low volume Scrap Vortex.... we will see how the day goes!

grammajudyb said...

I too have been thinking a lot about making a scrap vortex quilt. But I have several scrappy projects in the works currently. I am making strips for Bright Birches and a tumbler project too. Maybe I will jump in to this 100 day challenge and commit to 100 days of sewing tumblers together.

elnorac said...

I’m in for scrap vortex and am loving it! So relaxing! I’ve made smaller SV projects before but think it’d be great to make an actual quilt. Happy sewing!

pennylanequilts said...

This year I'm working on free motion every day and finishing some quilt tops . I know if I put in the daily time, I will begin having fun on that midarm machine! I decided to post on a separate account so that I don't bore followers with the repetitive practice @100dayspennylane. It's a place to hold myself accountable and hopefully inspire myself with signs of improvement. I have some scrap vortex blocks languishing somewhere, so I think I'll get them out and use up some of the mounting multi colored scraps, too. It will give me another top to practice free motion on, so win-win!😂

Unknown said...

Hi Amanda,
Roughly speaking, what size scrap piece would you consider too small? too big? Your quilt looks like these are tiny pieces?

Sandy Panagos said...

I'm not doing the 100 day challenge, but only because of too much travel coming up. I do think I'll start a Scrap Vortex quilt, though!

Unknown said...

I’m in! I actually already started! I got my start after watching You Tube crumb quilts And deciding I couldn’t discard my tiny Kaffe fabric!

Unknown said...

I am going to start this. How many scrap pieces should I have at the end of day 1?

Rene' said...

I love seeing your latest scrap project. I had planned to do the 100 day challenge with the scrap vortex (because I'm in the middle of one anyway!), but then switched to more of my EPP blocks. I did work on my scrap vortex project though!

FlourishingPalms said...

I'm happy for you to have jumped in, Amanda Jean! Seems like the perfect thing for you to do. And as much as I could stand to make another Scrap Vortex - six scrap bins are nearly full - I can't manage the 100 days commitment. Between travel plans and company, I don't feel right about saying I'll join in... and worse, I beat myself up when I can't keep a commitment. So, I'm out. But I'll happily watch everyone else participating. Keep it up!