scrap vortex QAL week 4

Welcome to week 4 of the scrap vortex quilt along! I didn't touch this project all week, sadly. I got my blocks out this morning to take some photos for today's post. I had fun playing around with what I have done so far and I think I might put the "to-do" list aside for an hour or two today to PLAY! The vortex quilt has a way of sucking you in! (Hahahaha!)

This week is more of the same...take two pieces of the same size and sew them together. The top piece is about 11 3/4" x 16 3/4" and the bottom piece is about 14 1/2" x 16 3/4". (The only reason I mention the size is so you can visualize the scale. Your block sizes will be different that mine, no doubt. Don't get hung up on measurements at this point!) Since the patchwork pieces are the same width, and since they look good together, I will sew them up. Once again, notice the staggered seams. This is important so you lose the grid of the patchwork in the larger piece.

I like these two blocks together, but the one on the left is too short, so I will add a pieced strip to the top of the left block. I could add a single string to the top, but it would be too big compared to the rest of the pieces. A pieced string will look better. Whenever you are pairing two blocks together, you have to option of adding to the shorter block or trimming the taller block. I prefer to add pieces as much as possible, trimming only when there is 1/2" difference or less. (That's a general rule, not a hard and fast rule.)

Here I have several larger pieces completed. They range from 21" to 12" on each side. I would encourage you to spend some time playing with the pieces as if you were putting a puzzle together. Arrange and re-arrange until you get a few pieces that you like together, then sew them up. Fill in the gaps with patchwork as needed. This is such a fun and freeing way to work....at least I think so! I hope you have discovered it to be, as well!

If you would like to look back, I've linked to the previous posts below for easy reference:
scrap vortex QAL week 1
scrap vortex QAL week 2
scrap vortex QAL week 3

If you have any questions, please let me know. I'd love to hear how your quilt is progressing! Thank you for quilting along with me!

scrap vortex QAL, week 2

Welcome to week 2 of the scrap vortex QAL! I'm very happy that so many of you are quilting along with me! Today I will be showing the directions for this week, and at the bottom of the post, I have a Q & A to address a few comments from last week. There is a lot of info in this post! (Please take the time to read it! :) )

This week's assignment is very similar to last week, except this time you just sew pairs of pairs together. Sew some pairs side by side, sew some pairs end to end. You can sew 3 little pieces in a row, then add a string to one side....any way works. Make some of each!

Let me walk you through a few examples. I chose to pair these two pieces together because they are about the same length. I could sew them together as is, but the red is right next to the dark blue and green. That would work, but....

flipping the piece on the right places the yellow next to the dark blue green. It looks much better the second way, so I sew it up! Now, don't overthink each step. If you do, this quilt will drive you crazy, because there are about a million decisions in a scrap vortex quilt. BUT, auditioning your options is a good thing! It's a fine line some days. Ha!

At this point, I will trim the top and bottom edges just a sliver, because the piece is getting a little bit unruly. That's it! Make several pairs of pairs. Or make sections of 5, 6, 7 or 8. (You will need hundreds of blocks!)

Here are just a few photos to show different scrap configurations...

 

Here is an example of building with slightly larger blocks. When I was pairing smaller blocks up, I noticed that these two blocks were sitting next to each other. They were in progress from a previous sewing session. They are roughly the same length and the colors work well together, so I sewed them together.

Notice how the seams don't line up in the middle? That is actually preferred, believe it or not. The offset/staggered seams add visual interest to the block and it helps blur the lines in each individual block that you are building. That's what you want! Random is good! :)

The edges of this block are pretty tidy, so I won't trim this block at this point. I'll just add it to the temporarily done pile.

Here is what I accomplished this week. Not a ton, but it is progress! It is kind of slow going at the beginning, but once you start adding blocks together, you will gain momentum! I like to place my blocks on the design wall as I complete them. It's encouraging to see progress!

Now, to answer some questions...

Q: My scraps don't all "go together", so how much should I edit?

A: My advice to you would be to edit based on the tone of the fabric more than anything else. If you have a lot of scraps that are in more traditional colors vs. the candy colors (what I tend to use) I would separate them into two different categories. Also, don't take out all the darks out of the equation (that would be my tendency), because the quilt needs the variety of values. The darks add interest to the quilt. At the end of the day, YOU need to decide what your comfort level is in editing your scraps...after all, it's your quilt!

Q: Will there be a linky party for the quilt along?

A: I don't think so, but if you want to share your progress, you can use the hashtag #scrapvortexqal, if you are on Instagram.

Q: How big is the largest scrap in your quilt?

A: I had to go check, but I found one (the green strip shown above) that is about 2 1/8" x 7 1/4 long. That's pretty big for me, but you can use any sized scraps you want!

Q: How do I sign up for the QAL?

A: This quilt along is very informal. In order to join, all you need to do is leave a comment (or not) and sew right along with me following the directions that I post. Easy and fun! If you have a blog, post about your progress! Or use the #scrapvortexqal hashtag on Instagram.

Q: How long will this QAL run?

A: Probably through the month of June, maybe into early July. We will see how things go!


Ok, that's all I have for this week. If you are quilting along, please let me know how your quilt is progressing! If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments (or in the next post).

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! 

scrap vortex

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

On Wednesday I finished my scrap vortex quilt (!!!!) and I have about 95 photos to prove it. Don't worry, I won't share them all here, as tempting as that may be!

This quilt is MASSIVE, measuring about 105" x 95". When I made the top, one side measured 94" long and the other side was 95" long. After quilting, I'm pleased to report that it's nearly square (or rectangular). Amazing.

For the back, I picked several fabrics from my stash and pieced 10.5" squares together. There are 110 squares, with 107 unique fabrics. How's that for stash busting? It felt GREAT to cut into that much fabric at once. Folding the fabric afterwards was a different story.

The binding is scrappy, which is like icing on the cake. There are so many details to look at. It's SO FUN!

For the quilting, Cheryl suggested that I do one big spiral, to go with the name scrap vortex. We discussed how much work that would be, to which she responded, "that's what a long-armer is for." I prefer to quilt my own quilts, but with the ridiculous notion planted in my head, I knew I must try it. I had a plan B AND a plan C in mind if the spiral didn't pan out. Well, it took about 4 tries to get the center circle just right, but perseverance paid off. I quilted it in the span of 9 days, with 2 days off. Some days I quilted for 8 hours or more. But it was totally worth it!

When trying to find the center of the quilt, I discovered that this dot was within 1" of the center, so I centered the spiral around it. It would have been silly NOT to! I free motion quilted the center on my Juki, then I switched over to my Janome and used the walking foot for the remainder of the quilt. I used the edge of my walking foot as a guide, and the lines are about 1/2" apart. Yes, I turned this around in my machine about one million times. My back is a little worse for wear, if you could imagine!

With the pieced back, the sheer size, and the spiral quilting, I am shocked (and thrilled) that there is not a single pucker...back or front. There was very little pulling/drag...even though the last side I basted I was running quite low on pins. What a relief!

There are so many cute prints in this quilt...

pinwheels,

paper boats, LOTS of polka dots,

 little red riding hood,

 cute Japanese fabric,

 smiling submarines!

 egg beaters, cupid, rolling pins, apples, oh my!

 even cloths pin people,

little sheep!, vintage feed sack from my grandmother,

and even toilet paper! (that part is on my husband's side of the bed. ha!)

As soon as I finished the binding, I made a label and stitched it on, so this quilt is TRULY done, done, DONE! I'm so thankful that I blogged when I started the quilt, so I have a record of how long it took. I had no idea it would morph into this scrap masterpiece, but I'm delighted that it did.

It looks pretty dandy on my bed, doesn't it?

This is scrap project #28/101.

Now, finally, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week! Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday!

home again

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Yesterday I arrived home from a 10 day teaching trip to Florida. I visited 4 different guilds while I was there and it was a fabulous trip, but I am so happy to be home! I haven't sewn anything in about 2 weeks, so today I'm going to highlight some of the work of my wonderful students and a few things that people brought for show and tell. I hope you enjoy the inspiration!

All of these are photos of the students' work. Each one of these projects is based on quilt patterns from my book No Scrap Left Behind:

 Rene's start to a black and white subtle quilt. It's going to be a beauty!

Mary's blocks for a scrap happy rails quilt made with Minnesota fabrics. (The pattern is charm pack or layer cake friendly, so if you don't have scraps, you can still make the quilt!)

 Alissa's oversized ring me quilt made from mini charm packs. Another great use of pre-cuts!

Jenny's slopes quilt blocks made from Kaffe scraps. This is going to be stunning!

Jodie's teeny tiny (and oh so cute!) ring me blocks.

Linda's mash up two different quilts: hot & cold blocks using the ring me pattern. I love that she is mixing two ideas in one!

Pat's calm colored remainders quilt. I tried to talk her into making the pieces bigger, but she was smitten with the tiny ones. She definitely made the right choice!

Alejandrina's chain of diamonds blocks using leftover scraps from making quilts for Pulse. This quilt will have such a special meaning for her and I love that!

Joey's bright and cheery scraps that will be a part of a scrap happy rails quilt. I love how her fabrics match her cutting mat. :) I could share about 25 more photos, but I don't have time to edit them all!

I also wanted to share some quilts or quilt tops that people brought for show and tell. It's such a treat to see people sewing up patterns from the books!

Here is Betty's Nap Like an Egyptian quilt top. (Pattern in Sunday Morning Quilts.) This was part of a block exchange among friends. I love that idea and I think the colors are fabulous together!

Donna's Missing U quilt. (Pattern in Sunday Morning Quilts.) This was a group project among friends. Several ladies made blocks and Donna won them, so she turned the blocks into a quilt. Her quilting was wonderful, too.

Dee's checkerboard quilt, made mostly (if not all?) from Bonnie and Camille fabrics. (Pattern in Sunday Morning Quilts.) I really wanted to wrap up in this one! It's absolutely wonderful!

Jane's chain of diamonds quilt top in blues. (Pattern in No Scrap Left Behind.) It reminds me of a comfy and perfectly broken in pair of jeans. I love seeing this quilt sewn up using just one color family. So good!

This one blows my mind! Selina's version of the remainders quilt from No Scrap Left Behind. I love it sewn up in brights and whites. I totally want to copy this, since I wasn't going to steal it. Ha!

This is Karen's absolutely stunning version of the All sizes quilt from No Scrap Left Behind. Rather than setting the triangle blocks all in one direction, as the pattern shows, she turned them into chevrons. It's so soo good!

This is Linda's scrap vortex quilt from the quilt along I did a few summers ago. I've seen photos of her quilt, but there is nothing like seeing it in person! The quilt is huge and stunning! (All of the instructions for the scrap vortex quilt along can be found at the bottom of this page, if you care to make one of your own!)

Many thanks to each and every one who came to either my lectures, classes or both. I appreciate it more than I can say!

My puppies were pretty excited to see me yesterday, too! They are growing up too fast!

 

Well, that's it for me today! It's time to get reacquainted with my sewing machine!!!! It's been too long.

 

(A small disclaimer: I did my absolute best to keep the projects that people were sewing straight, but it is entirely possible that I have mis-labeled some. I apologize in advance if there are any errors or if I spelled any names wrong.)

 

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!