Scrappy Trip Along - Night 4 Progress

I am LOVING this Scrappy Trip Along quilt.  I love the colors, I love how neat it looks and I really love seeing how much better my piecing has come along with this quilt.  I am super happy with how it looks so far.

I was always planning on doing 20 blocks but I think if I just do one more row it will throw off the symmetry of the quilt since I already have 5 diamonds.  If I only do one more row I'll have 6 diamonds and two top half's and I think that might look off (and if I did two extra rows that would make the quilt bigger than I wanted it to be (and extra 24 inches long is too long).  I would like this quilt to be a little bigger but I don't want it to turn into a great big square.  I might do some funky piecing as a boarder but focus more on the top and bottom (maybe a few extra rows) to give the quilt more of a rectangle rather than a square shape.  

I think I need to sleep on it for a night or two - and maybe have Mr. Quiltapotamus take a look and give his very non-quilting-expert opinion too.  Speaking of sleep its late and I'm so very tired.  Time to go to sleep. 

Thanks for stopping by - see you tomorrow!

Scrappy Trip Along - Night 3 Progress

Last night I was able to get another 6 blocks done on my Scrappy Trip Along quilt, its coming along really really well.  I have 14 blocks so far and am planning on making 20 for the quilt top.

Right before I went to bed I tried out two different layouts.  The first one was Diamonds:

The second was a Zig Zag pattern:

I think my vote is for the diamond pattern!!  I really like it over the zig zags for this quilt but I wont make a final decision until after all the blocks are competed and squared up.

Tonight is my guild meeting (thank you to my amazing Sister for watching the kids so I can go tonight - hubby is away) so I don't think I will get any piecing done tonight.  I'm going to bring my Eye Spy and Party Monster quilts to the meeting tonight for show and tell.  Neither of them are 100% finished, I am having issues with my binding and I'm hoping that some of the fabulous ladies there can give me a few tips to make it easier.  I have no idea why joining the end tails of binding is such a problem for me, but it really does (I've already messed up on the Party Monster binding three and a half times - it had to be put away for a few nights!).  There has to be hope for me of 'getting it' soon.

Thanks for stopping by - see you tomorrow!

Scrappy Trip Along - Night 2 Progress

I started sewing last night with the full intention of getting at least 6 more blocks done like I had the night before.  After sewing and cutting and sewing and cutting and cutting and sewing my brain had had enough and I needed to call it an night after 3 completed blocks and 1 block that was stopped at just 6 rows with no sub-cuts. 

After putting the first 6 blocks up on my design wall I decied that I only want pinks, reds, or purples in the main diagonal 'row'.  I had already done a few with black and a cream but I can always use those as well but I really want all the middle diagonal rows to be just one of a few set colors.  See how my random-esque quilt is rapidly becoming far more structured than it was origianlly intended?!?  Thats ok, I like to follow rules and this will keep me from stressing out about it being too random or not random enough.  I'm learning to make peace with my quilting quirkyness.

With most quilts I usually make a cheat sheet or something to help me keep track of things as I progress on my quilt.  With this quilt I have this little sign hanging on the wall in front of my sewing machine:

Its a little hard to read but it says "Pink, Purple, or Red Centre Strip Only", yes I need a big sign hanging right in front of me while I quilt!  When I usually sew anywhere between 8-11:30 at night I need all the help and reminders I can get or else the seam ripper comes out far more often that I really should (and with a quilt like this the last thing that I need is more seam ripping!!).

Thanks for stopping by - See you tomorrow!!

Scrappy Trip Along - Night 1 Progress

Last night I was able to power through 6 blocks of my Scrappy Trip Along quilt - its beyond cute and I can't wait to see how it progresses over the next (at least) 14 blocks.

I mentioned yesterday and in quite a few previous posts that I really struggle with 'random' placement of fabric especially after looking at all the other Scrappy Trip quilts on other blogs and Instagram.  I see what other people have done and start questioning my fabric choices since everyones quilts are so beautiful.  I think I am going to stick with my random'esqe fabric placement and hopefully as the quilt grows it will look at lovely as all the other quilts that I have been seeing out there!

I'm hoping to get at least another six blocks done tonight (if the kids go to bed without a fuss that is!) and I can't wait to see how it all looks together.

Thanks for stopping by - see you tomorrow.

Scrappy Trip Along - Starting tonight!

I know I said I wouldn't start another quilt until I had a few WIP's finished but after seeing ALL of the Scrappy Trip Around The World quilt pictures on various blogs and Instagram I can't help myself - I HAD to make one of these quilts!

Over the past few days I cut up the fabric - 128 strips out of around 43 or so different types of fabric.  I should just need 120 but I miscounted and figured a few extra 12/2.5 inch strips couldn't be a bad thing to have lying around for a project like this.

After I had all my strips cut I picked a few sets of fabrics for the first few blocks and threw them up on my impromptu design wall (I stuck a fleece blanket up on the wall with 3M tape - instant design wall and super movable if need be) to see how I liked some of the colour combinations.

Horrible picture quality - my apologies

I've said before that I totally struggle with the whole 'random' fabric concept, I like things to have some sort of order and a quilt like this really is supposed to be all about the random.  Perhaps one day I will embrace the random with reckless abandon, until then I will go for random'esqe and try not to obsess too much about fabric placement.

If all goes well I'm hoping to get the bulk of this quilt top done over the course of the next few nights.  Hopefully I can show some progress with you over the next few days!

Thanks for stopping by - see you tomorrow!   

I'm Jumping on the Bandwagon!!!

No I'm not jumping on the Hockey bandwagon now that the NHL is back in in a few weeks, I'm jumping on the Scrappy Trip Along bandwagon! Blogs, Pinterest and Instagram are jumping with a ton of these quilts and I can't help myself - I totally want to make one too!!!

I know I promised myself that I would have a "Finish" in before I would start anything new so I am just gathering my scraps and any FQ I have laying around that I could use for the Scrappy Trip quit.  Last night I finished all the machine quilting on the Party Monster quilt and its ready for me to put the binding on and then its done, done, DONE!  I was going to tackle that project tonight but the hubby and I decided to watch a movie instead, and sometimes thats allowed! 

Sorry for the Instagram picture - I need to bust out my big camera more!!!

Getting back to my next project....I went digging and found a bunch of fun fabrics in my stash and can't wait to start ironing and cutting all the fabric into some 2.5 inch strips!  There are some pretty fun fabrics in there and hopefully they will all work together.  I will probably have to bust out some FQ from my stash to gather enough fabric for a decent sized quilt but I think I should have a good start with the scraps I have on hand. 

 

Should be a lot of fun, I'll try to show a lot of the process for anyone that is looking at doing one of these quilts themselves.   Next week will be a Scrappy Trip Along week but first I need to finish the Party Monster quilt and then I am so getting to work on my new quilt. 

 

Thanks for stopping by - see you on Thursday - tomorrow is my Hubbys birthday - I probably shouldn't be quilting on his birthday, so I'll see you in a few days!!