Monday, November 23, 2020

Scrappy Quilts Beyond Borders



Hello, friends! Today I'm sharing three little finishes for Quilts Beyond Borders, all made from my ever-growing scrap piles. This ziggedy-zaggedy one was made with 3.5" strips and squares in blues, greens, and purples. I must have been channeling Sandra since those are her signature colors! I had a hankering to use my Tri-Recs ruler and saw this block pattern...somewhere. 

If I were a better quilt blogger, I would keep meticulous notes on where I found the pattern and would share a link with you in case you wanted to try it. But alas, I'm not great at keeping track. I kinda quilt from the hip, to be honest. If I find the pattern again (I can picture it in my head!) I'll come back and link it here.


Meanwhile, here's a close up of the design. It consists of triangle-in-a-square blocks that alternate with squares, and it used lots of scraps! I quilted it with squiggly lines running along the zigs and zags, cream thread in the lights and turquoise thread in the darks.


The back is this cool fabric in the same colors that I've been holding for just the right quilt. I love it! The finished size is 42"x50", a little smaller than most QBB quilts. It will be going to a child in foster care and the compact size fits easier into a backpack.


The next quilt is this funky, scrappy herringbone design. It is made from 4.5"x12.5" strips that are pieced together using partial seams. The good news: I did keep track of where I learned this technique. It was from this video. The bad news: it was a PITA (pain in the ankle) and I can't really recommend it!


I suppose if you really LOVE partial seams, you could give it a try. But I found it kind of tedious and never did figure out a good way to iron the seams properly. That being said, it makes an interesting design and I'm glad I did it. Once. It's hard to be too unhappy with a quilt that has herds of zebras in it, right?


To quilt it, I did some rough and ready feathers that followed the back and forth shapes of the herringbone. Since the scraps were already trimmed to the 4.5" width, this blue dinosaur fabric ended up saying "hump" instead of "thump" in several places. If this ends up in the hands of a 11 year old boy, there might be snickering.



However, the backing made of pink kitties and yellow mushrooms might push it a bit too far into girlie territory. 


The last quilt is made of 2.5" squares and strips. The design is from a short quilt along by...someone. Oh, dear. I've completely lost track of whose blog it was on. I'd love to give her credit but I just can't find it again. Does it look familiar to anyone? It was another great scrap buster and went together fast and easy.


The back of this one might be more appealing to that 11 year old boy, with a truck theme. I have no idea where I got these monster truck and bright construction equipment fabrics, but aren't they fun?


Here's the entire back. Almost as scrappy as the front! The quilting is simple diagonal lines through each block, using my walking foot. The more free motion quilting I do, the less I like using the walking foot. It's sooooo much slower and causes more puckering. But for long straight lines, it is the tool of choice.


We've moved on from this dock in Virginia and are now moving south through a rather remote part of North Carolina. This will post automagically while we're probably out of internet coverage, so if you don't hear back from me for a few days after you comment, don't worry!

And speaking of comments, lately I've been getting more "no reply" commenters, which means I do not have access to your email address. That means I can't reply directly back to you when you kindly leave comments here. Cindy, you said you spotted one of your blocks in my quilt. That's so neat! I'd love to chat with you about that but I don't have your email address. Annie, you asked about how I receive mail. I wrote about that on this post, if you want to check it out. You can learn more about no-reply commenters here.
 

17 comments:

  1. Oh, I dunno - when I was a kid I would have loved a quilt with herds of zebras and dinosaur butts!

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  2. I can't decide if I like the front of Ziggedy-Zaggedy better, or the back. They're both so gorgeous!! It looks like you pieced that back, so it's basically a double-sided quilt?

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  3. Once again some beautiful quilts! Safe travels.

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  4. It's fun to see the scrap quilts coming out of your boat quilt studio, Louise! Quilting from the hip--love it! So descriptive of a footloose and free style of quilting!!!

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  5. More great quilts, some lovely colours. I'm quite partial to 2.5" squares, so that's my favourite. I absolutely agree with you about free-motion as opposed to walking foot quilting. I even find i do straight lines by free-motion, definitely quicker,safe travels.

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  6. Your magical traveling quilt show is always such fun to see. Nothing is ever boring. Loved the squares and strips....just my style! Safe travels and happy thanksgiving!

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  7. Wow you have been really working your magic, these are great scrap quilts. Love the first zig zag one and that last one with the 2.5" squares and strips are my favorite of this batch. Safe travels and Happy Turkey Day.

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  8. You have been sewing away while cruising along (or not). Always fun to see what you create, and while I understand and agree with wanting to give credit, sometimes we just get so into the project we forget that stuff. The quilts are wonderful, Louise. Happy Thanksgiving to you two!

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  9. Wow, Louise!! You do make some absolutely stunning quilts with your fabric scraps. I want to apologize if you followed that herringbone link from the time I posted it on my blog. I know it's a PITA, but it's SEW beautiful! I can't help with missing links, as I don't recall seeing those other quilt patterns before.

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  10. My 72-year hubby would LOVE a quilt that said "hump" on it ! They never grow up, you know. :)

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  11. Love the zig zag quilt, Louise! My idea about how you made it changed when you showed the close-up of the blocks. That's a great design! Happy Thanksgiving!

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  12. Another great round of great finishes to be cherished and used by those in need. I have the tri-rec ruler and haven't used it yet. Isn't that the way with so many of our tools? I like the zig zag design you used it for so will file that idea away for possible future use. Happy sailing and Happy Thanksgiving

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  13. I love that first quilt you made for Quilts Beyond Borders. You are such a genius when it comes to color in quilts. I really like the squiggly line quilting on it. Now at first glance, quilt #2 doesn't look all that complicated. STOP!...partial seams....NO! It's funny how deceiving the construction of a quilt can be. Quilt #3 was a fantastic use of your scraps. Love how the white blocks give it a "planned" look.
    Keep up the good work & Happy Thanksgiving to you & Sean.

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  14. more lovely quilts..... I had a giggle that you couldnt pick up where you saw patterns... I do that all the time!
    I really love scrappy quilts ..
    Hugz

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  15. Oh you've sewn up three beautiful scrappy quilts Louise, bursting with colour. Great selection of backing fabrics!

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  16. Lots of scrappy goodness! My favorite is your Xiggedy-Zaggedy quilt. Love the colors. But all the quilts are really cute and will be loved by any youngster (probably a few teenagers too). Hope that emptied out your scrap bins.

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  17. I need to channel you and use up some of my scraps. That zigzaggy one really caught my eye. What a clever use of the TriRecs blocks!

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Please feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as soon as I can.