Tuesday, January 6, 2015

A Lovely Year of Finishes - 2015 version!

My life is incredibly busy right now - and it seems that every time I turn around, another task gets added to my already overflowing to-do list.  I don't know if this is a good time to commit to a January ALYoF project, because I have no idea if I'm even going to have time to pick up this project - but then again, maybe it's the inspiration that I need!
A year or two ago, I started cutting a 2 1/2" by the width of the fabric, strip of fabric from every quilt I started.  Most of the time, projects call for "yard-age", and of course, Canada is a "metric" country; so, if a project called for 2 yards of fabric, I'd buy (or pull out) 2 meters of fabric.  That way, I'd always have a little extra, just in case I bungled a cut, or whatever....  Most of the time, I'd end up with 1 or 2 extra 2 1/2" strips, and I'd set them aside.  Then, in September or October, I needed to work on something new, and I remembered my extra strips!  I cut them in half, making two 2 1/2" x 18" strips - and I sewed 7 of those strips together, making a rough-cut square.  I sewed the strips into tubes, and cut 2 1/2" sections, until I ran out of strips.  I unpicked the top seam of the first strip, the second seam of the 2nd strip, and so on; then I resewed the strips together, and ended up with "Scrappy Trip Around the World" blocks.
I've chosen to try to finish this quilt top for my January project.  I suspect that I have enough strip sets to make at least 2 tops, depending on how large I make them, but I'm going to commit to making only one top for now.
These are some of the strip sets, and the first blocks that I made:
There are a number of different ways of putting them together, so the layout should probably be my first decision!

4 comments:

  1. This a great idea! Scrappy Trips are such beautiful quilts. =)

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  2. What a great idea for getting a variety of scrappy strips. If you gave yourself 15 minutes of sewing a day, you'd be surprised how much you could get done.

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  3. Your quilt will be lovely! I love the colors and pattern.

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  4. What a great idea to get an extra strip or two from every project. Now you have a "free" quilt! lol

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