Have you ever felt sort of isolated in this “hobby” (or lifestyle to be more accurate) that we call quilting? I had recently discovered modern quilting and realized there was this whole other world of people that were just like me. I’m sure we’ve all had a point in our lives where we thought Joann’s and Hobby Lobby were the only places you could buy fabric…I went through this phase for probably the first year and a half that I was discovering sewing (disastrous, I know!). Once my eyes were opened (along with my pocket book), I needed to connect with other people that felt there was something more than just traditional quilting and subdued fabric.
I found the San Antonio Modern Quilt Guild really by accident when I was trying to register for QuiltCon 2015. I immediately joined and have missed just a handful of meetings due to my “real job”, but the experience has been nothing short of life changing. I have made friends and contacts that have enriched my life so much.
We followed the tutorial posted on Quiltville’s blog here: Quiltville’s blog You should check it out if you’re interested in making your own Scrappy Trip quilt–the instructions are very well written and easy to follow.
Some of the guild members have started the journey of the “scrappy trip along”. It’s really a cool technique to learn, and since we all have a bit of a competitive nature, there are prizes involved and a schedule for block completion.
Somewhere along the way…I got caught up and ended up with 100 completed blocks.
This was my starting point when I began cutting 2.5″ wide strips to arrange into blocks. I obviously like very bright, saturated colors 🙂
My only plan for arrangement was to alternate bright, lighter colors with dark, duller colors. I wanted a very busy, random quilt when I was done with it.
I think the scrappy trip quilt is an awesome project when you are feeling less than inspired and maybe lost your sew-jo, but need to find it. Especially if you are doing a random arrangement, where you allow the fabrics to just do their own thing and speak for themselves. It can be a relaxing project to just piece without thinking and enjoy the results and the process involved. (It is kind of a lengthy process!)
These are some of my finished blocks (before sewn into the quilt, they measure 12.5″ x 12.5″), and I just love the brightness of them.
And this is the first layout I set prior to piecing my quilt top. So many times, we face difficult decisions with all the “favorite” fabrics we buy and not having fabrics to coordinate with them. In the scrappy trip, anything goes, and you don’t have to concern yourself with that.
I ended up with 100 completed blocks…I kind of got wrapped up in the cutting strips, sewing together, cutting, seam ripping, sewing process and forgot that my intention was not to make a king sized quilt…My final layout was a 9 x 10 layout with the finished top measuring 120″ wide x 108″ long. This was perfect for our bed since we have a little bit of a problem with cover thievery, and allowed for enough of a drop on both sides that neither my husband nor I end up without covers in the middle of the night. I had 10 blocks leftover and pieced them all together in a 2 x 5 arrangement. Then I cut them in half in the center of the middle block so they each measured 25″ x 31″. I put batting behind each one and quilted these so we would have semi-matching pillow shams.
I will say that I wanted to go nuts quilting this. But with those super busy fabrics, I knew the quilting wouldn’t really be showcased, so any intricacy would be lost on anyone but me. I went ahead and did some cool swirls that took me much longer than I should have spent, but I really had fun with it. If you’re a beginner quilter, this would be a great project to really push your quilting skills, because any mistakes you make won’t show like a sore thumb.
So, if you’re in the market for a pretty low stress project that you don’t have to think about, grab some scraps and get started on your own scrappy trip! Enjoy the process and you’ll love the end product.
I’m excited to show this at our November guild meeting when everyone will showcase their own scrappy trips and share their results.
Until next time!
Joanna