Well… what a crazy time we’re going through.  I decided I wanted to sew up something during the crisis.  It was a good thing, as I have been enjoying getting back to my sewing machine.

I don’t know about you, but when I just “want to sew”, there is nothing better than an improvisational project.  I have plenty of scraps and stash to play with right here.

I pulled a few pieces from a drawer of scraps, and began.  The nature of the scraps led me to decide upon a wonky strippy block.  I made a few choices, such as using a black shape in the corner of the block, and only building onto two sides.  The blocks size was 9.5″, as I had that particular ruler laying on my cutting table.

Sewing the blocks was fun, and pretty soon I had my first 12 done…  so, I decided this could be a king-size bed quilt.  I had to keep raiding my scraps bins, and when I would run low on a particular color, I’d slice a few narrow strips off a couple pieces in my stash to fill out the ziploc bag of that particular color of scraps.

All in all, I made 170 some blocks over the course of a month.  I stumbled upon an idea on Pinterest, and liked the effect of turning some of the blocks to give a more 3-D effect.

I now had to think about a backing.  Scrap quilts are perfect candidates for a scrappy quilt back.  As an added bonus, scrappy backs, make for reversible quilts.  Some of my fabric bins were overflowing, especially the green one.  I also, don’t currently have a green bed quilt.

I pulled about 20 fabrics, and started playing around.  I settled upon a rail-fence type of block to showcase the collection of green fabrics.

Next up was some quilting time on “Artie”, my Statler Stitcher…

After the quilt was off the longarm… I decided to try my luck, and do a machine binding.  I’ve tried a few times in the past, and haven’t liked the outcome.  I recently saw a tutorial that showed a slight modification to the way I’ve tried it in the past.  It worked so much better this way.  Maybe I’ll write a post another day, about the binding.  I’m sorry but I didn’t take any photos at this step.

Soon, the project was done, so I decided to throw it through the laundry, and get it ready to use on the bed.

It’s definitely a load in and of itself, and I was sure to put a few color catcher sheets in the wash.

It came out great, and the whites stayed pristine.  Thank goodness for the invention of those little color catcher sheets.

I hope you enjoyed my journey.  I sure did.  I’m already well into another project, as this did serve to jump start my sewing mojo.

Please post something you’re working on in the comments!  I’d love to see.

Fellow Quilter,

Brian