Bright and scrappy trip!

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This is how far I have gotten with my scrappy trip blocks.  I started them during a workshop that I helped teach a few weeks ago.  I manage to get two or three done at a time (although several are in progress).  

I think it is amazing how different they all look.  Some look very scrappy, some look more planned.  Mine seems to be pretty intense in color (probably because those are the fabrics I had with me at the time and I just kept with similar fabrics once I got home).  

If you haven't seen an overload of these blocks, you can check them out on Flickr or Instagram.  The original tutorial is by Bonnie Hunter on her Quiltville blog.  You know, in case you have a few scraps around and you feel the need to sew a block or two.

It was snowy and cold all weekend.  Now it is near 70.  Weatherman is predicting snowy and cold for next weekend.  Sounds like good sewing weather to me!

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Strip pieced quilt

 Do you watch quilting videos on youtube?  I feel like there is so much out there to learn.  Every once in a while, I like to try new techniques and the videos by Jenny at The Missouri Quilt Company are short, sweet, and entertaining. Last fall, I watched this one:

And I made this quilt:

This quilt was made for my wonderful sister-in-law, Janet.  It matches the pillows I made her last year.  I really love the color combination of white, black, and red.  It makes me feel so happy!  I used a new method (new to me!)of making the squares (from you tube).  It went quickly and then stayed on my wall for months.  I got it pieced together around Thanksgiving but had a small problem: it is really big (to me!)  and I needed to quilt it in my regular sewing machine.

So I pondered that for awhile.

I finished another quilt (my Scrappy Stash rainbow quilt) in two sections and then connected the two halves.  It worked well except I can feel a lump there in the middle and I don't like that.  

So I pondered that for awhile.

I decided to try it anyway.  So I pieced the two halves together.  I put the borders on with the inserted strips so there wouldn't be a seam in the middle of the white borders.  Then I pieced the back (you knew that I have to make that complicated, right?)

Then Christmas came. 

 I knew we would go see the inlaws after Christmas so I had to get this done.

I basted it, quilted it, and bound it the day after Christmas. I quilted it in two halves but I trimmed away a bit of the batting before I connected them so no lumps!

 Tada! 

 I love how it turned out.  

If I make this again, I would spray starch on the pieces before I cut the strips because there was some unruly stretching going on!

I quilted an all over paisley pattern in black thread.  I used six bobbins!

Quilt back

I wrote on one of the white strips for the label.