Scrappy Trip and Strings

I finally completed my scrappy trip around the world quilt.  I am sorry to include a picture of one of my students in this one, I couldn't get it to crop out.  I guess I don't have the right programs to do that on my laptop.  So, just ignore him and the arm of the other student on the other side.  I don't know what the deal is with the two blocks in the second row.  I think they may have been too light or something, but since I didn't put the blocks up on a design wall, but rather just picked them up and sewed them together, I guess that is what I get.  It's kind of interesting and once you get past that, you can see that a few more blocks stand out also.   This was a lot of fun and the majority of the blocks were made while my students were elsewhere taking their state mandated tests.  I probably made half of the blocks at school.  So, I need to come up with a name for this quilt that reflects it's origins. 

 

I think if I do it again, I will make a concentrated effort to make that diagonal line more pronounced.  Instead, I let it be the fabric I liked the most or that stood out the most in that set of 6 fabrics.  So,  it could be a very pale fabric, a bright fabric or a dark one.  Then, I think I would make the two fabrics on either side be a major contrast to the main diagonal fabric.  That would make it stand out even more.  It was a lot of fun, but this quilt is HUGE!!  about 72 X 96.  Okay, not so huge, but still quite a large quilt.  I love seeing all the greens in there along with the pinks and reds.  Fun, fun, fun.  If you haven't tried making a block I highly suggest you make at least one.  The pattern comes from www.quiltville.com and I blogged about making the block way back here.

 

 

I just finished this pillow cover.  This is made from the scraps I received from Chris.  I am working on samples using strips and in the scrap bag were some wonderful strips already cut in various sizes so I just pulled a few out and started sewing them together.  Once I had them sewn up, I had to determine the shortest length and what size I could cut them into squares.  Then I decided I wanted something else, so I sewed on corner triangles.  Well, I sewed one on the wrong corner so I just made those two blocks have double corners so I could get the middle the way I wanted.  With the leftover sewn strips, I cut them into 1 1/2" strips to use around the outside.  I dug through the bag again and found the black and white print and just had enough to go around the outside of my four squares.  However, I wasn't going to have enough of the strips to go all the way around the block so I dug through the bag again and found a large piece in some of the same colors and VOILA!!  I have an almost 16" square (15 3/4" or so) I added some batting and quilted the top in straight line stitching - don't look too close in the center - that was the last little bit I did and I went too fast and it's not straight, but I am not taking it out.  Then, I dug through some of the fabric I took with me to Quilt Con and found enough to use for the backing to make an envelope opening for this pillow.  I can't wait to put a pillow form in there and see what it looks like all "blown-up".  This was a lot of fun and went together really, really fast with very little thinking on my part.  Which makes it so relaxing, I think.  Anyway, now I have one for two - a project from the scrap bag and a strip project for a class on strips I will be teaching in a few weeks.   Now, I need to post this over on 15 minutes Play blog so everyone can see it.