Summer Break Projects - Part 4 - A Bunch of Scrappy Quilts

Last year, in the midst of the Covid-19 mask-making, scrub-making chaos, I also finished a number of quilt tops. I frequently used the quilt blocks as a reward: "If you make 50 masks, you can make a quilt block." In addition, I was determined to clean out the scrap boxes, most of which were overflowing.

I started with the green basket. I have an online friend who goes by @simplegirlsimplelife on Instagram, who posted several times about how she uses her scraps to make scrappy log cabin quilts. I decided to follow her example.

These wonky/improv log cabin blocks go pretty fast, and I had not one, but TWO quilt tops made in a few days. That pretty well took care of the greens - for awhile.

Then I started on the pinks. I made another wonky/improv log cabin first.

Then I decided to branch out, and started making patchwork heart blocks.

This made a pretty fun quilt. Best of all, all of these are entirely out of my scrap bins. You can see from the top photo that I was working on the pinks in the midst of the mask chaos.

Later in the summer, after Abby made the quilt for her granny I used the scraps to make the double diamond quilt. I probably have enough scraps left from this bundle to make another quilt, but I'll save that for another day.

I made the butterfly quilt from random scraps too. Honestly, the more I look at this one, the less I like it, but maybe I will like it better when it's quilted. I saw the pattern online and couldn't wait to make it. It's not that it didn't turn out well, it's just... I don't know what exactly.

Then I made the Sunny Side Up quilt from a kit my daughter put together in her shop. (If you don't follow @a.craftyfox on Instagram, you're missing a visual treat. Her quilts, kits, and photos are so amazing. (She definitely did not get those skills from me!). This one wasn't using up scraps exactly, but definitely scrappy.

All this piecing last year - with not much quilting of the resulting tops - left me with a huge pile of unquilted tops. So, earlier this summer, I decided I'd better do something about that. Stay tuned.

Double Diamond Quilt

I made another Half Square Triangle quilt in early July, in order to use up the leftover Mimosa fabric from A's quilt for her granny.  Lots and lots of HST trimming here.

The placement of the triangles is everything with this quilt.  I decided to go with a diamond design.  I love that the diamonds repeat in the negative space, so you get a secondary design that is just as prominent as the primary design.  Which do you see first?

But the quilt turned out OK and I think it is another cheerful quilt for a rainy, hot, messed up July.

The Wedding Quilt

I haven't had a chance to do much quilting this summer, but I did manage to get a quilt made for Sean and Jessica as a wedding gift.  Sean suggested I use their wedding colors.  Even though it looks blue in the photo, the colors are really seafoam and gold, with some beige and champagne as the background.

Originally, I was going to use a pattern from an MSQ tutorial, but I cut the blocks wrong and decided that I wasn't going to waste them, so I decided to do something else.

So I got out the computer and spent a couple of hours playing on EQ7.  Good thing I did, too, because without a guide, I'm not sure I would have had any of these HSTs (there are 320 of them!) where I wanted them. 

As it was, I checked them off as I finished each row, so keeping it straight wasn't too bad.

I showed just a couple of sneak peeks on Instagram to keep it as much of a surprise as possible.  It was hard not to share it as I went.

Since I was in such a time crunch, my dear friend Marcy let me use her long arm.  This Greek Key design seemed perfect for the HST design since the square corners contrasted so nicely with the triangles of the HSTs.

I used pretty much all the scraps I had to bind the quilt.  It was the middle of the night on July 3 and there was no chance to run back to the store.

As it turned out, I finished it a good 2 hours before they pulled in the driveway.

And I think they liked it.