Scrappy Strip Strategy

I’m still a touch “behind” on the Old Red Barn Co quilt-along, but making progress.  I just finished with week 3, which was sewing the strips together and cutting blocks.

Sometimes “scrappy” quilts make me uneasy.  I like clear instructions.  I like it when A goes next to B, and X lines up with Y.  The phrase “arrange in a pleasing manner” freaks me out.  I think because I have a tendency to over-think the layout and I’m never happy.  Too much pink over here, too much green right there, these two blocks are too close together.

Well, for one thing, I totally took the easy way out and just ordered 12 fabrics from the same line.  I knew all of the colors worked with each other, so no worrying there.  Then, after cutting the strips, I grouped them into three piles of four fabrics each.  They were roughly sorted by color.  One pile was more pinks, one was more greens/grays, and one was multi-colored.  It wasn’t scientific or anything, just general color vibe.

Then, for each of the 14 strip sets (6 strips per set), I pulled two from each pile.  That helped get a relatively even distribution of colors for each block.  When I put them together, I sewed them in three pairs, then put the pairs together.  The overall effect is nice and random/scrappy, but the method was organized and methodical.  Best of both worlds, I hope.

The strip sets were then cut into three squares each.  Theoretically, they’d be 12.5″ squares, but my quarter-inch seam isn’t perfect.  They had a slight variation between 12.25″ and 12.375″, so I trimmed them all down to 12.25″ squares (or, you know, as best as I could).  I have a plan for the leftovers from each strip set that will involve cutting 2.5″ strips from them, but I haven’t done that yet.

Now, I just need to assemble all 42 of these blocks into one quilt top for week 4.  I may start on it today, but I’ll then be away from my sewing machine all weekend, so I’ll probably still be in catch-up mode next week.

How’s your quilt-along going?