scrappy strips and a little how-to

This quilt has been completed for at least six months, but I was saving it for something which never materialized, so I decided I may as well show it to you!  It's made completely from my scraps, and I feel like the colors and prints are just right.  Not too much color, but enough to keep it interesting.

I realized I have almost no photos of it, but here's one in progress which shows you more of the whole top.  I just love a design like this, because it's so simple, yet it looks good.  I think I'd dare to say that this technique would be the ultimate for a beginning quilter.  Other than the fact that it has more seams to sew, I'd venture to say that it's even simpler than basic patchwork!

Why?  Because of the way I constructed it, there's no long rows to sew together, which can look deceptively easy but can actually cause a lot of grief when they ripple and wave and stretch.  I've put this together in block form, which makes it very manageable, and there's absolutely NO worrying about matching seams anywhere!  You do sew the blocks together, but once it's together, you have to really study to see where you've joined the blocks, so matching the corners on your blocks is no worry!

So here's a most basic of basic tutorials for putting a quilt like this together.

1.  Find some strips that are about 13" in length.  Lay them out in a way that pleases you, making sure that you have enough height to equal 13", rememembering that you will have 1/4" seam allowances with every strip.

sidenote:  if you want to use up some smaller pieces, or add interest, you can first sew together some smaller bits of fabric and make a strip out of them.

2. Sew them together into one block, using 1/4" seams.

3. Press your seams, preferably open rather than to one side.  (Because each block is scrappy, and you don't know where the seams on the next block will be, this will just take away the chance of having too many bulky seams at one spot.)

 4.  Now take your wonderful 12 1/2" square ruler (if you don't have one, you should get one!) and trim up your block to 12 1/2" all around.  You can also use your mat and regular ruler to trim your block.

5.  Keep making blocks till you have enough for the quilt size you desire.

If you make a quilt using this tutorial, be sure to send me a link to it, I'd love to see it!