I had a delightful mix of 3″ squares and 2.5″ HSTs left over from piecing Tessellated Leaves. The colors and fabrics from that project are so vibrant and fun that I decided to pull those scraps out of my bin on Christmas day and see what “stuck” on my design wall. A quick 5 hours later, and I have a pieced quilt top that is 37″ wide by 53.5″ long.
Scrap Quilt Flimsy Finish
So, how did I get here? I started out by looking at the HSTs that I had left over. I decided to make diamonds with them, keeping the same fabric in the center of each diamond. Because I didn’t have enough HSTs (they were scraps and only 2.5″ square, after all!), next I added some of the 3″ squares in between the HSTs to give the quilt a beautiful color gradient.
Scrap Quilt – Design Wall Initial Layout
After an hour of piecing, I realized that I had not initially laid out enough 3″ squares for each row. I also decided to not try to line up all the seams of 3″ squares and instead purposefully chose to offset each row to avoid seam overlap. Another look at the quilt size, and instead of 2 rows of 3″ squares I added another row to have 3 rows of 3″ squares surrounding each diamond row. After 1 hour of piecing, it looked like this:
Scrap Quilt – Starting to Piece
After 2.75 hours, I was about halfway done with the piecing and I really liked where it was heading. I was also super excited to be heading out on a short holiday with my husband (the 25th of December is Christmas, the 26th is my husband’s birthday, and the 27th is our anniversary).
Scrap Quilt – Halfway
After a four day break and a lovely drive up the California coast to Monterey and back, a quick 2.25 hours finished up this Scrap Quilt top. As this was just a quick interlude project for me, I will not get to quilt it for a while, but I really enjoyed using up scraps. And I still have a lot of those 3″ squares, so I might just make a few more (less color gradiated?) quilt tops with these fabrics this year. Here are a few of my best photographs from our short holiday. I really wish my photographs of the grey whale calf breaching were in focus, but I was borrowing my husband’s professional grade Nikon DSLR, and I am actually pretty happy I got a snap of the moment at all!
Linking up with TGIFF @Quokka Quilts and Oh Scrap! @Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.
Your scrappy quilt is looking great. What a fun piecing experience! Your photos are amazing. Looks like you two had a wonderful trip. Happy Anniversary!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures! I would love to see an otter out in the wild and a gray whale, too, of course! My husband and I need to get out more 🙂 you have given me a great reminder! Magistra13 at yahoo dot com
Beth
What a great way to use up those scraps !
Your quilt top is great! I would want to stop everything to get it quilting just so I could enjoy sitting with it on my lap. The gradient you were able to achieve between the orange and green is quite nice. When I see tops like yours I often want to give it a try, but I haven’t been quite brave enough to try it yet. Congratulations on your anniversary as well! Beautiful photos from your trip.
The colors in this top are amazing (of course they are, the original is fabulous) and it was very interesting to see your process of how it all came together. Off setting the rows was a great idea (who likes to match up seams!! lol).
Happy birthday to your husband and happy anniversary to the both of you! Your pictures are amazing! It looks like you had a wonderful trip 🙂
Great use of the scraps! I often find it extra satisfying to use up a bunch of scraps after finishing the initial quilt top, makes me feel like I’m using ALL the fabric, not just creating a mess! I love the scrappy economy block effect of the HSTs. And, lovely holiday. I got to see Monterey last year for the first time and it was so pretty! Love the seal shots!
That is one amazing scrap project – love those colors…. looks like you worked on it for days rather than hours!
Great use of your leftovers from your Tessellated Leaves! Nice color gradient.
Looks like you had a wonderful trip!
Love your photos, it looks like a wonderful little vacation. Sometimes all you need is a couple days to relax. I really like how you arranged that quilt, the way the diamond rows transition between the different color sets in the rows.
ohhh so pretty, I love it, those colors are just awesome.
I love scrappy! I usually make way too many blocks too and hate leaving them for sometime later! If I did, I may never use them! I think I have a deep seated issue with that! Ha!
ooh I love Monterey, have I told you I spent a couple of summers there at the Stanford Marine Lab (right by the aquarium). I was doing extended classes for my Masters and then checking it out their PhD program. I loved it there, one of my best times ever. I think if I stuck with Marine Science though I would have landed up in Santa Barbara (UCSB)…another great place!!
I’m in a restaurant so it’s not possible to comment on the blog. I love where you are going with the top. I have a ton of HST.s from different projects and look forward to a new scrap quilt with them!
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Yvonne, it is just gorgeous as are you!
Pretty scrap quilt and photos look amazing!
Great use of scraps and nice pics!
Looks like you have had fun… With both quilting and family time. Thanks for sharing.
Your pictures make me miss Monterey SOOOoooo much!!! Love the mix of squares and diamonds in the quilt!
That looks fabulous. 🙂 I love quilts that just evolve like that. Love your animal photos too.
The quilt is beautiful, but I was distracted by the idea of Christmas, birthday and anniversary all in three days. That’s a lot of celebratory champers!
That is a gorgeous flimsy from scraps. It is a delight to have enough left over from one project that the color palette still works. You did very well with the gradation.
I really like the colors in this top, they blend together so well! It’s smart to use up your scraps right away, while they’re still organized–nice job putting this top together. Hope you had a great anniversary!
What a fun quilt you made from all those leftovers! Thanks for sharing on Oh Scrap!
Looks like a great getaway, and the scrap quilting is fun too! Can I just say, that I’m a bit envious that you got to see otters in the wild. I love otters!
What an exciting time of year for you. Your photos from your trip are gorgeous, so much amazing wildlife there. And that quilt top came together perfectly.
Gosh that was quick, i spent an afternoon over the holidays laying out 3 Tula pink charm squares and haven’t even sewn 1 line yet. Seaside shots look beautiful.
This is great! You know me, I’m a sucker for anything orange or red 🙂
Great use of those scraps, Yvonne! Those colours really are vibrant, aren’t they? And your pictures from your little holiday are amazing! Of course, I love anything that involves the ocean 🙂