Monday, October 19, 2015

Scrap Vortex Flimsy Finish


It is probably not surprising that once I got started on my scrap vortex quilt (design and quilt along by Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts) that I didn't want to stop.  I talked about my initial progress of this quilt in my last post.  The quilt would not have been big enough using just my rainbow scraps that were odd sizes.  So I added in half the width of fabric of my rainbow strings.


I estimate that half of my rainbow strings was enough to add two yards of scraps to the quilt.  Using the strings made the piecing go much faster because I could create twos of the same size instead of searching for pieces the same size.


I had my fours quickly sewn together and then squared them up before sewing them together to make eights.


I added one set of eight to each of my 35 blocks (each one had either a white floral scrap or the hourglass block) from earlier.  I tried putting the somewhat larger blocks on the design wall in a random order and found it very difficult.


So I sewed the blocks into pairs and ended up with 17 large blocks and one smaller block.  It was amazing because these larger pieces were so much easier to fit together on the design wall.  I estimate that these larger blocks were either 15-18 inches square or rectangles at least 12 x 20 inches.


Once I got the larger blocks up there I started sewing sections together until I ended up with four large quadrants.


You can see that the upper right and lower left quadrants are a little longer than the neighboring section.  Once I sewed the bottom two together, I cut off the longer piece and added it to the upper left quadrant.  Then I sewed the two top pieces together.  One more long seam (around midnight) and the quilt top was complete!!!


The quilt top finishes around 60 x 77 inches.  I am amazed at how well all the pieces fit together.  The bottom half was only a half inch wider than the top.

I know it would have been neat to quilt a spiral centering around my one orphan block, the hourglass left over from my Modern Farmer's Wife Quilt.  However, I purchased an ultra soft and fuzzy minky for the backing.  So I decided to keep the quilting very simple.  I do have some "filler pieces" left over from this quilt.  I may make a smaller one sometime and quilt it in the vortex spiral.


I used one of the fun edge to edge designs from Christina Cameli's book, Step-by-Step Free-Motion Quilting.   You can see the design I quilted on the whiteboard on the wall.  My boys were anxiously awaiting the quilt finish because they wanted to test out the fuzzy minky.  Here is Panda checking it out after quilting but before binding.


I will share more about this quilt (including Cheetah's opinions of it) and the finish later this week as part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilters have been making.

14 comments:

  1. I can't believe how fast you got this totally done! It would have taken me a very long time. It's wonderful!

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  2. I have been watching Christina's Craftsy videos...love them! Your quilt is awesome! You did a great job spreading out all the colors and putting it all together. I like the quilting too, simple yet beautiful!

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  3. The finished quilt top looks great! I can understand your hesitation to quilt the spiral with this backing. How did the quilting you chose work with the back? It sure looks cuddly!

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  4. It turned out so well! Who would have thought that such a chaotic piles of pieces could turned out so "planned" looking. Looks like a "real" quilt pattern. I'll bet people who see it for the first time go bonkers trying to figure out the block...lol. (I just adore the little hourglass block...it is the first thing I see when I look at the quilt.) Another nice job...thank you for sharing.

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  5. I loved putting my scrap vortex together too. Great idea sewing the bits onto the strings.

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  6. That is chaotically wonderful! And I suppose I agree with you on the quilting/backing. My minky lovers would be upset if I changed out the backing to suit my quilting instead!

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  7. great top finish. i really need to pull my small blocks out again and see about grouping them together. hopefully yours is the incentive that I need.

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  8. Oh my gosh, Jasmine! You are a wonder! What a fantastic quilt! And the kinky is fantastic. I would love to know how it quilted. I have two coming with minky. Congratulations

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  9. My Scrap Vortex is mostly in the pairs stage (I have very tiny tiny scraps right now, and am only doing it as a leaders and enders project when it works). This is so crazy and happy! Good info (and I'm saving this post) for when I get to the bigger blocks stage. As for the Minky, of course! And of course purple!! Just did that design of Christina's on my daughter's makeup bag. It was harder to do for me than it looks on the diagonal and mirrored too...is that due to menopause brain too I wonder?!

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  10. That's such a fun process and quilt. Love it.

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  11. This is a wonderful way to use up scraps. It looks like it will be a super cuddly quilt! When you do spiral quilting, do you do it on your Tiara or domestic machine? I would love to do spiral quilting but haven't the nerve to try it yet...

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  12. What a gorgeous beauty of a quilt top and an amazing victory too - Jasmine win against the Scrap Vortex!!! I love love love that one QST - it makes for an excellent focus in the busy, beautiful colorful quilt!!!

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  13. I absolutely love it. I started one as wel but never got back to it. I may have to make some time to go back into it. Really nice.

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  14. I like to see your process on this vortex.

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