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.