Good Morning and Happy Wednesday! I managed to sew those (S)Crappy Celebration quilt blocks into a completed quilt top over the last couple days. The quilt top measures exactly 54 1/2" x 63 1/2" with even edges and it's smooth and flat, so it should be a fast and easy one to quilt up with an edge to edge design on my long arm machine. According to the guidelines on the Project Linus Metrolina Chapter web site, their greatest need is for "Teen" sized blankets and this quilt will fit those parameters perfectly. Much better for this to be a finished quilt wrapped around a young person facing difficult life circumstances than for it to be an unfinished collection of blocks hidden away in a storage container in my closet.
Sidebar: Interesting that, at least for my local chapter, the greatest need is for Teen size quilts, as I always associated Project Linus with baby quilt donations. Now, as I look at this very girly quilt I'm making for donation, I'm remembering hearing that quilting charities are usually short on quilts that are appropriate for boys and men. I ought to post up the size guidelines for all of my local quilt donation organizations (Charlotte Quilters Guild, Project Linus, Lutheran World Relief, Sleep In Heavenly Peace) and make a deliberate effort from the start to make these "sidetrack, detour" projects in sizes and fabrics tailored to filling areas of greatest need.
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| 54 1/2 x 63 1/2 Scrappy Celebration Quilt Top Finished |
And now, let's recap what I learned from this project, starting with the photos I saw of Lissa Alexander's original Scrappy Celebration quilt:
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| Original Scrappy Celebrations Quilt by Lissa Alexander |
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| Lissa Alexander's Scrappy Celebrations Quilt, AP&Q Cover Quilt in April 2023 |
Zoom in on those photos, and you will realize that Lissa's quilt repeats blocks in the same colors, but using different fabrics in each block. She designed this pattern as a way to unify and use up scraps effectively, after all. Repeating blocks like the blue and yellow 9-patches with the same color placement in each block helps to create order in the chaos that can happen quickly when random scrap fabrics are thrown together in a quilt. However, repeating not just colors but exact same fabrics in those repeated blocks, and having nearly all of the fabrics coming from one fabric designer's collections, created more of a matchy-matchy, bought-it-at-Target look for my quilt. Okay, that's too harsh -- ain't nothing at Target that comes close to the quality of a handmade quilt sewn from quilt shop fabrics! I just mean that the fabrics I used in my quilt are a little too coordinated to create the scrappy looking quilt I had hoped for.
Anyway, even though I like Lissa Alexander's original quilt better than mine (and I like the many other truly scrappy versions of this quilt that I've seen on social media), that doesn't mean it's not pretty or not successful. I got what I wanted out of it, a project to pass time while in the throes of moving and something simple to pick up here and there when I needed a break from the more challenging projects I'm working on. And now I have something to put on my poor, neglected long arm machine. My next task is to dig through my stash and either find or piece together something appropriate for the backing. And choose a quilting design, of course. I already have a few ideas in mind -- the hardest part is narrowing down the choices and picking just one.
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| My 42 x 45 Improv Quilt, Still Waiting for Binding |
Also, anyone remember this improv/wholecloth quilt that I quilted back in January of 2025? I still haven't bound it yet. What looks like a strip of striped fabric is actually an improv pieced strip of many different random width pieces of solid fabrics, from a virtual improv workshop I did with Maria Shell. The larger areas of solid red and lime fabric were great for showcasing that really detailed quilting design, full of butterflies and flowers. My plan is to bind this one right after I bind the Not-So-Scrappy Celebrations quilt so I can donate both of them together.
I'm linking up with some of my favorite linky parties:
MONDAY
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Musings at Songbird Designs
TUESDAY
To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter
FRIDAY
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre
Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty
TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday
SATURDAY
Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy
SUNDAY
Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué
Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework
2 comments:
I think your Scrappy Celebrations is beautiful, and the child or teen it goes to is going to love it, because it's going to be all theirs! If this quilt fit your creative needs at the time, used up scraps, and goes on to be a comfort to someone, then it's a Win-Win!
It looks like all the blocks were fun to make, that is a plus for me.
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