…oh Elvis, Elvis, move that pelvis…

Ok, so 2013 is going to be my year of quilts and I’m well on my way to making that a reality.  I have my list of planned quilts for 2013 and I’m working through it.  I had projected that in May I would complete my Scrap Vomit Quilt, but I found myself with a massive pile of scraps and some spare time so I thought I’d make a start.

Last year I ran a Scrap Vomit Squares Swap and it was (in my opinion) a huge success.  I had nearly a 100 people sign up to exchange scrap vomit squares both within Australia and Internationally.  It was awesome.

I loved finding an envelope full of fabric scraps waiting for me in the mailbox, and then rushing home to unpack it and marvel and the beauty of some of the scraps.

In December I set up another swap and the envelopes for it are due to start arriving any day now.  So with their impending arrival hanging over my head I thought it might be a good time to clear out the first lot.

…the one little umbrella…

I had actually started to sew the scraps together last year, before we decided to upend our world and move house.  I hadn’t made it very far (I’d managed to sew 7 rows of scraps together) and when we packed for the sale of our house and the move I just did a mad panic and threw all my sewing supplies in random boxes.

Needless to say my scrap vomit stash was a mess.  I had planned to keep all the parcels together and sew each block as they had been donated to me.  That way I could look at each block and think “oh that’s Bron’s block” or “that’s Michelle’s block”.  It would be a quilt that was built by other people for me. I liked that idea.

…there’s a dog in a hat, a kitten in a shoe and a big ice-cream sundae… 

Then I saw Bron and Michelle’s scrap vomit blocks on Instagram and my idea went out the window.  I loved seeing the scraps that I had given them mixed in with the scraps that others had provided.  I loved that all the blocks were a mix of colours, eras and patterns.

When I’d been planning to sew the blocks up as they had arrived I was beginning to get a little concerned that the blocks would be solid blocks of similar colours.  (You see we all have a stash that reflects the colours we most like to work with.)

I really didn’t want that, but I did still like the idea of blocks by people. What to do… What to do…

…can you spot the cheeky wallaby just saying Hi?…

The instagram pictures made my decision very easy – mix the squares and go for truly random blocks.

So I did.  I decided not to unpick the strips I’d already done and I just put all of the squares I had (both the ones I had made and the ones that had been given to me) in a square tin and sew away.

I followed the advice that Bron had given me to chain stitch pairs together. Simple.  Once the pairs were done I split the pile in to thirds.

Two of the piles I put aside to join together to make a set of four.  The other pile I hit up my stash of scrap vomit squares and chain pieced a square to the pair to make it a set of 3.

Then I chain pieced all a set of 4 to a set of 3 to make a row of 7.

…this block has my favourite strip in it… 

Once I had the strips of 7 done I just randomly made groups of 7 strips to sew together to make one block.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to fight my OCD nature the entire time.  I do admit that there were times when I’d pull a square from the pile and then put it back in favour of another one because I didn’t want 2 squares of the same colour tone beside each other.

I found myself doing this again when it came to joining the blocks together.  For some reason I seem to have a lot of blue blocks sewn at the third position of the strip in a lot of strips.  I was worried I’d end up with a big line of blue running down the length of the finished quilt. So I just rotated them or moved them down a position in the block.

…there’s the foxes from my Swoon Quilt hiding in this block…

The blocks came together really quickly, and I found that putting these together was a lot quicker than putting the Swoon blocks together.  I also found the chain piecing something really easy to just squeeze in when the Little Man was sleeping or I had a spare 5 minutes before doing something else.

I made a conscious effort with these blocks to just sew.  I didn’t want to spend hours trying to get them all to line up.  To make sure that all the squares were exactly 2.5″.  I just wanted to sew them together and reveal in the wonkiness of them.

…I love the goofy bat and the chicken driving an egg…

The whole time I was sewing these squares together I was imaging what it will be like to have the quilt finished and to spend house laying on it with the Little Man and Hubby while we play eye spy.

I imagine that this will be the quilt that the Little Man will want to have when he’s having a sick day.  That he’ll lay under this quilt and look at all the different blocks and make up stories about each square.

This quilt is going to be one big warm hug from people all over the world.

…it’s a little bit fruity…

I can’t wait to have it completed.  I can’t wait to see what other scraps arrive in the post.

I’ve been thinking about the label I’m going to put on this quilt and I’m definitely going to be listing all the names of the people that have contributed fabric to it.

I think it will be nice to have a record of how amazingly generous the internet quilting community is.  I want the Little Man to know that happiness comes from being generous.

…there’s a pair of shoes…

I’m making the twin sized version of this quilt so I need 18 of these Block A squares and then 17 of the Block B version.

With the scraps coming in from the recent round of swapping I will have enough to finish the Block A’s but I’m going to have to get a move on with the cutting of squares from my stash if I want to have enough to finish the Block B’s. Even then I think I may have to run another swap!

I have a mountain of squares already cut from my stash, but I really don’t want to double up on the material used if I can help it. 

…I love the goldfish in a bag…

I had originally planned to do the Block B’s with black and white scrap squares, but it became evident quickly that they wouldn’t have the same impact as using bold solid colour and that I wouldn’t have enough to make each square unique.

So I just mixed my black and white squares back into the mix and now I’m trying to decide what solid colours to use.

…there’s penguin parade happening…

Every time I look at these blocks I see something different and it makes me smile.  The blocks aren’t fussy cut so the randomness of what bits of the pattern you get to see really makes me smile. (Like the trumpet in the above block that just seems to be poking around the corner…)

I love that there’s fabric in the mix from all the previous quilts I’ve made and given to people I love. There’s fabric in here from bags I’ve made.  Fabric from the koala’s I made for a special little girl.  Fabric from projects that are still waiting to be finished.  And some extra special vomit fabric that I went searching for us for this project.

…A is for gnome…

I’m not sure if anyone else will love this quilt as much as I already do but I think it’s brilliant. I’m so excited to see it finished.

I still have a mountain of 2.5″ square scraps in the stash.  I wonder if it might be a good excuse to make baby sized scrap vomit quilts…