Friday, October 15, 2021

Twisting and turning

 Hi everyone! How are you all? Thanks so much for your good wishes about my foot last week. It is doing much, much better, thanks. Turns out that if you actually sit down and put your feet up like you're supposed to, your foot gets better. Who knew?

So I was able to get down to the sewing room this week, and while I was down there, I finished piecing together the Snail's Trail quilt top. Yay me! Here she is:
 
 
Yahoo! If you recall, this top is made entirely of scraps from my very full blue and neutral scrap bins. Unbelievably, even with all the fabric that this top took to make, the scrap bins seem to be just as full as ever. I used a whole bunch of different neutrals, and I used the dark and medium-ish blues. I still have a bunch of light blues to use up and am going to need a few good ideas for that project.


The Snail's Trail blocks look really intricate, but they are very easy to piece. I borrowed an Accuquilt die from a friend to do most of the cutting, then added a last round to make the blocks bigger with some more cutting. The die cutting made things really easy, and it all went together really well. The borders are strings left over from cutting the block pieces. Hey, it worked and it used up a bunch more scraps! The final outer border is the leftover pieces from trimming the backing on another quilt. They were long and skinny and found a good home here. I plan to use a scrappy blue binding to finish everything off.

 
I thought I was super lucky while I was making the blocks, because there is no matching to be done. Then I started stitching them together into rows and holy cow, those points are zero fun to match. Don't look too closely, because a lot of them don't match up. I gave up after a while, and it's a scrap quilt anyway, so there's a few places where I should have gone back and ripped out the seam and restitched it, but I just didn't.
 
 
For this quilt, my only real concern in assembling both the blocks and the final quilt top is that I didn't want any of the same fabrics touching each other. Amazingly, I think I managed that, which I think means that each of the blocks has scraps of at least 20 different fabrics in it. I was able to use up a bunch of little pieces, and the only trouble I really had was the larger outside pieces. Most of my scraps are actually small, so finding big enough scraps for the outer pieces was a bit difficult. There are a couple where the grainlines aren't what they should be, but I won't tell if you won't.
 

So there we are, another finished top, and a bunch of scraps turned into a quilt. Hurray! Now, what should I do with those light blues? 

Have a wonderful weekend, and if you have any good ideas for the lights, let me know! I'll be resting my foot again this weekend, which is just my way of saying that I'll be reading on the sofa. It's a good excuse!

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap! and the Patchwork and Quilts party.

16 comments:

ButterZ said...

I love how you have used so many different neutrals for the background. Mmmmm light blues?

Sara said...

The blue and cream quilt turned out beautifully!! Give that foot the rest it deserves!

piecefulwendy said...

What a great finish! With all that movement, those non-matching spots won't even be noticed! Those light blues - hmm. Maybe an improv mini quilt (like one from Kelly's book?) - of course, you probably need to make a bigger quilt with those scraps though. Anyway, just a thought!

Quiltdivajulie said...

A very pretty snails trail - not one of my favorite blocks to piece (to be sure, even with the die cutting). You could use the light blues as a scrappy background instead of neutrals - just a thought.

Bernie Kringel said...

I agree with Wendy - don't worry about the seams that don't match perfectly. I think the effect is wonderful and looking at it as a whole no one will ever notice. Love this one Mari. Hope your foot heals soon. Doesn't it seem like stuff takes way longer to heal these days???

MissPat said...

This looks great. Follow the philosophy of 'Done is better than perfect'. I've not done a Snail's Trail. No suggestions for the light blues. Rest that foot. Reading sounds like a fabulous idea.
Pat

The Joyful Quilter said...

That looks lovely, Mari!!

sue s said...

I love your blues and neutrals! And no one will notice. I made a snail's trail with a rainbow effect and there certainly are non-matched points in that that no one has ever mentioned!

Bonnie said...

Your snail's trail is fabulous. I love the multitude of blues you used -- it makes the whole quilt much more interesting. I love using my Accuquilt dies for blocks -- it's so fast to cut out and then the pieces go together so well. Have you thought of making bow tie blocks with your light blues. Then think about using navy for the background fabric... just something to think about....

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

I think it turned out great!!!! Love the color combination and the way everything moves!

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

Wonderful quilt, bright and beautiful! I love how you used your scrap bins ;) Pretty scrappy border too!
Thank you for sharing this beauty, and linking up today ;)

Sharon Kwilter said...

What a wonderful scrap quilt. You sure can't tell in the photos that it was made from scraps.

Ivani said...

it is a gorgeous quilt, Mari.

QuiltGranma said...

What a scrapalicious snail's trail!

Preeti said...

Beautiful blues, Mari. They shimmer like jewels - sapphire and lapis lazuli. Hope to see you soon!!!

Andee Neff said...

I love this! I bought all the fabric over a decade ago to make one and then never did.