Texas A&M Quilt Finish

This 90"x110" Texas A&M University Quilt was made for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. My husband was a HUGE help with this quilt. He has similar design taste to his brother, so he played a major role in designing the pattern and choosing the fabric. I was really slow to start this project, but I ended up really enjoying the process of making this quilt!

My husband always wants me to make Twister quilts. He was with me when I bought the Twist n' Stitch ruler, so part of me thinks he just wants to make sure I get my money's worth! At first he wanted little tiny twisters, like on the Reunion quilt (3.5" Twister blocks). There was no way that was going to happen in this decade, so he settled for 10" Twister blocks. We laid out the colors in EQ7 (helpful tutorial on Twister Blocks in EQ7) and his favorite layout was Twister Around the World.

We picked out the fabrics at the local quilt store. The maroon fabrics are Maroon Bandana Print and Maroon Scattered Emblems. The two fabrics are slightly different in shade. To account for the difference in shades, I was careful with the fabric placement. The Maroon Bandana Print was used for the border and the 4 inner & 4 outer Twisters and the Scattered Emblems print was used for the 14 center Twisters. The background fabric is White Scattered Emblems. I insisted on at least one non-branded fabric to give the eyes room to rest. He picked a light gray striped fabric. I pre-washed all the fabric and I am so glad I did! The Color Catchers came out of the wash almost as dark as the fabric!

When laying out the quilt, I was very careful to lay the fabric squares in the same direction. I didn't want the prints going one way on some twisters and the other direction on the rest! The border is 5", which is half the size of the Twister blocks. After everything was put together, the grey-striped fabric looked lighter than expected. While I was working on this top, my husband was on a business trip in Trinidad. When he returned and saw the completed quilt top he asked, "Can we change out the gray fabric?...(laughs)" Um, no. LOL Very funny! :D

Despite the size, this quilt top actually came together faster than the baby-sized twister quilt!  The backing was actually the most time consuming part, because of all the paper piecing.

The main pieces of the backing are Kona Garnet & Maroon and Gray Aggie Emblem Grid. My husband really wanted the grid fabric on the back. Because of the obvious seams and difficulty cutting, I would have been happier with a more random fabric or using the gridded fabric in a different layout. The seam lines are more obvious in the photograph than they are in person.

My BIL wanted his last name and graduation year on the back. The name and the year are made with from blank pages...  My First Alphabet pattern. The blocky letters are well-suited to the style of the quilt and A&M's branding. I enlarged the pattern so that each letter took up an entire 8.5"x11" page. I tested out the letter size by laying the printed pages against the quilt top.  I wanted to make sure there was substantial room between the edge of the quilt and the name, so that there would be no chance of the name getting cut off during the quilting and trimming process.

I wanted the name to stand out more than the year, so I made the year 2/3's the size of the name. The "1996" looked lonely by itself, so I surrounded it with two stars. The stars were made using Hot Pink Peonies Five Pointed Star block. There is an A&M logo variation with a similar star, so this design fit in with the university's branding. I had never done Y-Seams before and my first attempt was a bulky, messy disaster! I thought I was going to have to abandon the star, but there was really no star that matched as well. This Yahoo tutorial and Fresh Lemon Quilts Y-Seam Tutorial helped rectify the situation! I ended up piecing it slightly different than the original instructions. My piecing order was (A+B+C) + (D+E). This worked better for me, because the Y-Seam was at a more gentle angle than (A+B+C+D) + E.

This quilt was way too big for me to manage on my own, so I sent it out for long-arm quilting. For a variety of irrational reasons, I was really nervous about sending it out! I chose Plain Jane Quilting because Cut to Pieces gave her a great review, there was a free return shipping offer at the time and sending it to another state eased my nerves.  My graphic design professors always told us that if we didn't send our files to the printer 100% correctly, all the community printers would exchange notes and blacklist us! Hence, deep-seated paranoia! :D

I chose the computerized Stars pattern with basic density and in light grey thread. The loops echo the pattern in the bandana fabric and stars fit in with the A&M/Texas aesthetic. I am so happy with how it turned out!!! The process was so fast. I shipped it to Utah on November 4th and it was quilted by November 9th. I would not hesitate to get something professionally quilted ever again!

The binding is Kona Garnet. Garnet was not an exact match, but it was closest in shade to the maroon in the border fabric. I wanted to use a solid, because collegiate fabric is very busy. I used Red Pepper Quilts binding method for sewing the binding on the front of the quilt. I have used a similar method on previous quilts, but it involved precutting the 45 degree angle in the beginning. I would always end up with an obvious join, I suspect because of stretching on the bias. Rita's method worked out much better for me! I used a maroon hand quilting thread to hand-stitch the binding on the back.

I always wash my quilts before I give them to the recipient. Even though I had pre-washed the fabrics, it was still leaking color at the finish! I am very thankful for Color Catchers!

This quilt is so cozy and has great drape! I hope that my brother-in-law's family enjoys it!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF, which is hosted by Gingersnap Quilts this week

Quilty Fun Blocks 1-7

I am a sucker for cute pictorial blocks, so of course I have been following along with the Quilty Fun Sew Along Blog Tour. All the blocks are from Quilty Fun by Lori Holt. The book has so many adorable blocks and projects. I especially appreciate the spiral binding!

I had gotten a little behind (5 blocks to be exact), but all of Lori's piecing techniques are very time efficient. I was able to catch up in one evening. The most time consuming part is picking out the fabric! Because of the holidays, the Week 8 block won't be posted until January 6. That is plenty of time to catch up if you want to join in! The schedule and companion PDFs are listed at this link.

Week 7 - Cocoa Cups

Week 6 - Chubby Chevrons

Corner triangles used to be my worst block, which is a tiny bit embarrassing since it really can't get much easier! My issue was the part that would fold back wouldn't end up even with the main block. I have gotten more consistent sizing lately and I think it is because of the following reasons:
1) I started sewing right outside the drawn diagonal line, instead of on the diagonal line.
2) To place the corner squares, I use a Sewline Glue Pen or Elmer's School glue instead of pins. This is especially true on blocks with really small pieces.
3) I started using a 50wt thread for piecing, instead of a 30wt All-Purpose thread.
A few of my blocks are a tad off, but I have a policy of not resewing if I can't see the mistake from 5'4" away. :D

I've also gotten a little lazy about drawing the lines on the corner triangle pieces. The Angler 2 sounds amazing, but I was too impatient to wait for one to ship here! I ended up making a rudimentary corner triangle assistant by adhering some painter's tape to my machine and drawing some simple lines. I just make sure my corners stay aligned with my guidelines and everything turns out perfect.

Week 5 - Flying Geese

The individual Flying Geese measure 1.5"x2.5". They are so teeny-tiny and cute! These are pieced using the No Waste Flying Geese method, which feels a little bit like magic every time. I love the colors. If I ever get around to making a medallion quilt that has flying geese borders, this is my color scheme!

Week 4 - Sewing Baskets

I just have to share a little excitement here: I got 1 & 1/3 yards of the yellow(tangerine?) Nicey Jane print for $5 at the local fabric store! Lucky find!

Week 3 - Courthouse Steps

The cute little print from Baby Jane fit perfectly in the middle of the courthouse steps!

Week 2 - Twinkly Winter Stars

Week 1 - Apples

The last week for this QAL is March 31, 2014. I can't wait to put the whole quilt top together!

Other WIPs for the week: 2 Baby Quilts & Swoon. Those projects will have to wait until I finish cleaning up the Scraptastrophe I created during my frenzied Quilty Fun catching up!

Linking Up With WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

[CLOSED] Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - December 2013

Welcome! I am happy that you are here to join me on Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day. If you are new here, my name is Taryn and I like to sew quilts. If you like (not required!), you can follow my sewing progress via the following links: Bloglovin'  |  Feedly  |  RSS  |   Instagram  |  Flickr  | Pinterest. The picture below is a collage of some of my most recent work.

Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day is one my favorite times of year. My first Giveaway Day was two years ago and it really encouraged me to join the blogging community.  I love to meet new friends and the chance to win free stuff isn't so bad either! 

Here is my offering: One person will win a copy of Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott & Two Trade Winds Charm Packs.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED The winner is #225 Karrie S. She has been emailed and the package will be shipping tomorrow. Congratulations Karrie and thanks to all who took the time to enter! Leave one comment telling me about your sewing or crafting plans for this month. If you don't have any projects going on, what do you like to sew or want to learn how to sew? My answer: My main projects right now are two baby quilts. One of which I am 8 months late on :D. The thing I am most excited about is preparing blog posts about two finishes that will be gifted after Christmas. Finishing a project can be so exhilarating and it is so hard to keep quiet!

Fine print: This giveaway will close December 13, 2013 at 5pm PST. The winner will be chosen using random.org. I am willing to ship internationally. I will be contacting the winner by email. If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please be sure to include your email address in your comment so that I am able to contact you if you win. Entries without an email address will be disqualified. The winner must respond within five days of the end of the contest. If the winner does not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.

Thank you so much for entering! It gets a bit crazy on Giveaway Day and I can't always respond to every comment like I do on regular posts, but I will be reading all of the entries. I really appreciate your visit. Good luck and thanks for stopping by! I hope to see you again!

You can see the all the giveaways at Sew, Mama, Sew's Blog (starting December 9 @ 6AM PST).

WIP Wednesday

Hi, friends! I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post! I have been working on a king-sized gift project for the past couple of months and took a mini internet hiatus to avoid distraction (except for Instagram, I can't give up Instagram). It took way longer than I anticipated! The quilt went to the longarmer last week and is already on its way back to Houston. Naturally, I will be spending the next five days repeatedly reloading the USPS tracking page. I hope to be able to share it with you all before the end of the year.

This was my sanity project while working on the gift project. I needed something quick, easy and with a little bit of color. For this quilt top, I used Prairie Paisley II (Minick & Simpson), Blueberry Crumb Cake (Blackbird Designs) and half of Papillon (3 Sisters). I received all these fabrics as part of the Moda Fat Quarter Club at FQS. I never quite knew what to do with these fabrics, but they were all so pretty and soft that I couldn't make myself get rid of them. When they were stacked together, I realized that most of the fat quarters would combine nicely into one quilt!

I looked for a pattern that was a total fat quarter hog and wouldn't require any background fabric purchases. The St. Louis 16 Patch (tutorial by skburton designs) fit the bill! I love how all the fabrics work together and the red just makes this quilt for me. I am going to try to work as many of the scraps as possible into the quilt backing and I will by tying this quilt

Since it is almost 2014 and I figured I ought to get a move on it, I finished the last two blocks for the 2012 Designer Mystery Block of the Month. The block on the left is April Showers designed by Sweetwater and the block on the right is Sunday Drive designed by Polly Minick & Laurie Simpson. How cool is that pinwheel block? I used to dread making pinwheels, but they are now my favorite! Even though the blocks are finished, I have lot of piecing left to do for the sashing and borders.

Besides all that, my cat blocks are quickly multiplying, I started appliquéing leaves down for the Looking Back quilt and within an hour of rejoining the internet I joined the Quilty Fun Sew-Along! How was I supposed to resist that apple block?

Linking up for WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday

These projects are all completely different than the ones I shared in my last WIP Wednesday post, because that's how I roll! Too much temptation out there! :D



1) Baby Jane Quilt - I have been working non-stop on my first commission for the past couple of weeks. I actually finished this one right before Labor Day weekend, but I can't share it because it hasn't been gifted yet. Chances are incredibly slim that it would be seen, but you know how that goes! I am itching to post about it, so this mention is just to tide me over until I can hit "Publish." How cute is that Baby Jane Stripe as binding?

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Looking through my past projects, I've realized that my favorite quilts are the ones that use multiple lines of fabric and the ones that have very little white in them. Because of this I am trying to thin out my precut collection (some have been sitting around for almost two years!), while trying to break out of my background fabric comfort zone! The next two quilt tops are part of this mission.

2) Patchwork Heart // I chose a heart-related pattern because there were a couple charms with heart prints, plus many other prints that reminded me of the circulatory system. There were many paths of inspiration leading to the heart design I chose, but a majority of those led back to the Pixelated Heart design by Blue Elephant Stitches. My heart quilt is made with two 6" Kaffe Fassett Fire charm packs and Michael Miller Ta Dot Teal.

3) Strawberry Jam Quilt // This quilt is made with a Strawberry Fields Jelly Roll and Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Cocoa. The brown adds a bit of a early Autumn feel to this very Spring fabric line. I went back and forth on whether or not I made the right choice in background fabric. My #2 Option was Quilter's Linen in Parchment, but I felt that it may have been too close in value to many of the Strawberry Fields prints.

The Cocoa is really hard to photograph. The picture below represents it better, though the look changes so much depending on the lighting situation. I will be channel quilting this one. I think I will be skipping the last border and bind it using the Green and White Stripe from Marmalade.

I am a little tired of piecing for the moment, so I will be quilting a few older quilt tops over the next few weeks. I hope everyone is having a wonderful and productive week!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced this week.

Pathways Baby Quilt Finish

I love when my husband requests quilts. I feel like it is his way of telling me to buy more fabric. :) This quilt is for his coworker's new baby boy, Landon.

I made this quilt using the SewCraftyJess's Jungle Path Tutorial at Moda Bake Shop. I was looking for a quick quilt pattern using precuts and I loved how this particular pattern used every bit of the precuts for the blocks, binding *and* the backing. My sister made the observation that the blocks look like "L" for Landon. I wish I could say that I thought of that beforehand, but it is just a happy accident!

The fabric is Boy Crazy from Riley Blake Designs. Since I don't know the recipient of this quilt, I wanted to stick with stereotypical boy fabric. I love the tiny robot and monster in the main fabric! There is also a print with tiny little cars. It is completely adorable!

I purchased two charm packs and two jelly rolls, since Riley Blake charm packs and jelly rolls include half the amount of squares/strips as Moda precuts. The second jelly roll was only used for the backing, so I could have just purchased one and used other fabric for the back. There is less print variation in the smaller packs, which is something to think about when choosing fabric for this quilt. There was a perfect number of color prints in this line, so I didn't have to use any cream prints on the front.

The only change I made was skipping Step 3 on the Quilt Back Assembly. During that step, you add white strips to the 44" side to make it 48.5". The strips shouldn't show in the finished quilt. They just give the backing the extra few inches you need for quilting. My backing actually came out a bit shorter than the quilt top, so the white strips would have shown. I used this as an opportunity to add a name strip to lengthen the quilt.

I used a solid backing for the name, since the back was already full of prints. Since there was no background print to preserve, I paper-pieced the name. I used from blank pages... My First Alphabet Pattern. I love the pattern and not having to applique anything made me happy!

I made sure the bottom of the strip lined up with the bottom of the third row of blocks. When I was basting, I lined up the bottom of the name strip on the backing with the "gridlines" in my tile. When I laid down the top I made sure it lined up with the backing seam line and the tile. A little bit overkill, but it helps me feel confident that everything will end up straight!

The quilting is just a basic grid. The lines are approximately 3.625" apart. I quilted a big grid first, making sure the lines went through the charm squares. Then I drew X's in some of the squares to find the center and quilted the rest of the lines.

The only changes I would make in the future (to account for my own carelessness!):

1. I would make the outside border strips a little wider to give more leeway while trimming and cut the binding strips down from 2.5" to 2.25". I wasn't very careful and the long skinny border strips got a little wonky. I ended up chopping off some of the border while squaring. I also used a 3/8" seam with the 2.5" binding, so I lost more of the border. As a result, the border is smaller than the sashing. 
2. On step 5 of Quilt Top Assembly, I made all my blocks except for one (row 3, block 4) look exactly like the picture. I would have had more path variation if I had done a portion of them the opposite way (left side with white strip on top/right side with white strip on bottom).

It will be gifted this morning! 

Next up: I have been spending all my spare time working on my first commissioned quilt. It is a Twister quilt and I forgot how long that takes, especially with those 3.5" blocks! My 2-3 week time frame seems a little crazy at this point! As soon as I finish that quilt, I want to finish up my Best Friends quilt.

Linking up with TGIFF which is at Sewing by Moonlight this week and Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday

It's been quite a while since I posted on WIP Wednesday, so I have quite a few projects to share! Some of you have seen a few of these already on Instagram. The last few weeks in my sewing room:

Best Friends Quilt // Quilt top is complete. Crazy Old Ladies Best Friends Pattern with Happy-Go-Lucky Layer Cake + the Happy-Go Lucky Penny White.

Boy Crazy Baby Quilt // Quilt Top Complete. Using the SewCraftyJess Jungle Path Baby Quilt Pattern with Riley Blake Boy Crazy.

Cheshire Cat Quilt //  4 of 16 Blocks Done. Using Aneela Hoey's Meow Pattern with various Black/White/Yellow/Purple prints. The white and black print is an anime Alice & Wonderland, hence the quilt name!

Fat Quarter Shop Designer Block of the Month 2012 // 10 of 12 blocks done. There isn't really a deadline on this quilt, but I got really behind on the "of the month" part! Two more blocks to go, before I start the borders.

Mystery Quilt // Quilt top is done, but haven't really been in the mood to piece a backing.

Seven Months // Sometimes I feel like I am not making much progress on everything I have started, but there has definitely been some progress in the last seven months! 

I hope everyone is  having a great summer. I cannot believe it is more than half over!

Two Baby Quilt Finishes

I have two finished baby quilts to share today. Baby quilts are my new favorite. Who doesn't love a quick finish? I need to put more baby quilts on my future Finish-A-Long lists!

Twister at the Reunion Baby Quilt

When I won a Reunion Charm Pack from Marit at Sew, Love, Live, I immediately knew the perfect project to use it in. A baby quilt for my husband's coworker's new boy! My inspiration for the quilt pattern was the Reunion 'X' Print (see last row, 4th color block). With charm squares in hand, I narrowed my options down to a pinwheel block or the twister.

When I found the June Tailor Twist n' Stitch Ruler at Joann's, I decided that the Twist 'n Stitch Pinwheel block was the one.

I really like the ruler, because you can cut several block sizes with it. The unfinished sizes are 3.5" (perfect for using with 5" charms), 5", 6.5", 8" and 10.5". If you choose to use a 10.5" block, the scraps that remain are large enough to cut 5" squares for the 3.5" twister block.  The instructions that come with the ruler are very clear and to the point. Fabric requirements for different sized quilts at each block size are included.

I like square baby quilts, so I went with my own sizing. This quilt top required two charm packs, a solid and print. With a twister quilt, the first thing you do is make a basic charm quilt...then you slash it to pieces! It was kind of like applying a very low-tech, nerve-wracking and tedious Photoshop filter to the charms :D. I chose to make every other Twist block white, because I didn't want the top to look too overwhelming and I wanted the twister shape to be clear. One of the things that I love about this block is that as long as you have your charms laid out correctly on the initial layout, you get perfect points with very little work.

The border pieces are half twister blocks in one print. I wanted the border to echo the main block. I used one print because I didn't want it to compete with the already busy quilt top. The one-print border grounds it a bit.

I made a slight miscalculation with the backing (I didn't calculate at all. Guesstimation!).  I took this as an opportunity to piece the backing and put the focus on the name. My first thought was to use the navy blue border fabric as a backing for the name and use the excess cream charms to make the letters. It looked a bit dull! In the end, I chose a yellow print from my stash. The warm yellow contrasts with the cool grey backing and the thin chevron print fits in well with the Reunion bunting prints. I chose a a white and gray chevron print to create a little movement going towards the name.

The font used is Porky's. I tried to find one with a better name, but it was my favorite LOL. I applied the letters with Heat 'n Bond Lite Fusible Web and I stitched around the outline with a satin stitch.

The quilting is a 4" grid. I quilted with Aurifil 50 wt. Cotton Mako Thread in Light Gray. Light gray is one of my favorite colors of thread to quilt with, because it is not as stark as white and it blends in nicely with most colors. The binding is Reunion Tie Check in Navy. Next to the strong navy print, the check print has a "white on blue" look. It contrasts with the border, without competing with the multicolor Twist blocks.

Things I learned while making this quilt:

1. Planning - Planning is important! If I could go back in time, I would have started with the initial charm quilt with 11x11 charms, rather than 12x12 charms.  The reasons for this are: 
1. The odd number rows would have started and ended with a color block and the even numbered rows would have started and ended with a white block. Minor thing, but it would have looked more balanced and all the quilting would have gone through colored twisters.
2. The quilt would have come out 42"x 42", which would have been easier to buy fabric for if I went with a whole cloth back. The quilt was about 2-3 inches too long.
3. I didn't plan on the half twister block border and it would have been a lot easier to cut with the rest of the quilt! (Measurements on "Ideal Layout": 5" Charms, 5" White Outer Border, and 3.5" Blue Outer Border)
2. Fusible Web Disasters - If you ever iron fusible web on the wrong site of the fabric or forget to reverse the letters (oops, autopilot!), it can be removed! Just iron the waxy side of freezer paper on to the fusible web. Like magic, the fusible web lifts right off with the freezer paper! The fabric feels a little stiff, similar to how it would feel if it was on the fusible web was on the correct side, but the stickiness is gone.
3. Layout - Take a picture of your block arrangement before you sew and then actually look at it while you sew. I took the pictures, but then I never looked at them again! I ended up flipping some rows. The value distribution ended up a off with the top left being much paler than the bottom right.
4. Fabric Bleeds - I had a really tiny, but annoying emergency on this quilt. There were two tiny fabric bleeds on the backing behind the border area. I think I may have over spritzed that part whenever I was removing my disappearing marker lines. I was really worried about the whole quilt turning blue in the washing mashine. I applied some Shout Stain Remover and washed it with five Shout Color Catchers. The color catchers caught the blue and the quilt was okay. However, the spots had only faded a little bit . I applied Shout Advanced Action Gel for Heavy Duty Stains (rubbed it in with a Q-Tip) and the spots disappeared with a second washing. Yay!

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Children at Play Baby Quilt

I actually started this quilt about a year ago. I finally finished and gifted it in May when the baby was around five months old! The holdup? Applique insecurity :D.

I won't write too much about this quilt, because I cannot take credit for the fabric choices at all. The fabric palette was completely inspired by Jodi at Tickle and Hide's drawstring quilt on last year's Let's Get Acquainted post.

This charm quilt was the first quilt I made for recipients that I didn't know. I knew I wanted to make a basic charm quilt, but I had no clue what direction to go with it. I fell in love with the soft palette of Jodi's drawstring quilt.

42"x42" | Charm Quilt

Unfinished Measurements: Twenty-Five 5" Charm Squares //  2" Essex Linen in Flax Sashing // 1.5" Children At Play Racer Stripe Print in Aqua Border // 3" Taza - Color Stripe (Neutral by Dena Design) Border (These measurements are estimated with Photoshop.)

Binding: Racer Stripe Print in Aqua from Children at Play
Backing: Flannel // Children at Play by Sarah Jane Studios Dot to Dot Blue.
Letters: Since I cut my own charms, I had a bit of fabric left over. I chose the warm yellow print to contrast with the cool blue back. I applied the letters with Heat 'n Bond Lite Fusible Web and I stitched around the outline with a small zig-zag stitch.

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Today I am linking up with TGIFF which is at Quilt Matters this week and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. I will also be linking up with the Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-Up 

Scrappy Trip Around the World Finish

The last month and a half have been so eventful. In addition to Mother's and Father's Day, my mom and two brothers graduated from college, my husband started a new job, my three siblings and my dad had birthdays and one of my brothers moved in with us until his apartment becomes available. There has been a lot of driving back and forth between Houston and Beaumont and I cannot wait to spend more time at home! 

On top of all that, I still haven't chosen a permanent replacement for Google Reader :D, though I am currently leaning pretty heavily towards Digg Reader. My other favorite is The Old Reader. Both of their user interfaces are very similar to Google Reader. 

Today, I have one finish from my Finish-A-Long Q2 list to share with you.

The Scrappy Trip Around the World is a great project for using up fat quarters. I decided to make a 60"x72" lap quilt. Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics made a great chart to help figure out how many strips you need to cut for baby, lap and queen sized quilts. 

A pile of Kate Spain's Cuzco that was sitting on my sewing table inspired my fabric choices. I am drawn to bright colors, so this quilt is a good representative of my fabric collection.

The love/hate relationship with this quilt was strong!  I wasn't going to make this one at first, but the temptation grew too strong after seeing so many beautiful versions on Instagram. After I made a couple of blocks, I was really unsure if I was going to continue. The blocks were easy enough, so I decided to keep going. At first I was sewing one at a time, but I eventually increased it to six at a time. That is about as much as I could do at a time, without having to bring out the seam ripper more than necessary! 

Once I sewed all the blocks and the design started to come together,  I loved it again! It is now one of my favorites.

I used a yellow variegated thread for the quilting and it blended well with the fabrics I used. I quilted following the tutorial for Orange Peel quilting from Petit Design Co's 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting. Admittedly, my quilting isn't too fantastic (funky curves, crazy intersections, etc.).  It did get better on the second half of the quilt. What I absolutely love about this quilting pattern is that all those tiny mistakes get lost in the overall pattern. This is a great option for those who want to try something different, but aren't quite ready for FMQ yet. The Scrappy Trip Along is a great quilt design to test it out on.

Another option: In the midst of quilting, I found another method for quilting the orange peel with a walking foot at I'm a Ginger Monkey. The curves you sew are a little more subtle, so that is possibly an easier method.

The backing is Weekends Hopscotch in Lime by Erin McMorris. I chose it because it was on sale (WIN!), the color goes well with the quilt top and I liked how it was a similar design to the quilt top. 

Binding is always the hardest choice for me. It can completely change the look of a quilt. After making my husband and brother sit with me for an hour and help me decide to go scrappy with binding, I ended up going in a completely different direction! 

The binding fabric is Sweet Nothings Sweet Dots in Blue by Riley Blake Designs. I had already used some in the quilt, plus it helps bring some of the blues in the quilt out to the forefront. The blue in the binding goes well with the blue in the backing. When I first sewed the binding on to the front, I thought  "I'VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE!", but as usual I was happy in the end.

You can see more Scrappy Trip Around the World Quilts at the Scrappy Trip Along Flickr Page. I love how all the quilts represent each individual quilter's personality! 

Today I am linking up with TGIFF which is at Blossom Heart Quilts this week and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. I will also be  linking up with the Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-Up and the 2013 Finish-Along, hosted by Leanne @ She Can Quilt.

Next up on the schedule: Reunion Twister Quilt. I made this top using a charm pack I won from Marit at Sew, Love, Live! I am procrastinating the finish, because the backing involves applique. I always enjoy applique while I'm doing it, but it takes me a long time to work up the urge to start it (much like exercise)! I finished another baby quilt that I need to post about as well.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer!