Scrappy Blooms Sewalong - Week 5

This is exciting! The week it all starts to come together. We want to keep working on those blocks. Trimming and squaring off so we are ready to join them all together. Some of you need more time to complete, and that's fine. This step goes over the next two weeks so that you can take more time with those blocks.

When you have your group of blocks, spend time looking at layout. It's worth the time to look at how the fabrics sit together. I often take photos to which helps to highlight light medium and dark tones and helps me to achieve a better balance of tones.

I take time to consider how fabrics sit together. I look for duplications that may 'clump' together in one place. I check for patterns forming in the background which would detract from the roses. I also look at shape. I want the roses to be a mix of sizes through the quilt. It's surprising how often, I'll group similar sizes together unknowingly.

This part become more familiar to the seasoned quilters. This is is the first time for this quilt that I am using pins. With so many scraps on the bias, they can stretch and warp. I want them to nicely sit together, so I do pin here.

I sew into rows and press in one direction. The next row, I would press in the opposite direction so that it can sit nicely together as I pin. It becomes much easier to sew those corners and get the 'perfect' points.

If the bulk of the scraps causes distortion, then I either spray a little water from my iron or use a little best press. I use this sparingly so that I don't saturate the fabric.

I've ended up making two very different quilts for this sewalong. The original was bright and rich in colour. I used one fabric design for the background of each block and kept to one colour (greens).

To push myself and embrace a bit more chaos. I really went for the sludgier fabrics with a lot of beige and greys in the mix. For this version, the blooms are more mixed, with a greater variety of fabrics, and the background is a mix of scraps of one colour. The overall look is still effective, and the definition between the rose and the background is softer - which I think has worked well with this colour palette.

Once you have completed this step start to look at borders - if you want to add one.

Happy scrap busting!