Evolution of a Quilt Design

As part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2017, I have been working my way through a collection of 3" strips. Most of these were strips I received as part of a monthly exchange at a quilt guild in the late 1990's or early 2000's, plus there have been more recent additions through the years.

I'm a month behind with this project, but I'm going to share it anyway. Our RSC color for May was green, and I had lots of green 3" strips to use. My original plan was to make a variation of a jelly roll race quilt. I couldn't face the thought of miles of strips joined end-to-end, so I made my version using strips that were deliberately pieced together to make rows that measured about 60" across. I was planning to make 32 rows, which would have finished at 80" long. Here is the top half from that original plan.

How boring is that? I hated it!! Time for Plan B. The rest of the rows for the lower half were joined into groups of four. I decided to cut those groups into segments that measured 10.5" x 14.5" and wrap them around central squares to make blocks. Here are the two fabrics I auditioned for the centers of the blocks and the sashing.

After deciding to go with the darker brown contrast fabric, I made six blocks that finish at 24" square. At that point the plan was to also use the dark brown fabric as sashing between the blocks, then use some remaining green sections for a piano key type border.

The narrow sashing seemed overwhelmed by the giant blocks in the above layout. Here comes Plan C--instead of doing a pieced border, I ended up making pieced sashing with two strips of the dark brown and a line of green pieces in between. So much better! Now I like the way this has come together. Here is a photo of the completed quilt top, followed by two close-ups of blocks that give you a better look at the fabrics.

Green Strippy quilt top
64.25" x 93.5"

I haven't come up with any good names for this quilt yet. I'm just glad to have the top done and the pieces off my design wall. It feels good to have a finished top--it may not be my favorite ever, but at least I don't hate it anymore!

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I am also linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag and to the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters at Fret Not Yourself. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects that everyone is sharing! 

Julie in GA