My solids bins was overflowing with strips. Earlier in 2021 I decided it was time to really tackle some of my scraps. The solids bin had not been used in a few projects. So why not create a scrappy solids strip quilt. For the longest time I have admired solid strip quilts that I’ve seen.
Rather than tackle everything all at once, I started just sewing one morning for 20 minutes or so. I did sort my colors from the grays and whites in my solid scrap bin. This part went quickly.
Soon there was enough to look at making blocks. Time for some starch and a hot iron. I sewed the strips into rectangles and then pressed. It was satisfying to see the blocks start to add up.
All of these blocks had to be trimmed. This was a bit of improv sewing on my end. There wasn’t really a size I had in mind either. Some were long, some were wide. I love that there was no plan.
On a weekend without the boys I set out to make the top. For some reason, I thought this would only take a few hours. The sewing Gods laughed at me and this top took forever. I had it all laid out among the legos on the floor and made it almost impossible to enter the room. So, I had to finish the top so the boys could play in there.
I needed a few more blocks to round out the top. As I put it together I realized it was not big enough for a baby quilt. Honestly, the photo above barely put a dent in my solids bin of scraps. I busted out a few more blocks. To make my original version I would have needed probably another 40-50 blocks. Sometimes you have to know when to just stop in a project. There will be more solid scraps that I can play and work with later.
I quickly basted this quilt with some yardage in my stash. I did have to add a solid piece on the side to make sure it was just wide enough. For quilting, I went with free motion in loops. I wanted the quilting to fade into the design and this actually worked.
Finishing the Quilt
Forty minutes later it’s done and ready to be trimmed. This took some work to make sure the quilt was even on all sides. Slightly challenging considering there wasn’t a set size for the blocks. Let’s just say I improv trimmed as well.
For the binding, I had a blue solid fat quarter that I used. Once bound I quickly washed it.
Tip – always throw a Shout Color Catcher into your quilts the first time you wash them.
Here’s an important step when you’re dealing with a scrap quilt, all the extra little threads. I find the more you use and play with the fabric, the more it frays. Those little frays love to come through on the top. This is why I always wash a scrappy quilt before giving it to someone. I can trim all of those little threads and make it a non-issue.
We have had some crazy winds here making quilt photographs almost impossible. We had a day without a ton of wind…so out to the fence I went.
The backing was just perfect and used many of the colors from the front.
This quilt doesn’t have a home yet, but feels good to make some room in my solid’s bin. I should have made it bigger, but I was ready to move on to the next project.