Scrappy Not-Really-A-Jelly-Roll Quilt

I mentioned the other day that I'm also working on a scrap quilt!  I'm trying to make an effort to use all those great scraps that are taking up way too much room in the Studio, so I'm always on the hunt for "scrap buster" quilts that aren't just "scrappy".  What?  There has to be some kind of rhyme or reason to them - a theme, a design... something that allows the Type A in me (that would be 99% or more...) to go "See?!?  There's a pattern to it!"  My Frenzy quilt (still unquilted, but I'll get to it) was a great scrap buster - and was all patriotic themed prints!  Yea!  It was fun doing paper foundation piecing - and I'll actually probably do something like that again before too long - but this time... something else!

I LOVE the video tutorials the Missouri Star Quilt Company puts out!  Especially the ones done by Jenny - she makes it look so fun and easy and you just want to join her in her Studio and sew along!  One of her videos was for The Amazing Jelly Roll Quilt Pattern by 3 Dudes!  I watched it over and over and HAD to try!  Oh, not with a Jelly Roll (not yet, anyway...) - with my 2.5" scraps!  Right?!?  And OK, they had to be the soft, comfort colors that are overflowing the scrap baskets!  The country blues, tans, reds, greens... love the combo!

I watched Jenny for the 12th time, and got to it! Here's how one of my first blocks turned out:

Very fun! I did decide that after you sandwich your striped blocks together and sew on all four sides (watch the short video; it will make sense!) that it helps to trim your corners off:

I just like everything neat and tidy.

I made a few more blocks:

...and realized that not only did I really like the process, but I was going through my scraps mighty fast! YEA! Then it hit me. See how, in the last two photos above, I have to match up the diagonals where all the strips meet? Well! If I don't limit myself to 2.5" strips, they wouldn't need to match up. I started grabbing from my 1" basket on up. (I have baskets for strips starting at .75" up to 3", in .25" increments. My name is Karen, and I am a Type A.) It made the process go MUCH faster and before I knew it, I had this to show for myself:

Sure, when you put the blocks together, you're dealing with the stretchy bias, but just take it slow, use your walking foot, and it'll be fine.

I've been having fun with this quilt over on my boys' blog, too. If you're interested, please click here, here, and here. I kid you not - Dave normally does not touch a quilt in progress at ALL - but he was so adamant about knocking that one block down from the design wall. It tickled my funny bone that it just happened to have cat fabric on it. Coincidence? You decide!

Speaking of Dave, I got a wild idea at this stage in the quilt to put about a 2.5" inner border around the quilt, then do a Piano Keys border.  I started working on it, and ran the idea past him:

It was hard to read him.  He seemed otherwise occupied.  I asked my FaceBook friends instead, letting them know if they really liked me, they'd talk me out of it. ☺ While we were deciding, I did these:

I really like them, but as one of my friends said, it could be too busy. I decided to go for one more vertical row of blocks (so it is 5 blocks by 6 blocks, instead of 4x6 as above) and deep-six the Piano Keys idea on the front. They will make a swimming addition to the back, however!

I'll keep you posted on my progress!  I've suspended work on the Scrappy Not-Really-A-Jelly-Roll Quilt while I work up a quick project I want to do for a friend, then I'll be back on this and the Wonky Stars!

Thanks for reading!