Technicolour Yawn aka Scrap Vomit Quilt Tutorial

 The mock up of a quilt above uses a LOT of scrap squares. There's a lot of sewing 2.5 inch squares together, but it's just 2 blocks and it's pretty simple. Plus - scrappy quilts are forgiving when it comes to mis-matched points, so you don't have to stress about being perfect.

Here's what you'll need -

Each 14 inch finished block is made up of 49 2.5 inch squares. Block A is 49 scrap squares. Block B is 29 scrap squares plus 12 black ones and 8 blue ones (in this case - you can choose different colours, but black/charcoal grey works well for contrast - a very dark colour is best for the outer ring).
If you decide to the layout above (which ends up at approx twin sized, or 70 x 98 inches) you will need the following;

PLEASE NOTE EDITED FABRIC REQUIREMENTS - I made a booboo with the amount of yardage you needed for the solids, and put the strips as inches not strips. I'm sorry (ducks to avoid the cutting mats and stuff thrown at my head)


1,375 2.5 inch scrap squares
204 black squares (approx 14 strips of WOF strips 2.5 inches wide/35 inches of fabric - at 40 inches wide)
136 blue squares (or 9 WOF strips 2.5 inches wide/23 inches of fabric - at 40 inches wide)

But there's a smaller option........

for which you will end up with a quilt approx 70 inches square

fabrics required here are as follows;

965 scrap squares
156 black squares (or 10 x WOF strips 2.5 inches wide/25 inches of fabric at 40 inches wide)
104 blue squares (or 7 x WOF strips 2.5 inches wide/18 inches of fabric at 40 inches wide)

Quilt Along - Block A instructions 

Block A;

Grab 49 different 2.5 inch scrap squares. Don't think too much about them, just grab blindly and hope for the best. If you start thinking you'll never get 49 squares you are happy with so it's best to just jump in feet first and get sewing.

1. Sew the squares into 7 rows of 7

2. Press your seams so they butt together - first row one way, next row the opposite etc etc

3. Sew your rows together to make 1 block. Press. Step back, admire your handiwork.

Then you have to do it all over again. Repeat this block for a total of 18 A blocks for the twin sized quilt or 12 A blocks for the big lap quilt.

These blocks are pretty fast to whip up. You could chain stitch a whole heap of pairs and make up a few blocks at a time. That's what I'll be doing this evening!

For the next quilt along post I'll be holding a giveaway or 2 of something exciting that I pick up in Houston. I don't know what yet - some fab market goodies, that's for sure. So whilst you're stitching up your blocks think of a really good name to replace my (not so) working title of Scrap Vomit. Don't tell me yet - save it for the next quit along post.

Scrap Vomit Quilt Along - block B

I still have about half of my A blocks to sew together, but if you feel like you want to give the B blocks a try and leave your others to one side for a while, then here's the instructions for block B....

First off you will need to select (for each block);
12 black squares*
8 blue squares*
29 mixed scrap squares

*or whatever colours you chose for your inside rings

Lay your squares out in the formation shown below;

Sew your rows together. It really helps if you can leave your block laid out next to your sewing machine. I use my cutting mat and just lift it onto a table next to me. That way I can grab a row and if I do happen to make a mistake it's solved quickly before I've finished the whole block.

Press your seams to alternating sides, so your seams butt together. Like in the picture below;

Sew your rows together to form one block. Give it a nice press and maybe a spray of starch.

Repeat to yield a total of 17 B blocks for the large size quilt or 13 B blocks for the smaller quilt.

 Scrap Vomit - Strip Pieced

Quick strip pieced tutorial for the B blocks in my scrap vomit quilts. Regularly I piece them square by square, but as I was playing with strips for the #scrappytripalong I figured it'd be fun (and fast) to make a scrap vomit quilt using strips as well.

There's a couple of things about strip piecing that I don't like as much as piecing with squares -

    you get more blocks that look similar because you're cutting multiples from the same fabrics
    when you're sewing strips they can curve a little in the middle when you don't pin or you sew a bit too fast (you can see that in my pics), which makes your squares not quite as square as they should be (a good press and some wiggling pretty much sorts this though)

Other than those slight downsides, it's faster and it's easier and you can easily speed through multiple blocks at once.

So - in order to make the mock up below, which ends up at 70" square, you will need to make 12 B blocks and 13 A blocks. You can follow the original tute for the A blocks, or you can figure out strip piecing after you've made these blocks. I'm still making my A blocks from squares, to get more variety in the prints.

Cut a total of;
36 strips 2.5" x 22" of PRINTS (1.25 yards total)
21 strips 2.5" x 22" of BLACK fabric (just over 0.75 yard - get a full yard to be safe!)
13 strips 2.5" x 22" of AQUA fabric (pretty much exactly 0.5 yards - to be safe get 0.75 yards!)
9 strips 2.5" x 22" of RED fabric (0.5 yards)

(I'm using kona black, kona lagoon and kona red from Simply Solids)

Make 3 of the following strip set;

Make 3 of the following strip set;

Make 2 of the following strip set;

Make 3 of the following strip set;

When you have finished sewing each of the strip sets, press the seams (pressing them open will help you match seams as you piece the blocks) and cut each strip set into 8 strips 2.5" wide.

Assemble the blocks as the picture below (chain piecing makes this step go super fast);

Press your seams open again, and that's it.

You just whizzed through 12 blocks.

You should also check out Krista's chain piecing tutorial - she's making a quilt right now and is speeding through the blocks because of her method. You can find it here.