February 2014sew. quilt. explore. | modern quilting

The Minneapolis MQG had a workshop this month with Amanda Jean Nyberg, who blogs over at crazy mom quilts, and is the co-author of Sunday Morning Quilts. I have usually been pretty good at using scraps but several projects in the book enticed me and I wanted to see how Amanda used color in her quilts. I can piece in a scrappy way, but the beautiful mix of color never happens in real life like it does in my head. :(

Amanda had us start with sorting our scraps by color. I already had a color sorting system in place so I got to skip straight to the piecing part. In the past I have done several charm swaps where I recievied some adorable novelty prints, but the problem is that it is was very hard for me to use those prints because they had so many colors in them and none of them matched. I asked Amanda for her opinion on what to do with them and she suggested that rather than cut them up, use them as the center block with scrappy color complementing log cabin/courthouse step piecing surrounding them.

I took a charm square, picked 3-5 colors from that print, and used those colors to determine what scraps to use for the outer strips. Each square was unique and worked for that center print. I was scared that they would not look good together, and almost backed out about 4 squares in. As I kept going and kept adding different values, prints, colors, my little collection started looking more scrappy and sort of put together.

I currently have 13 blocks but am going to be making at least 3 more. I have enough to make it a 5x5 if I really wanted to, we will see.... Most of the blocks are between 14"-16" and so in some way I will need to either square them all or add extra borders/sashing to get them into an actual top. I think I might opt for scrappy sashing-like piecing to even out the rows. This is where I need your opinion.

Joining Options:
1. Square up blocks and piece blocks together without sashing and/or border?
2. Square up blocks and use scrappy sashing/border? (How scrappy, like 2.5" squares scrappy or 2" strip scrappy?)
3. Square up blocks and use solid sashing/border?
4. Other ideas?

I am stalling on making the rest because I don't know where it is going. I know that's a bad excuse but it's hard for me to just make blocks to make blocks, I like to know what the finish line looks like, so please help me figure out what that is so I can continue!

As always my furries wanted to help take the pictures, so I have to include the outtakes as well. :)