Going to Pieces - entry for Scrappy Quilt Category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hi and welcome to all visiting from Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

'Going to Pieces' - my entry into the Scrappy Quilt Category - started out as an attempt to reduce my pile of hand-dyed fabrics.

They are the left overs from other projects long since finished, the rejects whose colour wasn't quite right, the forgotten when time ran out, the abandoned when interest waned, the scraps waiting for a rainy day when I would get around to remembering them. 

Well, a rainy day arrived in August and prompted me to sort out the teals, purples and blues, to cut them into random strips...

...to sew together, to add slivers of gold for a bit of sparkle, to cut, sew, cut, sew improvising along the way...

ending in a quilt top! Random as the piecing was, it was no accident that I ended with lots of wonderful strips perfect for free motion quilting...my favourite part of the whole process.

There is a total of about 20 different motifs, so a lot of variety but also a lot of repetition to give unity.

I quilted each strip with one of the motifs...

...and in a strip composed of lots of little pieces, distorted the motif to fit the size of each little piece.

I love the little structures made by the random slivers of gold.

I had a large piece of sage green dyed fabric which fitted the colour scheme quite well, so used that for the back. I did all the quilting in a sky blue thread in both top and bobbin and I quite like the effect of the seemingly randomly placed patterns.

As the sage fabric wasn't quite large enough I added a couple of strips of darker green. I thought I would spice it up with bits left over from the quilt top. This turned out not to be such a good idea. The FMQ patterns do not marry up and quilting over two sets of seams was VERY bumpy!

And have I achieved my goal of reducing my scrap pile? I'm ashamed to admit you wouldn't know there was any difference. Obviously a lot more scrappy quilts are required!

To visit all the other scrappy quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival and vote for your favourite, click here.

October 24 – 31 – Linky’s Open & Nominate for Viewer’s Choice

November 1 – 7 – Vote for favorites in each of the categories

November 8 – Winners announced

Go and join in the fun! Thanks for visiting

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Anything goes Mondays @ http://marelize-ries.blogspot.co.uk/

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

Fabric Tuesday @http://quiltstory.blogspot.co.uk/    

Sew cute Tuesday @ http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/ 

Let’s Bee Social @ http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.co.uk

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays  @ http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.co.uk/  

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @ http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Really Random Thursdays @ http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/

Needle and Thread Thursday @ http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.co.uk

Friday linky party @ http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk