Super Santa, Frog...What? Finish Up Friday!!

This past winter, after hearing so much about the Scrappy Trip Around the World Quilt on all the quilting blogs, like Red Pepper Quilts,  Film in the Fridge, Crazy Mom Quilts, and of course the thousands of beautiful photos over on Flickr. I KNEW I'd end up making one eventually! 

So, I opened up the AWESOME tutorial over on Quiltville Quips and Snips and sat down to cut piles and piles of 16"x 2.5" strips from fabrics that I really had no other use for. According to the tutorial, you just use what ever you've got and it's all supposed to work it's self out when sewn into blocks and then into the finished quilt. In other words, the fabrics are not supposed to match or coordinate, you just randomly grab and sew. I had doubts...because I have ALOT of fabric that does not go together and so much novelty prints from when my kids were smaller. So, when do Santa, Superman and frogs go together? Don't even point out the florals, plaids, chevrons, ice cream cones, cupcakes, polka dots and butterfiles...

But, I thought what the heck, I'll give it a go.

The photo above shows about half of my dining room table, that was COVERED in these piles. 

This was the first block completed, a trial run I suppose. I like the way the randomness works it's way out in the end and I thought a red diagonal stripe in each block would bring some sort of coherence throughout the quilt. So I went with it!

I spend one day cutting, another day sewing strips together and cutting. Mostly in the evenings, I would sit and undo the strips according to the tutorial, making the stair step pattern shown.

Piecing the blocks together was really fun. I spread them out all over the floor and let the kids design what they wanted to. In the end, we all agreed on the diamond shapes.

I made a scrappy binding out of the strips left over and quilted in outline stitching along the seams. I still have lots more strips to sew, so maybe I'll make another and just keep adding to the pile as I go. It was a fun quilt to make for beginners and advanced quilters alike!

I hope you like the final result! I love it and it's turned into the BEST couch quilt! Everyone fights over who gets it, but it's big enough to share :)

You can find the free tutorial HERE! Have you made one? Share your links!

Have a great weekend everyone!