February BOM

Hi all Caroline here.  This month I asked Jan-Maree if I could be in charge of the Block of the Month.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with Instagram, it’s a photo app that you can get on your phone and you can follow lots of designers, quilters or just about anyone who loves to take photo’s and share them.  Well over the Christmas New Year period I kept seeing lots of photo’s referring  to a “Scrappytripalong”.  Lots and Lots of photos of these blocks and the best part about them is they are great for using up some of your scraps.

This is a link to the Flickr group that was started so that people could show what they had done. (http://www.flickr.com/groups/scrappytripalong/  ).  

The original tutorial that everyone was following was from the following website,  (http://quiltville.blogspot.com.au/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html ) so you can have a look at where the block originated and look at the tutorial.  They show a lot more in depth directions if you have trouble with mine - well worth a look.  Here is a picture of a finished quilt from their blog.

SOURCE OF PHOTO QUILTVILLE BLOG

You end up with finished blocks that should be 12 ½” inches squared.   If they are out a little don’t bother trimming them.  Just send as is.

I have done a few blocks to show how it works with all our Aussie fabrics.  The first picture shows the blocks in the around the world placement, and the second is a chevron option, either look really good I think.

You will need scraps that are 2 ½ inches wide by 16 inches long.  And to make one block you will need 6 different scrappy strips.

You then sew them together making sure that you start sewing your seams at the opposite end each time to avoid distortion. 

Once sewn together you will need to press your seams.  Now this needs to be done as shown in the picture below so that when you go to sew all the strips together the seams will nest together.  See the direction of seams marked with arrows.

After you have pressed the seams, you will sew the last seam together making a tube.  Press the last seam in the same manner as all the others.  Next we need to straighten off the end of the tube with your rotary cutter and ruler, then cut yourself 6 x 2 ½ inch tubes.

Next is the fun part, you need to use your seam ripper to undo some of the seams to form the block.  Starting with the top seam of the first 2 ½ inch tube, use your seam ripper to rip every fourth or fifth stitch along the seam then open up the seam.  On the second 2 ½ inch tube rip the seam below the seam you just did.  So for example in my picture above,  if you ripped the top seam with the cockies, then you next rip the seam between the cockies and the green stars then rip the seam between the green stars and the brown mosaic, and so on.  You should end up with six strips with a different square on each end.  

Once lined up side by side you can see the pattern forming.  Now it is a matter of lining up each seam and sewing  them together.  Because of the way that you originally pressed the seams they should lock in together with one seam going one way and one going the other when you butt them up to sew each seam.

I have found that the Clover fork pins are fantastic when locking seams together they hold both seams down and are quite fine and if you are very careful can machine over them.  But if you don’t have these 2 pins work fine ... one for each seam.  Once all five seams are sewn DO NOT PRESS THE FINAL FIVE SEAMS. The reason for this is that once everyone’s blocks come back to us some blocks will be rotated to fit together in pleasing patterns to make up some quilt tops. So it will be easier to press once I know how they will go together and I can get the seams to nest together easier.

The above photo shows my completed block.  It would be great if we could stick to more masculine themes & colours, but by all means a little colour in each as this should work really well.  I think these should make up some lovely scrappy quilts and also help use up some scraps you may have lying around not knowing what to do with.

Please send all completed blocks to Jan-Maree at
Aussie Hero Quilts
PO Box 248
Cherrybrook NSW  2126

Look forward to seeing what you do with your scraps.

Cheers

Caroline