Trippin'

 As I was working on the mindless string blocks, another project landed in my lap: Trip Around The World.

Not the most flattering of shots, but a true capture of her joie de vivre. That's me in the background, holding the bolt of the "awesome" doxie fabric that ended up in my prototype TATW block.

Last year one of our Magpies flew from this mortal coil. In memory of her, the Nest is making a quilt for her granddaughter--to be given at her Bat Mitzvah--using fabrics from her stash. Her cousin and fellow Magpie is coordinating the effort and getting fabrics to all those who've volunteered to make blocks. I had thrown in my hat when this project was being discussed; I knew I could manage to make 4 blocks during my time home, but that would have to be the extent of my contribution.

While waiting for my allotment of fabrics, I figured I'd get familiar with the tube technique Bonnie Hunter shares on her Quiltville website for a Scrappy Trip Around the World, which is what the Magpies decided to make. Pulling all strips that were 16" or longer from my 2.5" bin, I built this:

Not much WOW factor in this, because it turns out I don't have many long 2.5" strips!

The technique is easy (although I made a tweak to Bonnie's instructions that eliminates the unpicking of one column per block*) and the results are fun.

My squishy arrived as I was trimming up the final string block, so I was eager to dig in!

Oh dear, my nemeses: medium-valued fabrics!

 

Keeping in mind Bonnie's reminder that the end fabrics need to have contrasting values for the best effect, this was the line-up I decided upon:

The green is laid out at (but not sewn to) each end to confirm there'll be enough contrast between it and the 'solid' (medium) teal.

 

The final blocks, ready to be mailed back:

I rarely make sample blocks, so now I have an orphaned block lurking about. Others call their collection of sample, extra, or mis-sized blocks "Spare Parts", so I guess I'll be opening my own Parts Department.

*The tweak I made to Bonnie's instructions falls here:

Rather than sewing the seam down the length of the panel and then squaring off one end of the resulting tube, I squared the panel while it was still flat, cut the first subsection (purple line), then sewed the remainder of the panel into a tube (from which 5 more subsections were cut). That eliminated unpicking the seam from one subsection.

Imagine all these strips have been sewn to each other. I didn't take a picture of my tweak as I was doing it, so this has to make do.