Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Ambrosia Quilt

I was intrigued by a quilt.  Anyone who says they weren't ready to be finished making their quilt, you know you need stop everything to investigate what that is all about!  

On Monday morning, I was surfing through some blogs for quilt inspiration and PatchworknPlay's blog happen to be one I landed on.  This is the quilt she was referring to.  She calls it her Scrappy Sandwiches.
Suz says she got her inspiration for her design from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville's Quips & Snips, String X under Bonnie's free patterns.  I really like Suz's quilt and I had everything on hand to make a scrappy quilt like hers!

Lots of talk about scrap busting has been discussed since the New Year began.  Back in January, I decided I could do a little clean up myself so I began going through my stash of scraps and sorting colors, trimming sizes, etc. I began stitching an assortment of pastel strips.  Long story short, I had made some strip segments and had put them away for the day I would figure out what to do with them.

On Monday, I pulled them out and began cutting them into the size Suz had described in her Scrappy Sandwich tutorial. From this point on Suz's inspiration developed into my design.

Unfortunately I had already cut my strips into three inch widths.  I stayed with her 10.5 inch length. Now my segments were 10.5 x 3 inches.   My white strips are 1.5 inches same as Suz's.  I auditioned some solids as she has in her photos, but I do not have a large solid collection and I did not have anything close to the "Sand."  Rummaging, I pulled out a beautiful charm pack called Ambrosia by Jennifer Young that I had ordered from Missouri Star Quilt Company. It was one of those Ta-Da moments. 



The colors in my strippy segments blended perfect with the colors in the Ambrosia charm pack.  It's so colorful and scrappy it reminded of a fruit salad like Ambrosia.  Hence my quilt got its name!



I trimmed my scrappy strip segments to 10.5 x 3 inches.



I used white cotton from Kona for my accent strip. My strips are cut 1.5 inches.  Sew a white strip on each side of strip segment.  Press open.  I then folded each one in half and lightly pressed to make a center fold line.  That fold made it easier to line up to trim the points and later the finished square.




Lots of strips folded in half. 


Eyeball the position and place the black line of ruler down the center folded line.  With this ruler I also made sure the red markings on the ruler were also evenly placed on the outer edge of the rectangle.  


Trim off each side to make a point.



 Turn your piece around and do the same for the other end.  Line up the black line down the center and the red lines on the outer edge. 


Perfect.  Just like the above photo.  Do those cuts and don't overly stress if they are not extremely accurate. You will cut them again when you trim up your block for the final square.

Now stitch one of the half cut triangles from the five inch charm pack.  Or if you prefer, cut a five inch square and cut that square in half for your triangle.  Stitch one triangle on each side of each white strip to form a square.  Don't match any edges of the triangle.  Edges will hang off.  It's is okay to have tails on your triangle.



Next, use a large 10 or 12 inch square ruler and position the diagonal center line on the ruler on the folded center line of your block.  Trim your block on all sides.  Mine measured out at 7.25 inches.   (I am not a precise cutter or measurement person.  I aimed for the center and cut a 7.25 inch square but I am not going to sweat the small stuff if ultimately every stripe doesn't line up perfectly.)






As you can see, I cut the 5 inch squares in half and knew I would just go back and trim off to square up the blocks.  My finished block is 7.25 inches.





I can see why Suz did not want to stop making her quilt.  Now that I know I like how these blocks look together, I have been digging deeper into shelves and boxes looking for more bits and pieces of leftover fabrics from previous projects to make more strip sets.
   
It is going to be a nice quilt.  Fruity.  Like Fruit Stripe gum. I see oranges, pineapple, apples, blueberries, kiwi, strawberries, pecans and almonds.  Like a fruit salad.  Like Ambrosia.  It is neat to see Bonnie's quilt, Suz's quilt, and my quilt.  They are all the same but different.

I'll keep working on it and come back when I have finished it.  


Thanks for stopping by!

I love Ambrosia.  My grandmother, Rose, (the quiltmaker) made it every year for Christmas dinner.  Sliced naval orange segments, pineapple chunks, red cherries, shredded coconut and sprinkled with chopped pecans. Mix all the ingredients and sweeten to taste with a little powdered sugar.  It tastes so good that I continue her tradition and make it for my family at Thanksgiving and Christmas. This true Ambrosia recipe is a fruit salad fit for the gods.  Not only does it taste wonderful, the color combination of orange, yellow and red is truly amazing served in a clear crystal bowl.  I hope you will try some at your next holiday meal.

I am linking up to Esther's blog for WOW Works in Progress Wednesday. 



  



5 comments:

  1. It is going to be a very pretty scrappy quilt when you get it done. It is pretty now.

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  2. What fun that was learning from your tutorial step by step or photo by photo, I enjoyed it so much I want to start my own LOL. It looks like so much fun also. Last week Nancy showed scrappy 1/4 log cabins that I also fell in love with, I must need to make a scrappy quilt my self may be. Cheers Glenda

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  3. love the tutorial! I'm going to have to pin this....you know, just in case I actually find time for yet another project to try.

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  4. What happy fabrics! I particularly love the blue and white in the first photo.

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