Triangle Quilt

This is the second completed top made from my summer scrap bin challenge. So how does something like this get created from a heap of scraps.

I will back up to the beginning. I knew the scraps were out of control. This is just one of several bins. I needed some projects to take with me to work on in my RV and could not really decide. On a whim I grabbed this large scrap bin and made myself a challenge to make quilts with this till they were all gone. At first my strategy was to just cut shapes. That went well and the first quilt quickly evolved from that. But I wanted a balance of color so changed up the process.

I decided to stop cutting shapes and concentrate on sorting by color family. Being on the road with limited space I recycled plastic bags as containers. Wow! I discovered a full rainbow of colors and neutrals. Humm there were plenty of scraps for a quilt with just cool colors. I had seen lots of quilts on Pinterest that were made up of nothing but triangles.

Now the plan really developed as I began cutting with my Tri-Recs rulers using both shapes. Humm maybe cut a few smallest ones too and figure out what to do with them later. Well really I only had so many larger scraps so had to piece together to have enough because the only fabric I had was gonna come out of the scrap bin so I was forced to make due.

Now I was on a mission as I went thru my bags of cool colors. I cut everything that was large enough into one of the three shapes. I was really liking the resulting pile!

Well there were just not going to be enough of the the larger size triangles so I was going to have to make larger triangles out of the smaller ones. Humm I had cut so many little ones I decided to lay them out in groups of 3 alike. Wow lots of those so I then added a contrasting triangle from the pile that was left. Then I sewed them all up and added them to the pile of larger ones.

Now I finally had enough for a decent size quilt. I laid them all out on my design area (aka the bed). I was just not loving the layout. I began to move things around.

I kept moving stuff until it hit me. What if I group them to make larger diamonds. Now I really liked how this was looking.  It took quite some time and making up some additional pieced triangles till I finally had the final layout. It took several days to sew it all together. I had to put it away after each sew day because the design board did double duty as a bed. I was amazed at how much this shrunk up with all the seams, especially sideways. I did not use all the triangles but the remaining ones are now neatly stored in a large recycled envelope in the scrap bin. I really like the finished top which is a good size for a wall quilt.

Now that this one is finished I have been working on the next top, tree of life with an applique border........but that is for another post.