Scrappy Trip Quilt Along: Cutting and first blocks

Hello again and welcome to the official start of the quilt along! This week and next we will be cutting our fabric, and then making the first 4 blocks. So many of you have excitedly worked ahead, which I understand completely! There have been a lot of questions that I've struggled to keep up with between the holidays and visitors, so thank you for your patience with me. I am doing my best to explain a lot of different concepts. Let's all remember that it's free and it's for fun :)

Side note: I do not know why ads have starting showing up within posts, and I do not know how to make it stop. I hate them and I'm sorry!

Many questions can be answered in my last blog post, or on Instagram highlights, and I hope to answer many more today. If you're still wondering about fabric requirements, or schedule, or any other details be sure to check out the Scrappy Trip Quilt Along post from last time. 

Now for the cutting instructions!

No matter how you go about it, in the end you need (160) 2.5" strips that are half the WOF, so about 21" long. This is for the 64" x 80" quilt, with 20 blocks. (If you are wanting to make a queen size, you'll need to make 36 blocks, which is nearly double the fabric at 288 strips.) 

-For those of you using 2 jelly rolls for this quilt, your cutting is super easy. Just cut every strip in half! Your pieces will be about 21" x 2.5". You don't need to trim off the selvages, they will get trimmed later in the process. (Unless they really bug you, you can go ahead!)

-If you're using 12 FQs and background, you'll need to cut (7) 2.5" strips from each FQ. Make sure you're cutting from the length of the FQ, not the width, so your strips are about 21" long. If your FQs are cut without any extra, you only have 1/2" of wiggle room, so cut carefully. Once again, no need to trim the selvage unless you want to. You need 80 total, so you'll have 4 left over in the end. 

-If you're using yardage for background, cut (40) 2.5" strips and cut those in half. If you struggle to cut straight strips, I've shown how I do that in the "More Tips" highlight. 

-From 24 FQs, same thing! 7 strips from each, there will be just a few extra in the end. 

-If using an accent diagonal, cut (10) 2.5" x WOF strips, and cut each in half for 20 total.

Now for the blocks:

If you don't know how to make the Scrappy Trip blocks, watch this video. If you can't see all the words on the bottom, click on the icon in the lower left corner to make it bigger. 

Each version has only 2 blocks that alternate, so 10 of each type. Each block starts with (8) 2.5" x 21" strips, whether that be 8 scrappy prints, 4 prints and 4 background, or an accent substituted in there somewhere. 

If you're doing full scrappy, either with 2 print Jelly rolls, or 24 FQs, you have a lot of wiggle room. Start unpicking wherever you want! Just make sure half of them have the diagonal stripes going up, and half of them going down, with rows pressed up and down accordingly, if you want your seams to all nest. 

You do not need to make your colors match up as I've done in the diagram, unless you want to. When I made this quilt below, I didn't really plan at all. Since there isn't a lot of contrast in the fabrics I used, it mattered even less where I chose to place colors. 

This is my niece Isla. She took this quilt home with her to Utah today, and we miss her terribly already!

If you're doing a background fabric for every other row (with no accent), your two blocks will look like this. Make 10 of each. 

In my first blog post about my Gooseberry with white version, I talked about starting with either a print or a white in each corner, but that was only for making blocks with diagonals going all one way, and then rotating every other. Since then I've found it much easier to always start with a print in the upper right corner, deliberately go up or down with the diagonal each time, make sure rows are nesting by pressing opposite directions, and build the quilt as you go. You can wait until the end to decide block placement, but then you'll be tempted to rotate things around, seams won't nest, and headaches will ensue :) Believe me, I've done it both ways a few times.

Ok- here's where we throw a wrench in the works! The accent diagonal (totally optional) can either be put in place of a print, or background. In my birthday Ombre Confetti version, it was in place of a print, so I had 4 background strips, 3 prints, and 1 accent. In the Granny Chic version I've started this week in stories with background yellow, the accent is in place of a background strip, so I have 4 prints, 3 yellow, and 1 white accent. Either way, the accent is always going to be located in the same place in your 2 blocks, like this:

Accent diagonal in place of prints, so 3 print strips, 4 background, 1 accent-

Accent diagonal in place of background, so 4 print strips, 3 background, and 1 accent-

Notice that either way, the accent is in the same spot- from corner to corner descending in Block A, and ascending starting 2nd spot up from the bottom in Block B, with one square alone in the lower right. 

This will ensure that you have a continuous chain throughout your quilt, though it won't line up in all the corners of your quilt. If you want to just do it from corner to corner in each block, you will have 4 accent squares meeting at the corners of each block, which is also a fun look. 

Tip! It's easy to start unpicking on the accent square for Block A, but for B it can be confusing. Start by unpicking the accent square first, place it in the second row up, then figure out what goes below it, then build above it. 

I hope that clears a lot of things up. Prizes will be announced in Instagram, picked from participants who use the hashtag #wwscrappytrip. I don't really mind what stage you're at along the way as long as you're participating to win a prize. I'm not going to be counting anyone's blocks! I won't have blog posts here every week, so make sure to check in with Instagram. 

If you have any further questions you can email me at woodberrywayblog@gmail.com, and I will probably share the response on IG so everyone can benefit from it. Thank you for your excitement in doing this quilt together, I can't wait to see your blocks!