Even tho I put all my little squares (about 500) in the dryer to tumble them and then in a plastic bag to be shaken even more, when it comes time to reach in grab some and sew them....I CAN'T DO IT! I just have to arrange and re-arrange. Please help me!! Black bag, little hole? Ask GS to pass me one at a time?

What do you do? Maybe I'll have to sort just a bit. Light, med and dark for eg. Do love the fabrics, tho!

Sorry I have to have consistancy. I tried this and well I ended up with a pattern.

I can't blame you. I have a hard time with random piecing, because I like to match colors, etc. When I made a crazy patch, I ended up having them all color matched. Your quilt will be beautiful, no matter how you end up choosing your colors. I'm watching. . .

Maybe you need to take baby steps into the land or Random :D:D:D

I think both blocks are gorgeous!

I don't stop to really look at a piece block that I'm doing randomly. I doesn't bother me if the fabric looks perfect together or not. I wait until I start laying the blocks out for the quilt design then I will play with the arrangement somewhat. What is the fun in fretting over it?

I to don't do random blocks very well. Seem to always get to many of the same colors together but won't give up. Am now working on a random color quilt and am having a little better luck with it although it's still a little frustrating. Won't give up......

OK, I'll plow on! Just can't go with the second one tho. Top FG and bottom FG not sewn together yet at least! There will be lots of white so maybe...

Thanks people!

You have summarized exactly why I don't do scrappy!! :roll:

I don't agree with your "yuk" description. How can it be yukky when you are using colors that are in the feature fabric? They will go together and the result will be so much better than the sum of the parts. Don't JUDGE each block as a stand-alone. Instead trust that the parts will go together in the end.

It may help to separate the scraps by color line (all the pinks together, all the greens together, etc.) OR add a separation by value (Light reds, medium reds, dark reds, etc). THEN decide for yourself which bin you pull from. Make a rule that you can ONLY SWITCH IF YOU PULL A FABRIC THAT YOU JUST USED. Everything else - - - you gotta use.

Have fun with it. If you REALLY HATE IT in the end - and I DOUBT YOU WILL, then there will be someone else just gaga over the top. No worries.

I do a lot of random quilts and they always turn out great.

Years ago I took a day course with the famous Ricky Tims in when he visited the UK. The first thing he made us do was roughly cut/tear 2" strips put them in a bag. He then gave us a strip of calico 6"x18". We then had to flip and sew strips to the calico whatever came out of the bag. When finished the strips were placed on a design wall. There was 18 students in the class all working in different colours(brights,pastels,florals etc) When they were all finished he placed black sashing between the strips and the effect was stunning! Never had a problem with fabrics since!! As Ricky says"anything goes"!!!!!

Years ago I took a day course with the famous Ricky Tims in when he visited the UK. The first thing he made us do was roughly cut/tear 2" strips put them in a bag. He then gave us a strip of calico 6"x18". We then had to flip and sew strips to the calico whatever came out of the bag. When finished the strips were placed on a design wall. There was 18 students in the class all working in different colours(brights,pastels,florals etc) When they were all finished he placed black sashing between the strips and the effect was stunning! Never had a problem with fabrics since!! As Ricky says"anything goes"!!!!! Just look at his quilts for inspiration! :thumbup:

Randoms hard for me also. :)

Wish I could keep posting pictures of these - 2 quilts, same fabrics, different patterns - but they are for GD's and I don't want them to see.

Can always relay on you chaps! Thanks!

I'm trying it now. Most of my colors are pastel, and most are blendingwell, so far!! A few times I tossed one back because it was too close in background color( white) but I'm sticking to it and we will see.

Its hard to start a random and not want to put it into some kind of order. One of the problems is you are looking only at one block/square.... not the whole quilt ... it really all does come together. Random quilts make the eye travel across the many fabrics. TRY not to make a decision , bases on one square . I once saw a Kaffe Fasset quilt that had over 300 fabrics, none of which I ever would have purchased... done in a random or scrappy manner .... together .... it was stunning.

I have a hard time also so I haven't done a true scrappy except for the siggy swap I just got together last week. There was enough white to keep me from going bananas.
I'll really do dark, medium and plenty of light when I do one the next time.

I tried it with my DD's tumbler quilt. I did kind of okay. Since it was all 1930's fabrics, they all went together.

show us todays update. . .

My hubby tells me when he sees me playing with randoms, your take off sucks but the landing is fine. He says sometimes it looks like a bad start and he is proud of what comes out at the finish. LOL. Maybe this will work for you. I love randoms. And I like Ricky Timms ideas. He has some samples of these usually at the Houston quitl show so those of you going, check it out.

I am no good at 'random" or "srappy" quilts either. I like teh scrappy quilts but mine are "coordinated scrappy"! I have to have color coordination in my things.

I love scrappy quilts. The first one I made, I tried to match blues together, reds together, greens together, but by the time I had all the blocks done, you couldn't tell what was the primary color. Just keep going and it'll be fine.

Make the worst matches possible, except for not putting two of the same together. When made, it will look perfect!!!! (You are trying too hard....)

Don't get caught up on individual blocks. The quilt as a whole will look great. I also liked both blocks. This is a scrappy quilt. Let it fly and have fun!!!

I don't do well with randoms either,but I think if you put a solid divider between them,then that might work better.

I love doing random, improv quilts, but I often have 2 or 3 "rules" I set for myself, depending on the pattern and fabric possibilites. Often I say "no like fabrics touching" or "no repeats in the same block" and I will also often have my pieces sorted by value -- lights and darks.

After that, turn off the inner critic and have at it.

RST

Oh -- another thought on random and improv. It's those "off" blocks that give the completed quilt its spark. Everything matchy and coordinated and planned ends up looking very canned and predictable, while a little dissonance keeps your eyes coming back.

If you're having a hard time dealing with the clash effect, work with smaller pieces. The quilt in my siggie has a lot of really "off" fabrics side by side, but because the individual pieces are small and all is contained in rows, with lots of white and black to rest the eye, it ends up looking luminous and interesting -- far more so than if I had lined up each color range in a pattern or by ascending value.

RST

I LOVE scrappy, so I don't have too much issue with randomness....I did one of those pick from the brown bag things...my friends were all more 'scared' about it than I was (they tend to be my 'matchy, matchy' friends :)....but...the quilt turned out really cute! They even liked it!

These blocks are gorgeous! Live to dare girl !!!!!

Truly random. Yuk! ??????????? I like thhis combination.

This is my philosophy exactly!!!

I'm trying right now to do that, and I just can't get past the colors that I don't believe go well together. Fortunately, a lot of my fabrics do coordinate, but if I run out a one fabric, then I'm in trouble. But I look at every scrappy quilt pictured on this board, and I love them all. I even look very closely to see what the fabrics are, but I just can't seem to pull it together.

When I make scrap quilts, usually 9 patches, the squares go into a brown paper bag. I randomly pick them out a few (5 or 6) at a time & use them all before picking out others. If I were to judge each 9 patch, I'd puke! Put them all together & it's gorgeous! Keep going!

I know what you mean. Scrappy quilts are dones this way sometimes but I need to try to control. That's why I don't accomplish as much. I would suggest sorting darks and lights into different bags and pick from these. At least you will get a dark when you need it and not a light. Good luck. I really like the first one.

OK, doing better with the random, HOWEVER!, my 7 1/2" white rectangles were cut (yeah, by me) 7 1/4"!!! Oh well, just the first 8 of them that I did trial blocks from so at least I caught it now! The rest of the stack are the correct size. Probably won't even unpick too much as I have lots of squares.

They are your scraps, if they want to make you happy, then just go with it. You can't fool me, I will not help you alert the quilt police! LOL! :thumbup:

I havn't done too much random piecing. I can't get my mind programed to think that way. Maybe I'll try it again and see what happens. I just might make the next earthquake quilt.

Kitsie, your avatar is beautiful, by the way.

My son is now 25, but when he was 3 or so, I let him choose what square was next. He felt so proud, he was helping mommy, and for years I had a remembrance of our day together. He had this large space to fill up with colored squares
You know, he still has what I call an 'engineer' brain. Even when given a coloring book, he'd make a geometric design on the paper, like the picture wasn't even there, very engineer-like
He grew up to do something in computer networking, I'd explain it but that would mean I have to understand it!

Kitsie, I am the same way. :lol: I really like your block tho!