Cut-it-anyway-you-want Whirligig
 

Call it free-pieced, freestyle, liberated, improvisational or wonky, it's so fun to do! It was my 10th block when I said, whoa, I want the wide end of the blade in the center! So then I figured out I had to cut the squares face down; some face up, flip them right-side up, rotate the one on the right 180 degrees, flip it over and then I got some chunky looking ones! I wanted the majority of the blocks to be somewhat consistent and then I wanted 2 or 3 that were extreme from all the others. There's always an odd one in the group.

I pulled out the florals for this one and since the squares I was using were 5", I had some layer cake squares given to me that were perfect for this quilt. Laying 2 squares together to get 4 blades at once, cut anyway you like, gave me half of the blocks done. Then I'd repeat it again for the other half of the block. Later I grabbed 3" precut strips and cut pairs of individual blades, a dark and a light, and repeated that 3 more times for really wonky blocks!


It was fast to put together and I got to play with the great big florals -- a blue and white floral my seamstress made me a dress out of 51 years ago; another fabric I purchased a few days ago at Walmart (David Textiles), 1/4 yd. remnant for 8 cents!!!!! What a deal! You can't beat that!


Hope you enjoy my wonky scrappy and are inspired! (it's 65x87).

A few more pics:

I love it! I make lots and lots of scrappy, and I like to do different patterns all the time. I have to re-read how you did this as I'm still having to think about it. I'm sure if I just pull out a few of my already cut squares this would be easy to figure out, I'm a visual learner. Great size you made it.

Your quilt is beautiful! Great job!

Thank you, love to sew! I'll do a mini-tut for everyone and post it here as I'm sure others would like to give it a try! Basically, I just took (2) 5" squares and laid them face down on top of each other (you need a dark and a light) and just slice it in half with a ruler or without a ruler. Make a curve like I did on a few. Or use a ruler. Lay the 4 pairs out. Flip them all over face up always keeping the light fabric on the right hand side. Next rotate the light square to its opposite end. Both pieces should look like a 5" square and fit together perfectly. Flip the light square over on the dark one and chain-sew all of them at once. Cut them apart. Repeat the process again and sew the halves together!

If you need pics, I'll include them in the tut. Have fun with it! Nothing really needs to line up when joining blocks but I did attempt to meet blades correctly wherever it was possible. If it's really wonky, nothing will line up right so that's why I only made 2 crazy wonky ones. Hope this helps! n2

I forgot to say that I squared all the blocks up to 8" to finish @ 7.5". I make the scrappies long enough for people who are over 6' tall as they usually go to charity.

Also, for the wide end to be in the center, cut the squares face down. Conversely, if you want the narrow end of the blade in the center, cut the squares face up.

As for using the 3" precut strips, I have no idea how it will look when it's finished because I'm cutting one pair at a time and not planning ahead on how I want it to look so that's why I laughed out loud at the one really wonky block! You'll be amazed at what you end up with!!

WOW!!!! :) :) Fun, fun, fun!!!! :) :)

Nicely done, very colorful.

Wow! I have to hand it to you, to be able to free yourself from being rigid, to let go and end up with such a happy, colorful quilt! One day, someday, maybe I'll be able let myself go wild! You go, girl. I love your quilt.

that is really a neat and scrappy quilt!!!