Two new entirely scrappy quilts

At last I finished this UFO. It's tied throughout the checkerboard; the red border is quilted by machine.  The binding was to be all obvious zig-zags like the section in the lower middle of the photo but the fabric, inexpensive and from JoAnne's, was not printed straight.  A shame because I like the effect.  Ah, well. 

I saw a checkerboard quilt in a European Fabric Mania magazine about three years ago and realized it could be made in 12-patch increments by a method of sewing strips together and then cutting them, flipping every other strip and sewing into blocks.  I had quite a collection of blues and also of whites, many with blue print, so this scrappy quilt contains at least 50 different fabrics. As always I love that so many patterns can all lie side by side making a coherent pattern.

This strip quilt is even more obviously scrappy. A similar one (no two could ever be alike!) was on Selvage Blog (see sidebar) a couple of years ago. It clearly did not need a pattern, just many horizontal strips and a couple of rows of shorter vertical strips to break up the pattern. Nothing complex about the sewing. I attempted to chose among the many, many strips, ones with color affinities so there seems to be a little bit of planning -- actually not planning ahead but thoughtful choices as I went along.  That was terrifically enjoyable for me. I love freedom of choice as I sew, it can't become boring.

I did not attempt to make all strips the same width but stayed in the 1-1/2 to 3 inch range, most are 2 inches or a little more or a little less.  I tried to make the entire strip the same width even when I sewed pieces together. The pale pink and black border makes me smile. The entire back is a busy, small scale black and white stylized print. So much fun, I'm feeling tempted to make another  ... but my "to make" list is always in mind.