I don't know what it is about the Christmas period but I totally lose any desire to be creative. This year it was compounded by the most disgusting hot, humid, rainy weather ever, bar none. And a sprained ankle. I actually thought sitting on the couch for hours on end with it up on pillows would be a crafting godsend, but all I did really was read and play on my phone. But the ankle is much better, so is the weather, and I got caught by this Scrappy Tripalong that started up on Instagram. I'd seen this tag pop up a few times in the last few days but didn't really twig to it until I read a couple blog posts. I thought "ahhhh...so that's what it is" and then I thought "nah, not really my thing" and then after I had a look at the hashtag album I thought "hmmm...I quite like some of these..." and then I thought "but I don't have any scraps large enough" and then about half an hour later I thought "but actually I have all those old sheets" and then an hour or so after that I thought "and they'd look pretty good, maybe I'll just have a look at them" and the next thing I knew I was cutting out vast numbers of strips and telling my husband I was making "a thing for the thing - you know". I think my brain must have been having a break at that point, but he found it amusing so now the project is "The Thing" in our house.
The Tripalong is based around the tutorial over at
Quiltville, and it's super super simple. I'm not the most accurate piecer in the world but damn if my seams aren't matching and everything sits nice and flat! I'm also trying out pressing my seams to one side as per the tutorial. I usually press open but thought perhaps this would eliminate some of the bulk at the seam intersections. I guess I'd have to do one pressed open to compare but it does seem to help. I still don't like the way the seams sit though, you just can't get them as flat as you can when they're pressed open.
So here are my six blocks put together. I have strips for another 10 blocks sorted out, and probably enough strips for another 10 cut, although I may have to cut more of some colours. The trick is to have light and dark strips, and for my fabrics, also contrasting colours. I think having one bright colour per block will be essential, and also making sure there is one strip of blue. Blue really seems to stand out the most for some reason.
