The Vdaim Scrap Quilt

Remember all those vintage, hand cut two inch squares I mentioned at the bottom of this post? I've been trying to think of a way to use them. I tried sewing them up with some of my scraps and a pretty Delft blue Kona, but it wasn't enjoyable.

The two inch size of the hand cut squares is not consistent and it made matching the seams a real pain. There was a lot of stretching and pinning involved and in the end, they are still distorted.

I was playing with the hand cut scraps this morning with some of the scraps from my overflowing scrap bins and thought that if I trimmed a few of them down (to 1.5" x 2" or so) and then sew them together, it would create more of a brick pattern and I wouldn't have to match the seams.

Let's see, stretching and pinning hundreds and hundreds of two inch squares or willy-nilly sewing them together with abandon? Willy-nilly it is!

I figured that with seams that wonky, I needed to give my quilt a name to help explain the mess. I Googled the names that initially came to mind, but they were all taken... hot mess, vomit, etc. 

The following is a transcript of what went on in my head:

I could just call it the Visually Disturbing quilt because that's exactly what it will be, visually disturbing. But then it's nickname would be "the VD quilt" and nobody wants to cuddle up under that. Maybe something like the Intentionally Crooked Visually Disturbing quilt?  No, that acronym is ICVD. Again, gross. Replace "crooked" with "mismatched"? IMVD? Um, nope. Flip it around? Yea, that's it!

The Visually Disturbing And Intentionally Mismatched scrap quilt.

I'll call it the "VDAIM" for short.

So, I present you with the first four blocks of my VDAIM scrap quilt. 

I'm going to square them into 12.5" blocks and wait until I have more blocks before sewing them together.

Epilogue:

After typing this post, I thought I should probably Google VDAIM and make sure it doesn't mean something inappropriate. Guess what? Vdaim is already in the Urban Dictionary! Here's the definition:

1. vdaim adj. 1. Departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern. n.  1. An individual who deviates markedly from an established norm, especially a person of odd or unconventional behavior. 2. Physics. An oblong solid mass that has properties somewhat defiant of gravity; Similar to a gyroscope. Mary: "Have you seen Frank?" Jessi: "Nah that kid's vdaim" Departing from the conventional norm or pattern? Yes, I think this name fits. And, there truly is nothing new under the sun.

Fractured quilt in progress

Ever since the wonderful weekend I spent with six of my stitchy friends earlier this month, I've been in a quilting mood! I pulled out the Farmer's Wife quilt I started in 2011 and have made some decent progress; I'll have to share that later. In addition to a couple of new scrap quilts, I also started on the Fractured quilt (photo above) from Kathy Doughty's new book, Making Quilts with Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession: 21 Authentic Projects.

Amazon.com link

The first blocks I made were single color scrappy with a one dark fabric for each block, but ultimately, I decided to go with two fabrics per block as in the top photo.

Pulling fabrics for this quilt was fun! I'll be able to use some of the lighter fabrics that have been sitting in my stash for a long time. It's a good stash-buster and really fast and easy to sew.
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Sewing up the Fractured quilt has me thinking about my scraps. I got distracted this morning and started making some new scrap blocks that might just become my long-term scrap elimination solution.

It feels good to be blogging about quilts again!