Zephyr QAL: Kick-Off Week!
Welcome to the Zephyr QAL! I'm so glad you decided to sew with me!
I use two different approaches when it comes to scrappy quilts: curated scrappy, where I start with a plan and only use scraps that match that plan (Panda Love and Wake Me Up, Watermelon), and true scrappy, where I just start sewing and grab whatever scrap is closest or feels right (Summer Scrap and Kinship). Both are beautiful, but have distinct looks when finished. I've made three Zephyr quilts so far and used both of these approaches to choose my scraps.
The first Zephyr I made was the Pink Zephyr, a two-color baby-sized version. I've always wanted to make a pink and gray quilt and my pink scraps were overflowing so it was finally time! I alternated between light and dark scraps for interest, but wasn't real picky about what counted as light and dark. This gives the quilt nice movement, which is helped by the wavy line quilting I did with my walking foot.
My second Zephyr was the Rainbow Zephyr, a rainbow throw-sized version. When I'm designing, I always do one rainbow mock-up and I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it (it's what convinced me to bring the pattern to life!). I really liked the alternating darks and lights in the pink version and carried it over to the rainbow version.
My third Zephyr was the Christmas Zephyr, a Christmas novelty print alternate twin-size version. This one didn't get a mock-up because it was all done on the fly. I had an old fat quarter bundle of large scale Christmas prints, including the polar bears and doves, that I never used because I couldn't figure out what to do with them. The pattern includes instructions for using directional fabric, so it was easy to cut them out correctly on the first try. After the fat quarter pinwheels were sewn, I filled in the gaps with other fabrics from my Christmas novelty print box. It's more of a true scrappy quilt than a curated scrappy one, even though I started with a fat quarter bundle.
My quilt-along Zephyr is currently called Blue Zephyr and will be a traditional twin-sized version made with mostly blue scraps. I only have mock-ups for this one because I'm going to be sewing along in real-time with you! I started with a dark/light alternating pattern like the Pink Zephyr, but decided I wanted to do something different. Next, I tried a chevron pattern, but I was worried about having enough scraps in the same shade to make the pattern obvious (my blue scraps have much more variety than my pink scraps). Finally, I randomly changed some of the colors in my chevron mock-up to add browns and purples. I'm happy with this one on screen, but will have to see where my scrap bins take me once I start sewing!
I want to hear from you: what color is your Zephyr going to be? Post a picture of your fabric pull or your coloring sheet on Instagram with the hashtag #zephyrqal and tag me @bluepipdesigns to share! Next Sunday I'll randomly select one post to win a prize of your choice: a PDF copy of any pattern from my pattern shop (including Zephyr!) or a mini charm pack of Flurry and a Christmas fat quarter that didn't make the cut for my Christmas Zephyr quilt. If you don't have an Instagram account, you can comment here with your answer as well! I can't wait to see everyone's ideas!
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