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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Scrappy Trips Hits American Quilt Retailer!


A couple of months ago, Author Susan Fuquay contacted me about the wild and crazy thing going on with Instagram and Flickr – and how my Scrappy Trips pattern has taken the quilt world by storm, almost overnight!

If you have Istagram, you can simply type in #scrappytripalong and you will find 5,630 photos uploaded by scrap-saavy quilters all over the world. 

A TON of inspiration for digging into those 2-1/2” strips and sewing up a Scrappy Trip of your own.

The neatest thing ----is that American Quilt Retailer is a publication for shops!  They are letting the shops know that they can have some really fun Scrappy Trip Along days with their customers – bring the scraps, sew up a day of fun!

And this excites me ---Because we all know we have more fabric than we know what to do with.

And because sometimes workshops can be daunting ((And expensive)) and you don’t have much to show for a one day class at the end of the day.

And this focuses on forming friendships, lots of laughter, swapping of strips, and building a quilting community, as well as learning a fun technique and sewing up the scraps we’ve accumulated while supporting our quilt shops all along the way.

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The history of the Scrappy Trip in Print!

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Yay!! Huge shout-out!

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Gorgeous quilts made during the Scrappy Trip Along!

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Would you like a Scrappy Trip Along in your own town??  Contact your local shops.  See if they have received their issue of American Quilt Retailer.  Have them turn to these pages and talk to them about the possibility of having a low key high fun scrappy sew up day in their shops.  Let people bring their SCRAPS and play.

One of the things I personally find disheartening is when a shop demands that for any class ALL fabric must be purchased from their shop with in a certain time period.  This ties customer’s hands and makes them go elsewhere.  Shops need to understand that we have the vast stashes that we do because we have supported their industry all along the way ---and you know, as soon as you get people IN the shop to have a fun day like a Scrappy Trip Along ---we will SHOP once there!  It’s inevitable!

Shops could even benefit by kitting up the 2.5” X 18” strips for those who simply want to sew, and don’t want to have to cut down their own fabrics.

You can also check out the Flickr Group for the Scrappy Trip Along HERE:

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There are 1,715 photos in this Flickr Group! Inspiration Abounding!

Clue the shops in – encourage them!  And have fun!

After all, doesn’t this statement fit you too?

womanofmoods

Absolutely!!

29 comments:

  1. Bonnie, Guess what I am just going to do some more work on. I have the rest of quilt cam to watch and some scrappy trip units cut, just need to sew them back into blocks. Still cannot decide how big to make the quilt though. I am having sew much fun with this pattern and believe me I have some real uglies in mine. You have inspired me so much Bonnie I an for that I am truly grateful. I have just finished mountain majesties top and then I am going to quilt them on my lovely new grace frame and Janome 1600p. I though it would be good to quilt one after the other to get the loading bit into my brain. Going to have a good practice next week on a piece of old cotton sheet and aim to have a top on it next saturday.

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  2. Scrappy Trips is probably my favorite scrap pattern. I've made several quilts from the blocks. I now see I should make more lol ... Thanks Bonnie for the great scrapbuster patterns ..

    Jackie (Patchlady)

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  3. Scrappy Trips is probably my favorite scrap pattern. I've made several quilts from the blocks. I now see I should make more lol ... Thanks Bonnie for the great scrapbuster patterns ..

    Jackie (Patchlady)

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  4. this is such a FUN ever changing pattern - love to make - THANK YOU BONNIE for all you do :D

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  5. Oh how I wish my town had a quilt shop.

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    1. No quilt shop needed! Get a group together at a meeting room (local library, community building, etc) and have a fun day using SCRAPS you all already have! Low cost fun!

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  6. Scrappy Trips is on my bucket list of quilt patterns to do after I retire (46 more working days but who is counting .... hmmmm .... apparently I am). 1715 photos in the Flickr group! I nearly got lost! I can see that resistance is futile and this one may have to move up the list.

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  7. I just donated a scrappy trips quilt to my guild for our community service program. And my quilt shop doesn't make people buy their workshop fabric there. I taught a class last week about strings - things I learned from YOU - and the participants brought their own strings. I did see that none of them got out of the class without buying something from the shop.

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  8. I've just finished my Scrappy Trip and uploaded it to the Flikr group. I've made it for my daughter's birthday next week out of a bag of clothes I found in the attic. They were all garments I made her when she was a teenager back in the eighties.

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    1. Bet that is wonderful! Love memory quilts!

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  9. I just read your system for making better use of fabric and scraps, and now this showed up. I think most of my fabric is going to be going into 2-1/2" strips :-)

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  10. I've read this carefully Bonnie and this is weird, i Must have a try soon, 2013 is for me the scrappy and frugal year. LOve from Paris

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  11. Bonnie, Many years ago I emailed you for permission to use one of your free patterns for my guild's charity quilt project. You sent me an enthusiastic "YES" and I have used several other of your free scrappy patterns from your website since then. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for us scrappers of the world. It is only fitting that you should get mention in the Quilt Retailer magazine. Your patterns are easy to follow, make wonderful quilts, and get rid of stash...all good things. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for all you do for the quilt world.

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  12. One of this quilts on Instagram is mine! I started about 12/28 and finished up in a few days, totally addictive and so much fun to show off blocks everyday as we all moved along. And one of the best things was finding your site, blog and quiltcam. thanks for all the fun and new inspiration with piles of scraps Bonnie.

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  13. i was just ironing my left over bnding strips last nite to do this one. do you really need 18" or is 16" enough? 6 x 25" is 15.5" already calculated a 6 x 7 layout needs 252 strips i have at least 230 maybe more :) then my scrappy binding bucket will be empty

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    1. 16 is enough, but if you are cutting from a FQ it makes no sense to trim off 2" before sewing.

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  14. Yay Bonnie!! Good thing they link (via QR code) to your pattern as the text above says 16" strips instead of 18". This is still on my "to do" list but moving up quickly!

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    1. 16 is enough, but if you are cutting from a FQ it makes no sense to trim off 2" before sewing.

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  15. My thoughts on Quilt Shops and purchase of workshop fabric - I recently attended your workshop at a shop I had never visited before even though it was close to me. Your workshop brought me into their shop and I loved it! I ended up buying fabric from them the day of your workshop and I will return to that shop again.

    I shy away from workshops that come kitted or require that all fabric be purchased from one source. I don't like making quilts that look just like my neighbors! or even worse - the workshops at one of the National Festivals that come kitted and the teacher has 3 sessions of 60 students each .. that is 180 almost identical quilts (only varying with the way they might be set together)! My life it too short to stifle my own creativity and sense of style!

    I'd rather put that ugly fabric (cut small enough) next to that beautiful floral and call it my own :)

    Casino Mary :)

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  16. This is great!!! And yes, even as a shop owner I totally agree w you...we have never...and will never...require the total purchase of fabric from our shop for a class. We might offer a 'kit' - but students are always welcome to bring their own - of course we are *thrilled* when they buy from us (afterall...that's why we are in the biz and there is rent to pay)...but...more important to HAVE class participation...I know when they come into the shop...if they need it...they will buy it...maybe not the first time...but sooner or later they will see something that they can't live without! :)

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  17. Anonymous12:20 PM EDT

    If you go to bing.com and click on 'images' at top, then type in 'scrappy trips around' you will get hundreds of photos, pulled from all sources on the Internet. All the images and colors are quite overwhelming! Try it!

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  18. I think I typed my comment in the tutorial page by mistake :)
    This would be awesome with a planned center (diagonal) row to all the blocks & the rest as scrappy.
    It would also make a great FQ project for a group. Everyone brings their scraps for filling in plus 3-5 FQs per person to be cut, then swapped among everyone. This would give a fun coordination to the group's quilts too.
    I love the shops that have FQs available too, because while making scrappy quilts, sometimes you just need a "little more" of one color!

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  19. I have had my strips cut for some time now but want to it bigger so still "collecting" different strips. Trying very hard not to repeat a print hence the extra time to collect - but am loving it!! ;)

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    1. Sew as you go-makes the "trip" so much more fun and not as long. Since all the blocks are different you don't have to have all the strips cut before starting to sew! Is a great way to reduce stress if you want to sew but don't want to really "make" anything!

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  20. I currently am in our motorhome, with much sewing to work on, including a whole gallon size ziplock bag with cut strips. Laying on top of one of my storage bins full of projects are 37 scrappy trip blocks all done and pressed!! They will become tops when I get home, as there is not room in the camper to work on large pieces efficiently. I will be having a very small, private quilt show in the next week, with several "Bonnie" quilts done. I have also put together many little spools as a leader/ender project. Brought my Easy Street to work on, just don't have enough room for that to spread out, so it will go home with me. Have gotten the first part of Lazy Sunday done, too. Not enough words to thank you with, Bonnie, so will just add my heartfelt thanks to you for all you do for this group and the world.

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  21. I'm currently sorting my strips to make this gorgeous/bright quilt. Sadly Bonnie, here in Australia our local shops are closing due to quilters buying fabric online mainly from the US at very cheap prices, so some of our shops do offer a discount to buy fabric for classes from them, which I think is "fair enough"! Our fabrics are more expensive due to the flutuating Aussie $, export & import taxes & freight expenses. A very topical subject. But I love your scrap quilts and love the idea of friendship groups sewing up a "storm"!!! Happy Easter everyone

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  22. "Scrappy Trips" sure is a draw! I had collected scrap strips all last year with plans to make your "Scrappy Bargello" but then realized I wasn't sure how big a quilt I wanted (lap? bed?). With the bargello format, once you set your column strip count (combined with the strip width), the finished quilt size is "set in stone" so to speak (although you can make slight adjustments by use of borders).

    When I started seeing everyone doing the "Trips", I realized that it would be better to make that since I could control the finished quilt size block by block. Once I get a few more UFOs done, I can't wait to join the band wagon!

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  23. My friend and I are going to do a scrappy trip at our retreat in a few weeks. I have been talking about it in my newsletter and can't wait to get started. www.notionnanny.blogspot.com

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  24. Glad you got the shout out you so deserve--we all knew you had a whole lot to do with all that scrappy trippin! :)

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