Windham Wednesdays with Gypsy and Bedrock

Wow! That's sound like some sort of coded message: the Gypsy is hiding in the Bedrock? Not so.

I had sewn and written my Gypsy post when THESE came in the mail yesterday! Now I can finish my little blocks (which you will see below).

What an awesome print that will be my border

I received two beautiful pieces of the Gypsy Collection a few months ago (I think they were the "first cuts" that the factory sends to the vendor, which is Windham) and found an awesome use for one of them when I stitched up some OLD blocks into a new quilt center. This is a new sample for a revived workshop, Dogwood Blossom:

Gypsy main print is perfect for my border

I was left with a 12" x 18" piece of the dark print and 1/2 yard or so of the other:

50569-3 from the Gypsy Collection

The colors in the real fabric are SO MUCH more vivid than this image from the web site. Let me show you. I pulled 6 fat quarters of Bedrock that will go perfectly with my Gypsy remainders. Bedrock is a blender collection of 70 colors that Windham released in January. I think it's going to be around for a long time!

Gypsy with 6 prints from Bedrock

Now, I know what you're thinking: how in the world can she do something with less than 1/6 yard of that dark print and 1/2 yard of the light print and a few fat quarters? Well, if you're asking that, you don't really know me. I love a challenge like this!

Maybe you remember what I did with 4 of these fabrics back in July? Eat Your Carrots is a small quilt I made with a simple foundation piecing pattern I designed. Check it out.

Eat Your Carrots

Now back to Gypsy!

I cut a bunch of 4-1/2" squares of that light print. I cut a variety of strips from Bedrock:

Four 4-1/2" squares, two 1-1/2" x 6-1/2" strips and one 1-1/2" x 9-1/2" strip

I stitched them into this sashed 4-Patch:

Adding strips

 Ready for the outer thin strips, to make this an 11" (finished) block. Yes, I know where I'm going!

Block measures 9-1/2" x 9-1/2" unfinished

Adding outer orange Bedrock 1-1/2" (cut strips)

• two cut 1-1/2" x 9-1/2"
• two cut 1-1/2" x 11-1/2"

First of several blocks

Now what? I cut and pieced some blocks using the dark print in the center (cut those 6-1/2"). Added strips cut 3":

• two 3" x 6-1/2"
• two 3" x 11-1/2"

And here they all are, waiting for me to stitch them together into a very scrappy (and yet controlled) quilt center. Actually, this is 11 of the 12 blocks. I'm still deciding on one that reads too light in the center. But, I've run out of the floral fabric, so it just may get in there!

11 of my 12 Gypsy and Bedrock blocks

So, you see I can make a few more blocks into a 44" x 44" center (4 blocks by 4 blocks) and use that beautiful turquoise print I showed at the top for my border.

This really is a SCRAP BUSTER block pattern. The colors unify everything. I'll keep you posted on how I finish things up. Thanks for stopping by!