Bounce or Hubble?

The Another Year of Schnibbles project for October is to do Bounce or Hubble.



They both finish at the same size.  I couldn't decide which to make.  I didn't really have a need for either, but of course, need doesn't always drive the making of a quilt!  After considering things, though, I remembered that my niece, Alex, had asked me to make her a new bed-sized quilt.  She turned 7 and has decided that she is more sophisticated than pink and purple now, and likes other colors like blue, etc.

I decided to make her a Bounce quilt.  I made her a quilt for her wall back here using Me and My Sister fabric.  They have a new line out, Good Morning, so I got some of that.

Here are the completed blocks before I "bounced" them.

I needed to make this quilt larger, and what I really like about Carrie's patterns is that she has suggestions for doing so.  I'm making 56 blocks, for a 7 x 8 block arrangement.  I also used my 9.5 inch square ruler to trim them down (the bouncing process as you manipulate the ruler into different areas of the block to trim) instead of squaring them to 9 inches.  I'm not sure if you can tell in the photo, but the background fabric is light blue. 

Just what is the bouncing process?  It is quite fun, actually.  The blocks come together larger than needed and you trim them down in different ways to get the stars to look like they are "bouncing."

You can center the star and trim it down:

You can center the star across the ruler but have one edge closer than the other:

You can push the ruler all the way into one corner:

And finally, you can be really daring (which I'm not) and even trim it off-kilter:

The above ways are the basic configurations, but they don't have to be quite so exaggerated.  All in all, you can trim and manipulate the block into really varied  positions.

Here is how they might look when the trimming is done and they are all arranged:

What is really fun is that the trimmed blocks will now have their seam allowances in different locations, so when you sew them all together, you don't have to match any of them and thus worry about which direction they are going!  It made it so easy and fun!

Carrie also offers several variations.  I chose to use on large square for the center of my stars, so that the star is made up entirely of the same fabric.  You can also choose to piece the star center by making a 4-patch block of other scraps.  I chose the first option because it was easier!  Yep, I'll admit it!  Sometimes I like the more complex version, but this time I wasn't feeling it.  I'm glad I did it this way, too, because this fabric is fairly large scale, and the larger pieces let it show more.

Another variation is that you can make all the blocks one size, or you can make some a bit smaller.  I did do this.  Can you see in the photo above that the purple star in the upper right corner is smaller than the dark pink one to its left?  It is just that subtle difference that accentuates the "bounce."

There were some variations in the border, as well.  I'll talk about them next.  I plan to spend the day quilting my Speck so it is ready for this month's parade.

Have a great day!
JoAnne