TRIP QUILTS: THE JOURNEY

Do you love Trip Around the World Quilts?  - Trip Quilts is the best online store for you. The first quilt that I ever made was a trip around the world quilt in the late 1970's.  That was before strip piecing was a common practice, before rotary cutters and cutting mats were available, and I cut those blocks individually with scissors then sewed them together again one at a time.  I still love the pattern, but I love it more with precut fabrics and strip piecing techniques.  For my 60th birthday, I bought myself a new sewing machine and took a week of vacation to make a "Many Trips around the World" quilt in 6 colors.  I wanted to strip piece that quilt.  I was unable to find a quilt pattern that met my needs:  I did not want a totally random placement of colors, I did not want the corner blocks in the chain to meet in the corners with 4 blocks the same color, making a large cornerstone at the intersection of each block.  It took me a couple of days to figure out the pattern, and even with that delay I was able to finish a large quilt, 100" x 100", containing 2500 2" finished squares, in less than a week.  I decided to publish that pattern and offer every variation and size I could think of so that no one would ever have to lose precious vacation days doing all that math.  I plan to update my collection to include a postage stamp version, with 1.5" strips, 1" finished squares.