Scraps :: To Save or Not to Save

So I have a scrappy project to share today and the crazy part is, they aren't even my scraps!! I admired the Oakshott Italy that Cindy/Live a Colorful Life was working with a while back, and she responded by sending me her scraps! Yay for me! But before I show off what I did with them, I need to share a little tale . . .

So I was at a quilting retreat a week or so ago, and I came to a point where I had lots of little triangles left from what I was working on. So I asked the gals if I should keep them or toss them, and Joan, sitting next to me, piped right up with 'toss them!' So I did, you know, not really sure if I'd get around to using them or not. So whatever. Though I was a tad surprised at Joan's response, being an avid scrap-saver herself.

Well wouldn't you know but later in the weekend I caught Joan gathering up scraps even smaller than I had tossed. And the truth came out! Linda laughingly suggested that Joan might just be planning to raid my 'discard' bag after I had left to head home! Can you imagine?! haha. Well I don't really know if she did or not, but if she did, here's to enjoying what little leftovers I tossed.

Now on to what I did with that awesome Oakshott! My inspiration came from a photo I took of a chair at a local coffee shop. I take odd photos like this all the time, but this might be the first time I actually went on to create something!

So here's my first block, which my quilting buddy Sharon identified as a "Greek key" so that's what I've been calling it.

The scraps Cindy sent consisted of 7 colors and I used 6 to make the larger improv blocks, using Essex linen in natural as a background. It was after I'd sewn those 6 blocks together than I came up with the idea for the small unraveling 'key' in the bottom corner. Kind of a random element, but I think it added a bit of fun to the quilt. And for the record, those Oakshotts together with the Essex made for such rich texture in these blocks.

Backing was a stash find, 'garden spiral' in chocolate by Alexander Henry Fabrics, chosen for the pattern as much as the subtle color. For the quilting, I used Aurifil 50wt #5021, which is light grey by its number label but looks more like camel, and I am seriously thinking it might have been mislabeled. At any rate, it is a lovely match for the Essex natural, subtle enough not to be distracting on the colored spirals.

I began quilting there at the intersection of the top 4 blocks, then did a wonky, uneven square spiral around the quilt. Dare I say this was FUN?! I did very little marking, so lines are a little wobbly here and there - just the look I was after.

To keep the focus on the spirals, I used more Essex for the binding, while using the last little piece of the reddish Oashott Italy to make a short bit of matched binding.

One little added comment on this project . . . when completed, the  little "Keychain" quilt measured 24 1/2" x 29". I usually don't compare quilt measurements before and after a wash, but I was curious considering I was using the linen and shot cotton. Color me surprised! After a cold wash and a warm dry, the quilt measured 23" x 27". whoa. That's quite a difference. Note to self.

Despite the shrinkage, I love this little quilt even more now that it's super crinkly!

AND it's the last project on my 2015 Q1 FAL list! Double the fun.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.

Red Hots

I totally expected the Oakshotts coming my way to be beautiful. I mean, I had heard others describe them and seen photos of their projects, but oh my! To experience them in person, I was stunned by their luminescence. I seriously just stared at the stack for a few days before I could even consider what to do with them.

Of course, I knew a mini quilt was the goal, as I was participating in the Oakshott Ruby Mini Quilt Challenge hosted by Sew Mama Sew. And it didn't take me long to know I wanted to use every single one of those luscious colors. Each fat eighth was 9.75" x 23.5", with very enticing names - Madrid, Girnoa, Barcelona, Cordoba, Granada, Valencia, Salamanca, Corunna, Cadiz, Palma, Toledo, Seville, Almeria, Jerez, Santa Cruz, and Santiago - all 100% cotton and each with a red warp.

I took inspiration from Red Pepper Quilts and her tutorial for Cutting and Sewing Free Hand Curves. I loved the vertical curves in her pillow cover and had that in my mind as I began. But I decided I wanted some of my curves to be scrappy, or rather striped, and with my vision set, I cut strips from the longest side of each piece of fabric, 1 1/4" to 2 1/2" wide. I began sewing them first in pairs, offset at one end . . .

Then kept sewing the strips together until I eventually had a large piece that from then on I treated as a piece of fabric all its own.

And from here, the curves began. Working from left to right, I cut curves and added strips, sewing as I went.

Some strips were solid, some striped - whatever hit my fancy in the moment.

I had left the first strip on the left (Toledo) quite wide, and did the same with the red (Santa Cruz) on the right, imagining them in some fashion as borders. And eventually, it was decided to add in the purple (Seville) and orange (Corunna) as top and bottom borders.

And then it was time to quilt! Matchstick quilting was definitely in order in the solid strips!

And I used just about every coordinating thread I had, trying to keep the look of this piece as "hot" as Oakshott advertised.

I debated for a while over what to do in the striped strips, and finally settled on parallel lines with my walking foot, echoing the seam lines of the stripes. At first I wasn't sure about the 'traveling' lines being so obvious, but in the end, I think they added to the overall design. 

And lucky for me, I had plenty of the striped 'fabric' left, deciding it would be really fun as binding, extending the vertical stripes all the way to both edges of the quilt.

As it ended up, this binding 'extra' was constructed exactly like my Striped Binding tutorial, and pieced into the solid binding using my Straight Matched Binding technique.

Red Hots finished  at 19"x21" and really was a pleasure to create, every step of the way!

Be sure and visit the other Oakshott Ruby Mini Quilt Challengers throughout the week:

• Jen of bettycrockerass
• Malka of A Stitch in Dye
• Deborah of Whipstitch
• Kristy of St. Louis Folk Victorian
• Beth of Plum and June

And if you're on Instagram, check out hashtag #oakshottrubymini.

Many thanks to Oakshott and Sew Mama Sew for the opportunity to discover this luscious fabric for myself. It most certainly was a pleasure.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Finish It Up Friday.

Oakshott Ruby Red :: It Begins

"Iridescent" is the way Oakshott describes them. A couple of other ways to say that, according to the Bing Dictionary, would be:

1. having rainbow colors that appear to move and change as the angle at which they are seen changes
2. having a lustrous or brilliant appearance

All of that together is a very apt description of the stack of Oakshott Ruby Red* shot cottons that I cut into this week. Though describing them just does not do them justice. Seeing and feeling is a whole nother thing.

Which brings me to this . . . I've been given the opportunity to participate in the Oakshott Ruby Mini Quilt Challenge sponsored by Sew Mama Sew and Oakshott and I've just gotten going. The trimmings alone are downright stunning.

Six bloggers are currently working on creating mini quilts made with these special fabrics, and we'll be showing them off beginning June 9. Here's a peek at where I am so far . . .

We're posting our progress on Instagram using the #oakshottrubymini hashtag. So take a moment now and then to check things out. Fun times!

*Ruby Reds A really hot offering named after its red warp and set off by 16 different weft variations.

Lining up with W.i.P. Wednesday.