Mixtape

After finishing Snippets, I was determined not to toss the CF scraps into the scrap baskets, and they sat on my work table for days, just waiting patiently. Finally, over the weekend I had a chance to sit down with them, and honestly there wasn't much thought that went into the process. 

I first sewed like-sized pieces together. From there, I kept matching sets, then adding more of the same fabric scraps, and finally puzzled chunks together. When I was done, I had a very scrappy piece, 14.5" x 15". At that point, I wasn't sure I was done piecing or not. 

Apparently not. When I went back to it another day, I decided it needed a frame. Most of my improv work does not, but this scrappy piece did, but something out of the ordinary. I thought at first, maybe a lattice, but didn't like that. Instead, I incorporated just a small segment in with a couple of my favorite prints from the original piece. Each side is a different width, thus the funky mitered corners.

At 18" x 20", I decided that was enough, and I started in right away piecing a quilt back. Just more scrappy piecing fun.

For quilting, I did an uneven grid using Aurifil 28 2710 [Robin's Egg]. I really enjoy quilting a grid, especially on a small quilt like this one.

Binding was done with the last of my CF Doe Grid, and since I didn't have quite enough, a bit of that navy spiky print from Collection CF. All in all, that was a very fun diversion and took care of nearly all of those scraps that had been hanging out. I chose the name Mixtape, since there are a variety of Carolyn Friedlander collections represented. I just used whatever blues I had for both Snippets and Mixtape. The only bad part is they're pretty much gone now. Oh WELL.

Linking up with Quilting JETgirl's Favorite Finish Linky.

Scrappy Potholders

A couple of weeks ago, I was debating what scrappy project to start next, when I happened across a handful of scrappy slabs left over from a project in 2013!! Ha! At first, I couldn't even remember what they were from! I very briefly considered putting them right back in the closet they had come from, but I'm glad I didn't.

Rather than start in on a rainbow quilt, which isn't really my thing, I thought to make some potholders, and then I remembered the unique shape I had seen Hannah Haberkern/@verdigrissewing use, and it was settled. 

I finished one and added a hand-stamped leather 'label' that I thought was really fun, though I admit it hasn't been fully field-tested yet. We've used the potholder several times and the metal rivets haven't conducted enough heat to be bothersome; but it has yet to be washed, so we'll see how the leather holds up to washing.

Meanwhile, those scrappy slabs were enough to make 15 potholders total!!! Yeah, that was a lot! But I love the shape, and enjoyed finding backings from stash, and using coordinating thread to randomly quilt each one as I felt inspired.

So what does one do with 15 potholders?! Well I kept the red one with the leather label to field-test completely; but I had my mom choose a pair, and the rest went home with my brother, who's been visiting from out of town, to share with my nieces and nephews. Serendipitously, I had the perfect number!

Liberated Rings

So the finish I'm sharing today is the second project in my 50 Days of Scraps; the first being The Tumbler Dilemma, which used both scrap blocks as well as actual scraps from the scrap basket. In case you missed it, this current project was inspired by the Liberated Wedding Ring block pattern I discovered in Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston's Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again: Freewheeling Twists on Traditional Quilt Designs. In fact the blocks themselves are just as described, though I did not sew on paper as suggested. 

I really did enjoy making the blocks, as well as my pull of scraps. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to continue on to make a big quilt. So I stopped at 36 - 7 1/2" (unfinished) blocks, which I arranged into 9 'rings' that measured 14" (finished) each, making a quilt top that would measure 42". I quickly pieced a back from two lengths of stash Denyse Schmidt fabrics and started in quilting. [I know the larger blue/green backing fabric is from the Hadley line; not sure about the yellow.]

I went with an uneven grid using a variegated green Aurifil 50wt #4653 [spring prairie], really easy and stress-free quilting on a quilt this size. But I have to let you in on a little secret! When I made my backing and basted the quilt sandwich, I left a few extra inches all around the quilt top. SO THAT I could make an extra wide binding (2 1/4"!), thus bringing my quilt up to 46 1/2" square.

I actually had totally planned  - like already started cutting and piecing - a fully scrappy binding, but then I thought that might actually be kind of cumbersome on those corners, so I gave up on that idea. I swear I rummaged through every shelf of my stash looking for a suitable binding choice before happening upon a yard of  Melody Miller Ruby Star Polka Dot Arrows for Kokka. I really thought the background was a dusty olive, which went well enough with the greens I used in many of my block backgrounds. But as I researched the fabric online while writing this post, the only color I could find was 'natural.' Hmmm. So not sure. I knew it wasn't an exact match, but I think it grounds the very scrappy blocks in the quilt, and the arrows give a bit of a stripe effect to the binding.

So, I ran into one little issue. Not actually sewing the binding, as it went on very nicely and boy did those corners want to miter themselves with no problem. And I did stitch down those miters on both front and back due to their size. 

But with a binding that wide, I was a little concerned the batting might bunch up a bit when washed. So I took a gold perle cotton and stitched a trio of Xs in several places on each side of the quilt - never more than 12" apart, but often less, a total of three times on each side. So that added some fun little hand-stitched detailing that I hope will help keep everything secure. 

Once again, I feel that twinge of guilt that I didn't keep on going and make a big ole quilt using the liberated wedding ring blocks, as you know darn well I have plenty of scraps to do so. But then again, it is what it is, and I'm ready to move on, continuing on with my 50 days of scraps.

#aqt50daysofscraps #quiltingthecountdown 

If Not, Then

Early in the summer I thought it might be time for another scrappy quilt and decided to try my hand at a scrappy spiral block [aka crazy quilt block in Abby Halverson's tutorial]. I kinda liked it, but got distracted by other projects and it sat around until last weekend when I decided to get back to it.



I started in on three more blocks, and honestly, I wasn't feeling them. I mean, they were interesting enough, but I just wasn't really enjoying making them.



To give them a fair shot, I finished all four that I'd started and then came to the conclusion that I didn't want to make any more.



So..... it dawned on me that it was a perfect time to try Katie/Sew Katie Did's Box Pouch pattern, which I luckily picked up when she had it for sale a while back.  Anyway, I've often heard Katie say that box pouches are perfect for those orphan blocks, so now was a perfect time to try one, right? 

Oh yeah. This pouch was pretty quick to make (about 2 hours including quilting the panels) and I confess I like the pouch better than I did my blocks by themselves!

Plus I still made good use of some scraps and feel ok about moving forward to something new. I have two more blocks to make into another pouch at some point, and I'm feeling pretty good about that. Time well spent after all.

Linking Up with Finish It Up Friday!

Regatta

Today is my day to share on the Stash Statement blog hop, inspired by Kelly/My Quilt Infatuation's new book. I love that the book is a mix of beginning improv technique, scrap-busting, as well as sharing patterns that combine the two. For me, improv and scraps go hand in hand.



As often is the case in a blog hop, I got to choose which pattern I wanted to make from the book, and I chose Regatta, though I did make just a portion of the pattern into a baby-size quilt. And because of the quilt's theme, I pulled greens and blues from my scrap basket for the 'water' background.



I chose to use the panel method for my scrappy construction, where I basically kept piecing scraps together until I had two slabs each about the size of a fat-quarter. Then I cut out the squares I needed to continue on with the quilt top. With the 'scraps' from that process, I pieced them together to make more larger pieces. Such is the way with scrap quilts - use the little bits to make larger bits.



The 'boats' in my little regatta are made from Kona Cyan, chosen after I pieced all my scrap blocks. I couldn't resist using my few extra blocks to piece one last 'boat' into the back of the quilt.



I quilted a loose (about 1" apart) grid using the bold and beautiful Aurifil 50wt #2810 (Turquoise). Then the quilt was finished with a print+solid scrappy binding and measures 36" x 42", where the book's original version measures 60 1/2" x 60 1/2". Most of the book's quilt designs have a flexibility of sizing for using scraps one might have on hand, which really is a bonus.





The genius of Kelly's book is that it takes improvisational piecing and makes it very approachable. And as Kelly points out, her designs in Stash Statement are definitely scrappy, but without the overwhelm that sometimes results. The quilts here provide some uniformity, making them appealing to a wide audience. 'Structured' improv is definitely a good way to become comfortable with it.



Here's a list of all the blog hop stops. Where projects have already been posted, links reflect that. Enjoy the tour through Stash Statement. You can also check out Kelly's version of Regatta!

4/16- Grand Bazaar 

Shelley @ Cora's Quilts + Connie @ Freemotion by the River

4/23- Louvered 

Lindsey @ Primrose Cottage Quilts + Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts

4/30- Precarious 

Jess @ Quilty Habit + Myra @ Busy Hands Quilts

5/7- Beach Retreat 

Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts + Liz @ Savor Every Stitch

5/14- Fire Pit 

Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts + Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts

5/21- Detour 

Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts + Shelley @ The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

5/28- Murrina 

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl + Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

6/4- Scattered 

Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal + Christine @ Triangles and Squares

6/11- Bloom Chicka Boom 

Chris @ made by ChrissieD + Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty

6/18- Regatta 

Susan @ Quilt Fabrication + Debbie @ A Quilter's Table

6/25- Catch a Falling Star 

Cynthia @ Quilting is More Fun Than Housework + Anja @ Anja Quilts

7/2- College Prep 

Hilary @ by Hilary Jordan + Lori @ Crossquilt

7/9- Take Flight (bonus digital pattern) 

Kelli @ Seriously, I Think It Needs Stitches + Paula @ The Sassy Quilter

Strawberry Love

So you were probably as surprised as I, that after declaring I was starting the year planless, I would almost immediately start in on a strawberry quilt. I KNOW! But there's this little girl who has an insatiable appetite for strawberries, and I just couldn't resist.

Both the original block by Bec/Skyberries Handmade, and an up-sized block by Angie/Gnome Angel were offered as options for the introductory month of The Honey Pot Bee. I opted for the larger block (17 1/2" x 24 1/2"), making four very scrappy blocks for a grandgirl-sized quilt.

I chose Sprinkle in Jelly Bracelet from the Cotton + Steel Basics line as my background fabric, which just suited those scraps so nicely. And then for the back... oh goodness.... another Cotton + Steel print - Kimberly Kight's "Yours Truly" strawberries - totally won my heart.

A quilted grid with Aurifil's 50wt #2000 (beige) was a pretty obvious choice, plus a current favorite. 

To top things off, the strawberry print had a perfect little selvage to sew into the back. It couldn't get better than that.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Crop Circles

When I started working on this quilt, I may not have expected to enjoy sewing the curves as much as I did, but I totally knew I'd relish working with those greens!

Even though I really wanted to make this quilt, inspired by a photo of crop circles I'd seen online, I was having second thoughts, considering all those curved blocks. But using Latifah Saafir's The Clammy 12" ruler made this project very doable for me. What a relief!

For backing, I pieced together even more of those stashed greens.

Quilting was a dense grid with a delightfully variegated Aurifil 50wt #3320 (Spring Green), which was subtle, blending here and showing itself there .... all quite perfect.

Crop Circles finished at 60" square, and was a really satisfying project. Actually, it's proof positive that if you get a quilt idea, you might as well go ahead and try it!

This quilt is my first finish from my Q3 Finish-A-Long list! Linking up with 2016 FAL Q3 Finishes Link-Up.

Crop Circles

One of the projects I've been working on lately was only imagined when I added it to my Q3 Finish-A-Long list, so it's been fun to make some real progress on it! If you remember, I started with a big ole stack of green prints.

It was fortuitous that when I was inspired to make an all-green quilt, the green stack in my stash was also the tallest, so I had plenty to choose from! I was surprised how few "green green" (kelly green?) prints I had, but for this project, I found quite a range worked well together.

The Clammy 12" from Latifah Saafir has been my sidekick for this, and even making full circles has been a breeze.

I've been fairly random about putting the greens together, making 10 different block styles. 

The one negative about this kind of scrappy-style process is once you put all the blocks together, no matter how you arrange them, you see the same fabrics too close, etc. So I'm still fiddling with the final layout, though I don't expect to mess with that too long. I'm anxious to get all these together and start quilting, whatever that might look like.

When I was first smitten by the original design, I was kind of regretting that so many curves would be involved. So I'm a little surprised how much I enjoyed making all of them! Isn't it great when that happens?