All–Inclusive

When the Inside Addition Quilt Along started up in January, I was gung ho, declaring that it was going to be my 1st scrappy quilt of the year, and I'd attack it as a leader/ender project. Obviously things didn't happen that way. As much as I wanted and intended this to be a big 'ole scrappy quilt, I wasn't that enamored with my scraps, and finally decided to just finish it up as a small lap quilt (48" square).

The pattern for the Inside Addition blocks is by Jessica/a little gray {alittlegressica on Instagram}, and you can find plenty of them on Ig tagged #insideadditionquiltalong.

You will find some form of gray in most of my blocks, which was my attempt at tying things all together. Backing is dearStella's Gridlock in navy . . .

. . . and binding ended up very scrappy. I actually used my lengths of left-over binding bits, plus added in a fresh cut of Michael Miller's Clown Stripe, also in navy. So you'll see a mix of the navy, medium blue, gray, and the scrap-friendly Clown Stripe in black as well.

Quilting, though it's hard to see in these post-wash photos, is a horizontal straight-line, every 3/4". I used Aurifil 50wt #2021 (Natural White), which is what is in my machine 90% of the time. It tied everything together without standing out too much - one of its consistently fine qualities.

Even though I used about every delay tactic at my disposal, thankfully this one is now complete, and sadly, that scrap basket is as full as ever. So be it.

This finish was on my 2015 Finish-A-Long Q3 list. Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, Scraptastic Tuesday, and Finish It Up Friday.

Thanks to Vesta

According to Wikipedia, "Cross-stitch is the oldest form of embroidery," and from the little I read around the web about it, that could very well be true. It was certainly the very first stitching I ever did, thanks to this woman.

That is my maternal grandma, Vesta. It's her I thank for initiating my love of sewing, back when she moved into our family home when I was a preteen, and brought along her black Singer machine. But it was Grandma who also took me shopping years prior while I was visiting on vacation, and bought me my first stamped cross-stitch fabric, and let me choose purple variegated floss. She taught me how to cross-stitch, and I created a "dresser cloth" as we called them back then, and it graced my bedroom dresser for many years after.

I can't say that I had that embroidery on my mind when I first saw Pile O'Fabric's Cross Stitch Quilt Block tutorial earlier this year. But cross-stitch obviously had a soft spot in my heart, so I started making some blocks, thinking it would be a good way to use up a bunch of my scraps. I made my blocks larger than the tutorial, using Kona Ash 5" charm squares as my block backgrounds, cutting my scrap strips 1 1/2"x7". 

 

After I had created a few stacks of blocks, my childhood stitchery came to mind, and from then on I had the beginnings of a quilt plan.

With the size of my blocks, turns out I really couldn't recreate much of my original cross-stitch design, but I made enough to make me very happy.

I was very random with arranging block colors, but hopefully you can tell that I made the circular "flower" in the stitchery above. For backing, thankfully I had nothing large enough in my stash to make a single-fabric backing, and that forced me to get creative. After making just a few super-sized (15") cross-stitch blocks, I happened to attend a lecture by Victoria Findlay Wolfe of 15-Minutes of Play fame. Fresh from that, I was inspired to start sewing through my scrap bin, making 8" improv blocks, just sewing and sewing until it seemed like "enough." Quilting is a diagonal wavy-stitch cross-hatch, which I questioned for a while, but after the wash-and-dry crinkle test, actually is quite perfect.

I was brave, and used the scrappy binding I'd made of strips from at least 8 other quilts. Crazy but fun.

The quilt measures 60" square, and no, the scrap bin is not empty, but I feel pretty pleased with using as many as I did for this two-sided quilt. And if my grandma was still around, I'm thinking she'd be pleased too.

This project was on my 2014 Q4 FAL list!
Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Scraptastic Tuesday.

Striped Binding

Note . . . I've gotten some comments that this isn't really scrappy binding. I agree. So I've revised this post and changed 'scrappy' to 'striped'.. Thanks!

It's taking a while to stitch the binding on my Swoon quilt. So, I thought that while we all wait for the finish, you  might enjoy seeing a few of the process pictures for my striped binding.

Considering I needed 320" of binding, I figured I'd need close to a yard of fabric, so I chose four fat-quarters, making sure all the colors in the quilt were represented. (Here's the remains of the fat quarters I chose.)

Then I cut strips 1 1/2" wide from each fat-quarter, angled one end at 45-degrees, and sewed them together, off-setting the angled ends just slightly. Here it is after a good pressing. This piece consists of half of my strips, measuring about 14x24". It made 160" of binding, or half of what I needed.

The right-hand edge got trimmed off and then I cut my normal 2" strips diagonally across the pieced fabric.

And voila! Some lovely striped binding strips that I just stitched end to end. I forgot to take a picture after it was pressed, but do press carefully, as you are working with lots of bias edges here. I really didn't find it too fragile, though.

Finally, I machine-stitched the binding onto the quilt (had just enough), and you know what I'm doing now!

Total credit goes to Kati of from the blue chair for this striped method. Mine gives a really different look than alternating the fabrics with white, like Kati did. But I like how it makes the binding look like its own new fabric, incorporating all the colors in the quilt.