Scrap Bustin’

I have had an urge for quite a while to get my scraps in order and under control so I decided to ‘Hop to It’ as Edyta Sitar would say.  I started by sorting through all my bins which I have organized by color and pulling out all that small stuff.  My sewing table was filled with scraps for cutting up and my drawers are now so neat and tidy. 

The next step was to decide what size pieces I might want to cut them into so I started with 2 !/2 “ strips and 5” squares, but there was still some smaller fabric left that seemed usable so then I was saving 1 1/2” strips.  I found too that I have been using a lot of 3” squares for HST so I starting a 3” pile.  I have them all in this one Art Bin, but I think I will be making a bin for each size strip as soon as I can get to Michael’s or Joann’s to pick more up.  I cut for hours and still have my old scrap bags to go through, in fact there is a whole drawer under the table full of plastic bags sorted by color.  I have decided to sort my scraps by size now and drop the color idea.  We’ll see how that works.

  Well, I couldn’t cut all day without sewing and I had been inspired by a quilt I saw on Pinterest so I figured out the sizes and started sewing strips of different sized together and cutting and ended up starting a quilt that is really going together rather quickly.  Before I knew it it was 11:00 at night and I had been there most of the day.  I had a blast!  I am making the corner squares from the 5” blocks.  I started trying to making pleasing color combos then I just went with the scrappy look and worked my way down my stack.  I spent more time figuring out the setting corners since I decided to turn it on point til I remembered that I had this handy little reference tool put together by Harriet Hargrove, Alex Anderson, Sharyn Craig, and Liz Aneloski.  The plan is to do some fun FMQ in the tan squares.  I am also thinking of doing some fun scrappy border so I don’t have a plan yet how big this will be, maybe I will finally have a quilt for my queen size bed which has been a quilting goal of mine for a few years.

Boy am I hoping for more rainy days of sewing to work on this!

Ferne

Tone it Down

I love the idea of toning things down and simplifying so I am going to try to play along with making these quilt blocks from the APQ quilt-along.  This is my trial block and I’m not sure if this is the color scheme I will stick with.  The green seems too light and doesn’t show much with my beige background, but it is always fun to do a trial block then go from there.  I found this block fun to put together and there are lots of strip sets to make it quick.  If I had my color scheme finalized I could whip out a lot more blocks after spending a good evening getting all the cutting done.  I love to chain piece and using long strips would really help to get me moving right along.  Right now my favorite color way (Plum Sweet by Blackbird Designs) that I am seeing on the internet is the one that Anne Sutton from Bunny Hill Designs is using.  If I made this quilt for my bed though it needs to have a blue and/or green color scheme so I’d better do a bit more research.

There is even a Pinterest page which is full of inspiration for color schemes and showing the progress that people are already making.  Camille Roskelley is really making progress and working with her new fabric line which is giving it a fresh, clean look.

Thanks go out to Lissa Alexander for the design of this fun quilt and the Fat Quarter shop ladies for all ideas and enthusiasm they have put into this project.  I always look for one block of the month to participate in each year.  I rarely get them finished, but the process is fun and I always learn new things.  Two years ago I decided that I really wanted to practice my FMQ and followed Sew Cal Gal’s wonderful line up of teachers that each offered some new tips and techniques on free motion quilting, I really got a lot out of that.  One year I really wanted to learn to needle turn appliqué and followed Anne Suttons basket quilt, I love that one, but I didn’t get it finished because we moved somewhere in there and I got so behind I didn’t ever get caught up, but I have it all printed out and love stumbling upon the blocks I did finish.  Last year I followed Lori Holt’s Quilty Fun row along and never finished that either, but now she has a book to go along with it and lots of projects that I could do something totally different with the blocks I did finish.  It all makes me wonder what I would be doing now without all this inspiration from such talented quilters and the internet to help spread it around.

Back to quilting!  I am making my sewing machine a little dust cover (as if I ever give it a chance to collect dust).

Ferne