Every (Scrap) is Sacred

If you're a Monty Python fan you know which song has been stuck in my head this week  :)

The crumb quilt I made based on Crazy Mom Quilts Bright Birch Trees pattern is done!  When I was making it I was thinking about Monty Python, which led to myths and mythical forests and, ultimately, this quilt found its name: Sherwood Forest.

The strings of color in this quilt are made from crumbs of saved fabric. They finish at 1" wide. These were all naturally produced scraps, I didn't cut a bunch of strips to make this.  The smallest scraps were 1.5" x 0.75"!  All these came out of my crumb jar, which was jam packed when I started. It's still full, somehow, but not all all stuffed after finishing this project. 

I love quilts like these because making and using them is like a trip down memory lane. These are all my scraps, so each one represents a past project.  I didn't fussy cut these, but I did luck into a few great cameos popping out of the fabrics, like these upside down sock monkeys.

See that strip above? The red piece at the top is from the Carpenter's Star quilt. The blue polka dot I got in a remnant bin and have used snippets of in many projects.  The teal was the back of my very first quilt. The green was in Counting Elephants.  The yellow with white sprinkles was sashing in the Seismic quilt.  More of that same red... The orange below that is from the kokopelli batik in the vertical borders of the Santa Fe wall hanging.  And that's just one short strip!!

The solid I used for this was Kona Fog, one of their new colors. I can't really describe it, and to be honest I'm still sort of split on whether I love it or not.  It's more like a light gray than a cream, and even looks a little purple in certain lights.  I was afraid when I first got it home that it would make the colors look muddy, but it worked out fine. Fog is an apt name for it, anyway.

For quilting I knew the pattern called for straight lines.  I decided to outline each scrappy chain and carry those lines all the way across the quilt. This made for dense, criss-crossing, vaguely straight and vertical lines.  The texture really adds to the whole "trees in the forest" look and I love the way it looks after a wash and dry.

I backed the quilt with the last of my 108" wide "Spot On" scraps, along with one block that didn't fit on the front and a strip of leftover sashing.  I stitched on a twill tape label just below the lonely block.

There was enough of the Spot On fabrics left to make a scrappy binding. As usual, I machine stitched it down to both sides.  I have to show off this mitered corner. It never works out that well!

I was aiming for (20) 15" blocks to make a 60"x80" quilt but ended up calling it quits with 17 blocks, 4x4 on the front and one on the back.  With 1" sashing between the blocks the quilt ended up just over 60" square.  It's a really nice lap size and I'm glad it wasn't any bigger because it was heavy, and difficult enough to quilt as it is!

This quilt will probably be given to a friend from work, but I haven't completely decided yet. I am just going to enjoy looking at it and reminiscing until then. 

I'm linking up to Finish if Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and the TGIFF OctoberQuest2 at Quilter in the Closet.