Confetti Quilt

This scrap quilt was a long time in the making.  I started a couple years ago sewing 1.5"x2.5" crumbs of scraps together and just finally finished!

I love using up even the smallest scraps of fabric.  This was started as a leader-ender project, but I can never leave them as leader-enders. They have to go on and become my main project!

Originally I was going to set these still on point, but in a zig zag arrangement instead of the pinwheels (like old gum wrapper chains).  Then I saw the Bonnie Lass pattern and decided to go that direction instead.  I decided to go with setting triangles cut from scraps rather than white and I really like how it looks.

I quilted the top with a stipple and bound it with black.  Scrappy binding seemed like the natural choice, of course, but I wanted something more solid to give a definite edge to the craziness of the top.  The size of this quilt was determined by how many of those little blocks I had made... it wound up at 64" square.

Of course this quilt is going to Covered in Love.  I just took a big delivery up to the hospital yesterday bringing our total to 155 quilts!  If you want to join in you can find details about program on the main page or find our block drive going on here.

Linking to Finish it Friday and Oh Scrap!

Listening to... Avicii. I secretly love EDM and techno :)  Happy music for a happy quilt.

This and That Scraps

There's been lots of activity on my design wall lately.  My body celebrated my return to Texas in right fashion by developing a cold, so I haven't felt up for the hours-long process of basting and quilting tops.  Instead I sewed a few little things, arranged and rearranged the design wall, and put together backings for various tops for when I do feel up to it again (thanks you to Louise, Gail, Nancy, Amanda, and others of you who have generously contributed backing fabrics!)

I put up some of the hot and cold corner blocks to just see how they look and it's even better than I hoped! These won't be sewn together until the last of the stragglers are here. (By the way, if you're looking for the January block drive for CiL it's HERE). I also sewed up several more string herringbone blocks from my 1.5" strings. 

I'm actually running out of the string scraps I'd cut (don't worry, there's more! I just haven't trimmed them yet), so I switched to another old scrap project, these small pinwheels.  I started sewing the fourpatches into chains and putting them on the wall. I'm trying to avoid doing math as much as possible by just building it in place.

After some debate I decided to cut my setting triangles from scraps instead of white fabrics, so I cut 6.5" squares from my scrap piles today.  Cutting a 6.5" square into quarters lets me make setting triangles with no bias stretch on the outside edge.

I sewed up the corners as they are so far with the setting triangles in place.   It's a crappy night-time picture, but what do you think?  I'm a fan of the colored triangles for the edge.  Of course my quilting supervisors have been hard are work.  They're trying not to let on too much, but I think they missed me, too!

By the way, don't miss the 2016 Year in Review post about Covered in Love.

Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.

Home Sewing Retreat Part II

I am camping out in front of the TV for a little mini sewing retreat again today.  I haven't done much serious sewing in a week but that is about to change!  I'm starting out by sewing together some flannel scraps I cut a long time ago. The first quilt made from these was in masculine, neutral colors. This one will be bright and fun. If I get bored of sewing flannel I have plenty to choose from.

In the basket are more units for the Bonnie Lass crumb quilt.  The jelly roll was gifted to me by a reader for a Covered in Love quilt.  Maybe a 16 patch? Or maybe something more string-y? I don't know yet. 

In the brown paper bag are assorted scraps.  My guild did a fun activity at our meeting last week. Everyone brought a gallon size ZipLoc of scraps and we mixed them all together then passed out bags of scraps. It's an exercise in improv where you set the clock for 30 minutes then blindly draw fabrics from the bag and sew them together. My first 4 blocks are below.

Next meeting we are all bringing our blocks back to think about how to assemble them into a top.  Part of the reason I haven't done much sewing lately is this sweet little face.  This is Rey.  She is around 7 weeks old and I found her on the side of the highway last week on my way to work.  Rory is not impressed by this interloper into her space, but I think at this point we're keeping her :)

One more thing! July's CiL block drive post went up this morning. I can't wait to see what you all come up with! Now, I'm off to sew the afternoon away.

Linking to "I May Have a Scrap Problem" at Sarah's blog. I don't think there is an "may" about it!

Mindless Scrappy Sewing

This has been a busy week for school stuff. Sometimes when I'm listening to lectures I do some mindless sewing to keep my hands occupied. This time I pulled out the crumbs I've been working on for... almost a year now.  Just little 2.5"x1.5" rectangles joined first into pairs and then into four patches as in this Bonnie Lass pattern.

The first few four patches are done and I arranged some of them up on the design wall.  Since these are my scraps (for the most part, some of Judy's too) the color palette is overall blue-ish. ((If you're squeamish stop reading here, thanks for coming by!))

I actually did some school-related sewing this week.  We spent an afternoon in the classroom learning to suture! Perhaps unsurprisingly, being a quilter did not give me any particular advantage when it came to suturing.  We all brought chicken, cow tongue, or pig feet to practice on and it was a pretty fun afternoon.  The meat was not wasted, after all the sutures were removed it was taken to a local Tiger Rescue where the big cats were very grateful :)

Linking to Oh Scrap! at Cynthia's blog.