Last night I really felt like sewing! Pam and I are working on a program for our Quilt Guild called "A New Year's Resolution to Use Our Scraps!". So it made sense to make something using one of the techniques I plan to present. Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com gives easy instructions for 3.5" "crumb" blocks. Crumbs are the little bits and pieces that aren't good for anything else (otehrwise known as the stuff most people throw away)!
I kinda-sorta followed her instructions and made nine from my bin of Christmas scraps. The fun thing about crumb blocks is that when you rotary-cut them to size, your trimmings can be the beginning of the next little block. Now that's using every last bit of fabric.
The musical fabric had landed in the bin by accident, but since music is such an important aspect of our Christmas I put it in- and liked it. In fact, I thought it made the piece "sing". (OK, that was corny...) Then it cried out for musical binding, too!
Here's the back- also made of scraps:
It was meant to be a potholder, but at 10"x10" it's a bit big. Also a tad too large for a mug mat. Four blocks would've been better for those uses. So it's trying out life as a candle mat on our kitchen table.
If you save "crumbs", maybe it's time you did something with them. Any other ideas?
Another Scrap Quilt!
Since I had so much fun digging through my scrap bins in Part 1 of Taming the Scrap Bins (and since I never finish a quilt without starting another one first), I dug out a bunch of "strings" (anything at least 6" long and no wider than 2" or so) and some used dryer sheets to use as a foundation, and started this. Like my "bricks" quilt, every scrap has a memory attached to it. While sewing the strips onto the dryer sheets, I grabbed strings from the pile totally at random, making sure only that I was using a variety of widths and that no fabric was repeated within a sheet. The strings didn't all have straight, parallel edges- so it's a little "wonky", which I like. This is such a liberating exercise- you should try it!
Once each sheet was full, I trimmed it to 6" wide and straightened the top and bottom edges so they can be sewn together in long strips (as shown above) later. Right now I have no idea how big this thing is going to be, but I am thinking about sashing between the strips in a color that will bring all the scraps together, and some kind of scrappy border at the top and bottom instead of all the way around.
For this and the "bricks" quilt, I plan to piece a backing out of fabrics left over from many years of projects. I'm not too worried about having all those seams in the backing, since I will probably just machine quilt it in a large meandering pattern. Wish me luck- I'll let you know how it turns out!
These are my scrap bins:
Here's what I worked on this weekend:
The blocks are all sewn and arranged for this lap-size (approximately 60x72) quilt, based on a tutorial by Bonnie Hunter @ Quiltville.com. It's made up of 2" x 3.5" rectangles (Bonnie calls them "bricks") with 3.5" solid background squares to bring all the scraps together. It didn't make a dent in my scrap bins, but it was loads of fun!
Each section is incredibly ugly when viewed alone, but when it comes together, it'll be the most cheerful, colorful, fun quilt. And the best thing about it is that nearly every scrap in it provokes some delightful memory. The giraffe print at left (you can see I had to do some seam-ripping and left the threads hanging there...) reminds me of a sewing student from a few years back. Jake chose his "PJs for the whole family" pattern and this adorable giraffe print, and over the next six weeks, completed his jammies. Now, when the most female students finish and want to try their new garments on, they go to an entirely separate room, lock the door, and do it in total secrecy. They usually won't come out to model for the group, even if the garment is a perfect fit. But Jake wasn't shy- he just went around the corner, took off his jeans, and tried on his new PJs. He came out, too, with this funny expression on his face, and looking like the Incredible Hulk wearing Bill Bixby's pants (only without the rips). He never cracked a smile- just said "I think I accidentally made the little kids' size". I will never forget that young man (wouldn't have even without his scrap in my quilt).
The blue calico is from a colonial dress I made my daughter when she was six or seven; the Mary Engelbreit fabric is from a picnic blanket I made my sister's kids; the purple was in a Flower Fairy/log cabin quilt I made Mabzie; and the dark blue floral was in my very first quilt.
I can't wait to finish it, but I'll probably start something else first- I always do!
