Three Little Birds

quanket

Three Little Birds
July 2018

I have been on a recent kick of digging through my scrap bins to incorporate whatever might work in the color palette I’ve chosen for my quilt. It’s my hope to diminish my scraps, but as you might have read in my last post, that doesn’t seem to be the case! I’m sure there is some complex calculation like, ((Gross – Net)/ Net)*100 = 100% that is the reason behind my scrap bins being full at 100% no matter what I do 😉

I keep my scrap bins sorted by colors, but that’s where my organization of the scrap bins end. I use photo boxes (eight in total) for each color and combine a few into one, like white, grey and black, to give you an idea of how many scraps I have.

The idea for Three Little Birds started with a sweet bird fabric found at the local fabric store. There are three birds in the design – pink, teal and grey. I sized them at 5″ (finished) and used them as the centerpiece for a recent quilt block I found called Bright Hopes. I sized the surrounding pieces at 2″ (finished). This is a really great pattern for a quick project or for someone just starting out, as it has few intersecting seams. You can get the pattern over at Red Pepper Quilts.

This block tutorial taught me a new trick: sewing the first and second pieces together with a partial seam. Wow – what a fabulous idea. I suspect many quilters have been doing this forever, but it was a first for me. My Grandmother taught me to sew over 50 years ago (mostly clothes), and since then, I took one sewing class in high school, and a quilting appliqué class several years ago. I would love to take more classes or join my local guild to learn even more cool tricks, but my current schedule doesn’t allow. Perhaps someday…

The name inspiration? The legendary Bob Marley, of course!

Three Little Birds
Bob Marley
Rise up this mornin’
Smiled with the risin’ sun
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin’ sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true
Saying’, (this is my message to you)
Singing’ don’t worry ’bout a thing
‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Singing’ don’t worry (don’t worry) ’bout a thing
‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a child in foster care in October 2018.

Swimming Upstream

quanket

Swimming Upstream
July 2018

I swear my scrap bins are bottomless! It seems no matter how much I pull from them, that when I finish a new quanket and am putting away all the leftover pieces, the bins seem as full or fuller than when I started 🙂

I’ve only myself to blame. When I am at the fabric store, I am a sucker for a cute fabric, as well as for a good deal on remnant pieces. The fish fabric I pulled from the store’s half-off shelf, while the blue polka dot and the grey geometric were from the remnant bins. Since the goal of all my quilts is to incorporate ‘pieces of past’ fabric, I dug into my blue scrap bin to fill-out my palette.

I have a lot of time to think while I am quilting, and the fish got me pondering how some people seem to easily rise up to meet challenges, while others shy away from anything that takes them out of their comfort zone. I found this unattributed quote that I really like:

When life gets harder, challenge yourself to be stronger

I personally like to be challenged, and try to be strong when life deals hardships. However, I cannot even fathom how hard it must be for the kids in the foster care system, and it is my hope that they can be strong and find some comfort from the love that I put into the quilt I made for them.

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a child in foster care in July 2018.

Ms. Love Bug

quanket

Ms. Love Bug
June 2018

The main star of this show is the yellow fabric, with supporting roles played by red and black. And, if you take a closer look at the fabrics, you might see where I derived the name for this quanket. I dug through my scraps bins to use up as much red and black as I could, but still had to rely on a couple of newer fabrics to have enough in the color palette I chose. I enjoy using up scraps not only for the reason of clearing up space in my scraps bins, but moreso for the memories they bring me as I work with them, reminding me of where I had previously used the fabrics, and/or where I had gotten them.

This is another of the many variations of a 9-patch block, and is a pattern I had used a longtime ago in my Who Let the Dogs Out quanket. I like the fun playfulness of not only the design, but the fabrics as well.

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a child in foster care in July 2018.