Tod
January 2022

While putting away my holiday scraps, I found that my reds bin was close to exploding. So, time for a red scrappy quilt! I kept this baby quilt super simple, patchworking 2″ blocks. As for the fox, I found a coloring page online, and then enlarged the image to the size I wanted, and traced directly from my monitor. I know all you techies are cringing, yes, it’s probably not good form to trace off a monitor, but I try to press only ‘very, very lightly’ 🙂 Typically, I either trace using my monitor, or against a window… of course, during daytime for using the window 😂 I made the fox using a raw-edge appliqué technique.

I often hear new quilters ask about the best way to store and manage their scraps. I hear some quilters suggest cutting into standard sizes before storing, and to only keep those pieces larger than 2″. My recommendation is to keep it all, and to not pre-cut it. Since I often dig into my scraps for appliqué projects, the size and irregularity of a piece is not a problem. I also enjoy the crumb block technique, which uses not only irregular shapes, but also very small pieces. Lastly, I sort scraps by color and use photo boxes to keep them in. This way, when the lid no longer wants to stay properly on the box, I know it’s time to do a scrappy quilt! If you are needing ideas for a scrappy quilt, check out Quilting is more fun than Housework’s blog.

This was donated to Friends of Short Avenue Elementary for a silent auction in March, 2022.

Lassie
September 2021

This quanket combines many scraps from Toodles, a quilt I made for my nephew Dexter, six years ago. The colorway is very mid-century modern. The avocado, browns, teals and oranges have made these fabrics a bit of a challenge to incorporate into other quilts over the past six years, not only because of their strong color personality, but also because the colors are all very saturated. I felt the linen color for the background provided the neutrality needed to compliment these strong colors.

This scrappy quilt began by sewing the small’ish scraps (most under 4″x3″), combining them with the solid linen and avocado colored fabrics. I constructed 12″ blocks, but wasn’t happy with how they looked once they were up on my design wall*. So, I used a trick I learned many year’s ago when making Calm Reflection, of cutting the block in half, and flipping it around to create a new design. The technique was one I had found on wont-to-be quilter’s blog, however, I can no longer find the instructions there. Please drop me a comment with your email address if you would like me to send to you. I made ‘Lassie’ as a quanket, finishing it with fleece backing.

“Did you ever see a lassie go this way and that (way)?”
~ Roud Folk Song Index number 5040

This quanket was donated for a child in foster care in October, 2021.

*While the picture of my design wall doesn’t have this latest quanket on it, I thought you might like to see what my design wall looks like. It is a piece of 1/2″ styrofoam insulation covered with felt, measuring roughly 5’x6′. My murphy-style cutting table is immediately behind my sewing machine, a 1950’s Singer 401a, slant-o-matic. The cabinet for the fold-up cutting table has a blackboard backing, so I can keep notes for my current projects. The sewing machine was my grandmothers, and the one she used to teach me to sew over 50 years ago.

M82
August 2021

The cream fabric in this scrappy quilt is leftover from my Firsts quilt while the blues were pulled from my bottomless blue scraps bin. I organize my scraps by color, and it seems that no matter how many times I create scrappy blue quilts, this bin is always full! I created the scrappy blocks by sewing seven, 1.5″ x 7.5″ strips, and then combining a cream block to make the half square rectangles (HSTs).

I love the versatility of HSTs. Just a simple rotation, or placement of fabric and color can make it look completely different from something made in the same quilt design. I’m not certain if there is a name for this particular design. I use EQ8 and designed it there, basing it off a Lonestar design. I love the look of an off centered Lonestar, such as I did with Rising Star, and in this case I chose to not complete it out to the star points, but instead kept it extremely ‘zoomed in’. I made this as a quanket, finishing it with fleece backing.

This quanket was donated for a child in foster care in October, 2021.

Echoes
May 2021

Here’s a baby quilt that will be donated to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids @littlelambsfoundationforkids as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge being hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict @fabricaddictquilts.

The fabric of the animals riding around in cars is the last I have of this fabric, which I also used in Twizzler Goes for a Ride and Toodles. The blue, cream-colored and dark green blocks are all solid fabrics, which is deceiving since the fleece I used for the backing on this quanket (blanket + quilt = quanket) shows through when held up to light. The fleece backing is green with big white polka dots, making an interesting echo from the back to the front.

Fun fact: the letter E in the NATO phonetic alphabet is Echo and its morse code is a dot.

#h2h2021 #hands2help2021

M81
April 2021

While it has been quiet here on my blog for the past few months, my sewing room has been anything but quiet! I’ve been working on improving my quilting skills, which I like to do on smaller-sized items, as they are more manageable on my standard domestic sewing machine. I made four table runners, shown in the picture below. The Valentine ones were for each of my daughters, the blue one was for my youngest daughter’s birthday, and the one that looks like a serapa blanket was for me. I have also been working on a couple of larger quilts, which have been keeping my sewing days busy.

I’ve slowed down a little on making charity quilts over the past few months, as due to Covid, my local county’s Children and Family services has been closed to visitors, so dropping off my donation quilts has been a challenge. Luckily, Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict @fabricaddictquilts is currently hosting the Hands2Help Challenge, and Little Lambs Foundation for Kids @littlelambsfoundationforkids is once again one of the receiving participants, which is where this baby quilt is heading.

This scrappy quilt incorporates an orphan block from my Hoplon quilt as the center block. The Valentine table runners I made used the crumb block technique — which by the way is super fun — and since I had all my pink scraps thrown on my sewing table, I decided to just keep making pink crumb blocks, which I used for the setting triangles. I attempted doing a fish scale quilting design (free motion), and while it ended up looking more like squares with arced sides, I was happy with the end result.

#h2h2021 #hands2help2021