Let's Talk About Scraps

     I have been thinking a lot about scraps lately. I have always considered my self to be a scrap quilter. In the beginning, I used that term to indicate that my quilts had many different fabrics in them. Mostly, I wanted to put in as many as I could possibly fit. I have always felt that it gave the viewer a more interesting quilt to look at. It made the quilt more versatile in terms of where you could use it. I had the idea that it was also more economical since I could use some fabric from my stash instead of buying it all for each quilt-though sometimes I bought four times as much as it would take to make a quilt as I obsessively collected different prints for a perspective project.

     As time went on, I had more and more actual scraps to work with. And let me tell you, it is true what they say. If you proclaim yourself to be a scrap quilter, you will get lots of free fabric from people who do not want to deal with their scraps, and who will give you theirs because "I know you will use it".

     After much trial and error, I feel like I have finally found a system for sorting, storing, and using my scraps that is working pretty well for me. I used to try to sort by color, or at least types of prints, such as neutrals, batiks, traditional prints. I gave all that up because it was the more types of fabrics I was collecting, the more complex this system got. Now I only sort by size. I start with this large basket.

     There it is, living underneath my cutting table. As an aside, before I saw everyone buying risers to raise the height of their cutting table, I  nailed a piece of plywood to a couple of pieces of 2 by 4, and set that on top of this re-purposed desk. It is not very fancy carpentry, but I like the resulting nook underneath for setting rulers out of the way. That drawer is also handy for holding rulers, extra blades, cutters, etc.

     Back to the original subject. As you may have already guessed, as I cut my pieces, I throw the useable scraps in that basket under the desk. For me, it has to measure at least an inch to be considered a useable scrap. Everyone has their limits. If I am not going to end up with at least as much showing on the surface of the quilt, as is going to wind up on the back of the quilt in seam allowance, I'm not interested in keeping it.

     Next, I have one of those reusable grocery bags that lives in my car. It contains a Ziploc bag for each of the following categories:

*Small bits- 2 1/2" or less

*Medium bits- over 2 1/2" to 6"

*Large pieces- anything that is too big for medium bits, but smaller than a fat quarter

*Small triangles-roughly the same size as small bits

*Large triangles-the rest

*Small sewn together-small pieces that are already sewn together, either because they are small, leftover units, or because they are leftover from strip piecing

*Large sewn together-This is usually from a strip set that I didn't entirely cut up. These previously sewn together units are very useful for improvisational piecing. I find they do so much to help me make my potholders interesting. 

And then we have the strips. I have a separate bin for each of the following:

*Smaller than an 1 1/2"

*1 1/2"-I have a separate bin for these  because I have made several quilts just from 1 1/2" strips. I do separate these into color families.

*1 3/4"- 2"

*2 1/4"-2 1/2"

*Larger than 2/12"

     I load the grocery bag with scraps from the basket, these Ziploc bags, and a small measuring device, and leave all of this in the car at all times. There are certain places that I go, that I find it convenient to pull out this bag, and using the measuring tool, sort some of the scraps into the proper Ziploc. One such place is when I work my volunteer shifts at the town library. After I have swept, dusted, and put away books, I bring out my fabric bag. Another place is at free concerts in the park. When I go to a friends house to sew, if I get frustrated with the project I am working on, or maybe even go as far as I can on it, I pull out this bag.You get the idea. As the bag empties, I refill it from the basket, which is always getting filled as I cut out various projects. As the Ziploc bags fill, I dump them into bins of that respective category. 

     When  I am getting ready to start a project, I go to the bin that holds the size of pieces that I need, and pull out pieces that are the colors that I want. I finished putting this system together a couple of summers ago. Since then I have gotten fabrics from these bins for several projects that are in process, but here are 2 quilts near completion, that came all, or mostly from these scrap bins.

     This quilt top came ENTIRELY out of my strip bins. It is not completely finished, I am still in the process of sewing down the binding. This photo was taken before it was quilted. Wow-a free quilt top made just from what I had laying around the house!

      
       Last weekend, I had the pleasure of going to a quilting retreat. I got the center of this quilt put together there. I just have to figure out what to do with the corners. I think I know what the borders will be. I bought the focus fabric, and the stripe, but everything else came from the scrap bin. 

 
     It is such a feeling of getting something for nothing to make quilts from what I have on hand. And, for those who like going scrappy, it really broadens your fabric choices! 

     I have many lovely photos that I took while at the retreat, I want to share with you, but I will save that for the next post.

     Thanks for stopping by!







 
  

OOPS!

     I cannot believe that in the last post showing the work from the class that I taught in Arkansas, I forgot to show you a photo of the sample quilt! It is called Southern Winter.

     I finished another project this winter, but life has been so busy lately, I never got around to posting that either. I finally got Kimberly's graduation quilt quilted. I actually quilted this one myself.

     I hope your memory is doing a better job than mine has been lately! Thanks for stopping by!

Fun in Arkansas

     Spring has sprung in Georgia! (intermittently) We are still having some occasional cold weather. Last weekend was pretty nippy. It got don't in the 20s one night. Can you hear that? It is the sound of my more northern cousins and friends laughing hysterically at my whining about temperatures in the 20s, but I maintain that it is all a matter of what you are accustomed to, and equipped for-and, it was almost April after all. Today I played a tennis match. It was very overcast, and it wouldn't have been nearly so cold if it had not been so windy.The rest of my team looked more like they were watching a football game, wrapped in blankets as they were sitting on the bleachers. Anyway, we barely won the first set, then got rained out, so we will have to finish Tuesday evening.

      Despite all that, it is warming up around here for the most part, and this means that the community garden is getting started, and our little town volunteer library has also opened up. We close for the winter, since we have no heat. I am the one who schedules the volunteers. We only open on Saturdays, but it is nice for our towns residents to have a place to come and borrow books close by. As for the garden, it is just a bit early to plant summer veggies, but I signed up 3 new gardeners in the last week.  It will soon be time to plant those tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, etc. 

     The point of all that is to tell you what I have been doing, along with weaving a rug, and working on a quilt related project that I can't share yet, that has been keeping my from posting. So, this post is way later than I would have liked, but I still wanted to share the photos from the class I taught in Arkansas last month. I always love to see the color combinations, and interpretations of others!

     Such a fun group of women. I really had a great time with them. 

      So that is what I have been up to lately. Thanks for stopping by!

It Has Been a Long Time

     My, how time flies! I can't believe that so many weeks have gone by without me getting things posted. 

     After I got home from the retreat I had to hurry and pull things together for a trunk show and class in Hot Springs Village Arkansas. What a wonderful, enthusiastic group they were! I have several photos to share of all of the lovely color combinations they came up with in class, but first I want to finish posting the photos from retreat. When I got home from Arkansas, I immediately stepped into a 9 day long shop hop. I helped cut fabric a Patrick's, our local quilt shop. Between that during the day, weaving at night, and a couple of league tennis matches, I just couldn't come up with the energy to write a blog post. We normally only have one tennis match a week, but that week, we had two due to a rain out. Sometimes, everything just seems to hit at once. 

     Anyway, back to retreat photos.

      First up is Hilda. We all love our Hilda. I hope to be Hilda when I grow up. She is in her 90's and still come regularly to our retreats, and can keep up with the best of us. Not only that, she was telling me about traveling to John C. Campbell Folk School this summer. I got the impression she is a regular there too! She is the sweetest lady you would ever want to meet. Here she is with her interpretation of one of my patterns. It is always so exciting for me to see a quilt made from one of my patterns! I love her color choices.

     She even put my name on her label. Do you label your quilts? I just think it will be so helpful to future generations to know something about who made our quilts and why. The next time you are tempted to skip adding a label to one of your quilts, think about an older quilt that you have seen, and wish you knew more about.

    
     This is Donna. Her quilt is bright and cheerful, just like she is!

      This is Mary's. What a great idea to mix these fun animal prints.

     This One Block Wonder is also Mary's. This photo does not do justice to the colors in this one.

     These lovelies are both Tracy's.

      Can you believe that Eleanor and Mary Beth made ALL of these blocks in one weekend?! I can't wait to see this one finished.

    Well, that barely scratches the surface of what was going on at retreat. By now you know how much I love my quilt retreats!

      I hope your month has been going well. Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Retreat

      I am recovering from being on a wonderful quilt retreat last weekend. Quilt retreat is always one of my favorite things.

    I did a little class to teach the other ladies how to make this quilt:

     To help me write the instructions, I remade the quilt, but I wanted to try a different colorway. I thought it would be nice for people to see a low contrast version, as well as a high contrast version. Many thanks to my friend, and fabulous long arm quilter, Regina Carter for her great input on how to improve these instructions.

      It was so much fun to see the other colorways they came

up with. 

 

     Don't you just love the variety!? It was so nice to see these come together over the course of the weekend. It is pretty rare for me to come up with a design that can be done this quickly. I will have more photos from beautiful quilts I saw at retreat in the next blog post. Hope your weekend was wonderful too. Thanks for stopping by!

The Laced Star Block

      I found the Laced Star block in this book, which I have had for many many years.

 

  

     There are no rotary cutting directions or measurements in these older quilt books, but there is a wealth of block inspiration! Not really sure how you would cut these pieces without templates anyway.

     You will need a piece of paper that is at least as large as the finished size of the block. Since I was making a 12" block I used freezer paper, which came in handy later.

     First, I drew a 12" square on my freezer paper, then I bisected that square with 2 diagonal lines that run from corner to corner. Next I bisected the square again with 2 straight lines that run across the center of the square. All of these lines should cross in the center of the square.

     Next, draw a line from the lower left hand corner to where the center line meets the right hand side of your square. Give your square a quarter turn, and repeat. Repeat until each corner has a line running from the corner to where the center line meets the side that is to the right of that corner.

     Next, draw a line from where the center line meets the side, to the low point, where lines intersect to the right. Do this all the way around each side of your block.

     Here is a photo with the extra lines cleaned off, Hopefully, this makes it clearer for you, what the pieces are.

     Now you can do one of 2 things. I have a 2nd rotary cutter with an older blade that I use for cutting paper. First, cut this in quarters along the corner to corner diagonal lines.
 

      You can see that I have added numbers and arrows to these pieces. Those of you who like to paper piece can use the numbers to paper piece these 4 quadrants, and sew the quadrants to each other. Remember, there are no seam allowances on that drawing so your fabric pieces will have to exceed the triangle by 1/4" all the way around. 

     A second option, and what I did, was to cut the pieces apart. I added the arrows to help me to know how to orient the triangles once they were cut apart.
 

     
       Then I ironed each piece on to Fabric, using a ruler to add in trhe seam allowance as I was cutting.

      Once I cut all of the pieces out, it was just a matter of sewing them together, first in quarters, the sew the quarters to each other.

 

     I took a bit of liberty with my fabric placement, just for something a bit different. I hope this helps you make a Laced Star!

A Group Project

    I am a member of a sewing friendship group that meets a couple of times a month. We decided to work on something together this year. We discussed doing  a round robin, but finally decided on an idea we got from the NYC Metro Mod Quilters Blog(see my blog roll on the lower left side of this blog-you may need to scroll down a bit). 

     There are only 6 of us; we didn't want anyone to feel rushed, so we are spending 2 months  on each person, and making each person (2) 12" blocks each. Our first recipient, or "Queen Bee", as they say, was Mary. She furnished the background fabric, some Kaffe prints, and some bright plaids. We could add prints of our own, as long as we used her background choice. Most of us didn't have any bright plaids, so it was lucky that she had plenty. We were each asked to make her a 12" block with a star, and a 12" block that reminded us of something from our friendship with her. 

     We celebrate our birthdays together, and always try to get the "birthday girl" whatever quilty things she has been dreaming of. Last year, I was thinking about making a Dresden Plate quilt, and it was Mary who gave me this Nancy Zieman Dresden Plate, Trace and Create Quilt template set from Clover. I thought it would be appropriate to use it to make a block for her that is supposed to represent a memory that I have of her. By the way, I will be starting that Dresden Plate quilt soon; but that's beside the point. So, one of my blocks for Mary was a Dresden plate fan. 

     The other is called a "Laced Star".

      I still need to hand stitch the center of the Dresden Plate. 

     Next post, I will explain how I drafted, and made that Laced Star.

      I finished this quilt, made a back for it and gave it to Regina Carter, my fabulous long arm quilter.

     I have also finished the center of this quilt. I am currently working on getting the pieced border together.

 

 

      See what other quilters are up to today at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/02/10/design-wall-monday-february-10-2014/

     Thanks for stopping by!