Welcome to Treadlestitches!
I enjoyed finding a home for all these light-background novelty prints. I hope the child who receives it enjoys it.
The back is this cute kids print. A friend gave it to me knowing it would make a great back. Thanks, Nancy!
Are you a scrap quilter? Do bags and boxes and totes of scrap fabric set your heart pounding with excitement? (Yeah, me too!) Do friends, family, and random people give you scraps? Do you actually BUY scraps to use in your quilting? If so, you know what I mean by breaking down the scraps: making them into useful pieces for quilts. Lately I've been working on scraps I acquired at our guild's annual Silent Auction.
When I say "scraps", I mean pieces smaller than a fat quarter. If they're big enough, say 6 in. wide or wider, I don't cut into them, I put them in the Big Scraps basket to cut as needed.
I often find strips in scraps from other quilters, which is great. If they're already a width I normally use, even better! I can just store them in my personal Scrap Savers System, an idea made famous by the amazing Bonnie Hunter. The scrap strips above are NOT widths I use, or are irregular cuts, etc. so they will have to be pressed and trimmed or cut down.
After strips, I tackle the small pieces, cutting these also into squares and rectangles. It's a bit more tedious, so I do a small stack before working on other projects.
Now for the Etcetera, which is what I call pieces sewn to other pieces. Many of these are strip sets, already sewn together, or the ends of strip sets from which pieces have been cut by the original quilter. There are also badly made blocks and parts of blocks, which I guess the quilter gave up on but couldn't throw away.
I often wonder what other people do with these. If you use them, I'd love to know your method.
Here's a weird one:
The fabrics are cute. How could I make this useful?
I cut this up into 3 hsts (2.5 in. x 2.5 in.), 2 squares (2 in. x 2 in.), and four small bits for crumb quilts. There was a second one of these, and I did the same thing with it.
The most common etc. I find are 2.5 in. strips sewn together. This is a great size that I use often, and cutting them apart would make them too small. If at least one of the strips is something I know I'll use, I put them in a basket with a seam ripper, and rip them apart while watching TV. Ripping is a drag, of course, but I hardly notice it when solving a mystery with Hercule Poirot or "baking" with the Great British Baking Show.
As I was sorting and cutting and ripping, I found lots of 2.5 in. squares, many with novelty prints. Treasure! I added some from my stash and cut alternate blocks of a gray print, to make this little 4 patch top:
Snicky is good company in the sewing room, although he hasn't quite left his life of crime behind. I have got my eye on you, Furry Friend.
Halloween is over, but a patchwork ghost made an appearance in our house! Buddy is pretending to run away. These guys crack me up.
I hope your week is ghost free and full of fun. And to all the veterans everywhere, Happy Veterans Day! And THANK YOU!!!
Thanks for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with:
Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Oh Scrap
Yes, to all your questions. I'm a hopeless scrap quilter! FYI, the one you called a weird one, I would have ripped them apart and add them to my crumb bags. Crumbs are whatever. Sometimes the pieces are big enough to get a 2" square out of it but I just don't care and throw it in the crumb bags by colour. Then, there's the 2", 2.5", 3", etc. I don't cut strips but will leave it a strip if this is how it was gifted to me. When I sew and I need to rip I will use my seam ripper. Otherwise, I use my rotary cutter to cut the seams. It is so much faster. Anywho! That's how I do it. I love your Happy Block quilt. That ghost has great taste. ;^)
ReplyDeleteLovely Happy Blocks quilt and the grey patches alternated with little 4 patch works so we'll. How satisfying to use up those small scraps to make a pretty quilt. Yes, I can empathise with your enjoyment of gifted scraps. Doesn't happen to me often these days but I get a real kick out of sortinf through other people’s castoffs. You put them to excellent use!
ReplyDeleteI love your happy block quilts, Sylvia - they're so fun to look at! Following along with how you process your scraps is interesting, too. Cutting that odd pieced strip into HSRs and squares looks like the perfect use for it. Do you know this book? The Little Ghost who was a Quilt, by Riel Nason. I bet your buddies would get a kick out of it!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas for organizing your scraps. I'm one who loves to save every bit of usable fabric that I can. Looking at your photos, I see at least 2 fabrics that I also have in my scrap collection.
ReplyDeleteI love your Happy quilt, and the bonus 4-patch is adorable. I like scraps, but I also like using yardage--which makes more scraps! I'll go as small as 1-1/2 inch squares, but I do have a ton of 2-inch squares. Everything bigger than a 2-1/2 inch square gets left as is so I cut whatever I want from it!
ReplyDeleteYour Happy quilt is waiting to make someone happy! I had a vest with that print that you used for the backing. As for your questions. . .yes to all! Sometimes, when I encounter other's piecing bits, I add them to a project. I too have a personal scrap saving system Ala Bonnie; but, I've moved away from cutting squares and bricks. I cut strips and when I need squares and bricks, then I cut into the strips. I agree with you about finding someone else's precut in a width I use!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects
ReplyDeleteHaha , love the fabric ghostie, I too am in the addicted to scraps support group. Scraps are just too good too good to waste! I cut some of my scraps into pieces but many I cut as needed. I enjoy the digging thru part. It is just like a bowl of buttons, I can't not look!
ReplyDeleteHave fun scrapping!
I like seeing how you work through your scraps - I love them too
ReplyDelete