Scrap Busting

I have a serious love-hate relationship with scraps.  I really love scrappy quilts, but the actual scraps kinda stress me out.  I think because they never go away.  As hard as I try, I never feel like I have them under control.  I know I should just get rid of them--give them away, sell them, but then I really don't want to part with them.  When I sew with scraps, I would rather be cutting into stash.  When I sew with stash, I feel that guilt of adding to my scraps pile.  It's really kind of ridiculous and almost embarrassing.  I have started buying smaller cuts of fabric, fat quarters or quarter yards.  That seems to help my guilt.  

Inspiration for these blocks was found here.  Modified a little.  

Fancy Fox Quilt

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe the summer is over!  I didn't turn on my sewing machine much, and honestly, we were almost too busy to even notice.  My kids are back in school now, as of last week, and I'm ready to start sewing again.

I posted about this quilt a while ago, and here's the finish.  We were able to gift it to our neighbor who graduated from High School last June.  It was so fun to make and fun to give.  The kids each made their own blocks, and loved making them.  Speaking of sewing with kids, this was such a great project.  Each block is easy enough for even the little guys, and it didn't take much time to finish.  I put the quilt top together and did the quilting and binding, but they still felt they had a part in the quilt.

We labeled each of the fox noses with the child's name.

We used leftover orange scraps for the binding, a scrappy binding.

A grey woodgrain for the backing.

Pattern is Fancy Fox and can be found here.

around the world again

I have a good friend who casually asked me if I would be willing to make her a quilt.  She'd pay me and everything, but she just wanted a quilt that she could use as a picnic blanket, or around the house.  

This friend happened to have a birthday coming up (and is also a great gift giver, the kind that you never know what to get them), so I convinced myself that I could make her a quilt in 2 weeks.   It happened to be right in the middle of a busy two weeks, and I managed to get the quilt top done (another scrappy trip around the world), and then my energy petered out and I didn't finish it.  I ended up getting her something else, and decided I'd save this for a Christmas gift or something. 

It's still sitting in my sewing room, it's May and I just haven't had time to baste it.  Now it's HOT and HUMID, and I have even less motivation to work on it.  Maybe once the kids are out of school (2 more weeks), we will be bored enough.  

I do love this pattern, and I am planning to use those horseshoes on the back, I think it'll be a good one.

Holly Hobbie

I shared this quilt top a while ago, asking for advice on the quilting.  A friend had done the embroidery, and asked me to finish the quilt.  I thought these squares were so cute, reminds me of baby Holly Hobbies.

 So many of you recommended hand quilting, and I totally agree that hand quilting would've been the best option for this quilt, but I didn't want to put in that much time and I knew my friend didn't expect me to do that.  So I went with in the ditch quilting.  I went around each square, and then along the dark pink seams.  I considered going around each light pink square, but I didn't.  

I actually think the quilt needed the added stability that comes from crossing quilting lines.  You can kind of see in this picture.  I washed and dried it and everything stayed together, and the quilt was so soft.  It's always a little scary doing work for other people.  I didn't want to mess anything up. 

diamond value quilt

I've wanted to make a value quilt for years, inspired by Katie of SewKatieDid, I finally made one.  Well, I actually started it a year (or more) ago, but I finally finished it up.  Up close, you don't see much of a pattern, but when you step back...

it pops!  I love how it works, I love that you don't look at fabric, but rather at the design.  This is a fun scrap buster.  I used 6 inch squares to make my half square triangles, and I randomly paired them.  I didn't even consider value until it was finished.  Some of them were hard to determine which was the light side and which was the dark side, but once the quilt is finished it all works together.

 I used my low volume stash for the back, and bound in a purplish plaid.

I kept the quilting simple, just a quarter inch on either side of the vertical and horizontal seam lines.

Reel Time

I've been playing with new fabric this week, Reel Time by Zen Chic for Moda.  This is a fun line, and  compliments her earlier, wildly-popular fabric line, Comma, perfectly.

The line is inspired by elements and colors from the film industry.  I received a layer cake, and didn't even get a picture of all the prints before I started cutting into it.  (You can see them all here).  The blacks and whites (and greys) really stood out to me, so I sewed up flying geese and half square triangles.  

I haven't settled on a layout yet, I feel like it needs more, perhaps some color?  Somewhere to rest the eyes?  I'm not sure...

But I'm loving it so far.  These prints might add just the right amount of color.  

 Other colors from the line (I LOVE those circle x's).

follow along the blog tour this week: 
April 13:  www.kitchentablequilting.com
April 14:  www.freshlypieced.com
April 15:  www.diaryofaquilter.com
April 16:  www.modernhandcraft.com
April 17:  www.luckylucille.com
April 18:  www.craftytwinmommy.blogspot.com
April 19:  www.aspoonfulofsugardesigns.com

fancy foxes

My neighbor and I are putting together a quilt for our soon-to-be-high-school-graduate neighbor.  We decided to make a fox quilt, and and I get why this quilt is so popular, these little foxes are FUN to make.  We let our kids help pick out fabrics, and we might label them, you can see elsie on the nose up there.