Catching Up

I'm keeping up with the Aqua Tiny Tuesday blocks (thanks, Angela!), but my aqua scrap bag is not very full and I have other projects in the works.

My son is heading off to college this fall and he chose the Labyrinth Walk quilt (pattern by The Guilty Quilter) for his dorm. I finished the center panel, but will adjust the border sizing a bit so it fits a twin extra long bed. I usually don't follow a pattern (or use only 4 fabrics in a quilt), but the look is wonderful and the instructions were clear and easy to follow.

Meanwhile, on the scrap busting front, I made another wonky rail quilt using only blacks, browns, grays and prints with black backgrounds. I thought the quilt would be a bit dull, but there is a lot going on and I like how it turned out. I threw in a few rainbow prints which add a pop. I squared up my wonky blocks to 8", making this a nice sized 56" x 72".

I found a place for some bigger pieces on the back, glad to have these out of my stash. This quilt will be donated.

Check out the Saturday RSC to see wonderful aqua scrappy creations!

Green Owls and other things

I had much fun making this week's Tiny Tuesday block! I have lots of polka dot fabrics, so it was easy to find the perfect owl eyes in my stash.

I put together last week's green bars and 16-patch stars for a scrappy top. The dark green border pulls it all together. The 16-patch stars kind-of disappear in all the scrapiness, but they add a little interest when the quilt is viewed up close. I will get this one quilted up soon for donation.

Last month I attacked my 1930 reproduction fabric bin and put together two staggered rectangle quilts. Ten years ago I made several 1930's quilts, but few of the fabrics had been used since then. The rectangles finish at 4" x 8", so this pattern is a good stash buster. The design was inspired by this blog post. This one I quilted with a flower and loop meander, I thought it suited the dainty prints. Both will be donated to my guild. 

Check out lot of other green quilty creations at RSC!

Many, many green rectangles

My green dancing stars are still waiting to be sewn together, but I felt the need to attack my large bag of green strips and strings. I've made two quilts lately with scrappy rail blocks, but I decided to try the long rows of rectangles demonstrated in the Rockin' Rectangles On Line tutorial. I cut my strips 9 - 9.5" long and then squared up the rows to 8.5" wide. My definition of green is pretty broad, any green component to the print counts in my book. I like the wide range of shades I found in my scraps. I think I will insert these 4 green-in-neutral dancing stars in between the rows. Making five strips of green rectangles finally made a good dent in my green scraps!

Some of these greens are from projects long, long ago!

This plus quilt is another recent finish. Almost all of the fabrics are left over from last year's college quilts. Many are fabrics I used on the backs, and some from the front. I cut the 3.5" x 9.5" rectangles and 3.5" squares over a year ago and kept adding to them as I finished projects and had backing edges. It was fun to pull out the bin and have enough to almost finish the quilt, just had to cut a few more. It ended up 45" x 57", a nice size for the kids at the camp where our guild donates. The camper fabric on the back I found on sale and I just love the cute look it adds to the back!

Check out the other wonderful green creations at the RSC!

Green: One becomes Twenty

I jumped in with enthusiasm using some of my green scraps. I was inspired by The Academic Quilter's  rainbow Dancing Stars and pulled some 3.5" green squares from my pre-cut scraps. The bright pink star with the green made me smile and think of spring, even though the ground has been covered with snow this week.

Not wanting to stop with just one, I kept going. I used some old, old, old fabric squares I inherited from my step-mother, their dated look disappeared among the other greens. I cut more squares from scraps and small pieces in my green drawer. I planned for 12 blocks, a nice comfort quilt size. However, I still was enjoying the process and the results, so I ended up with 20 blocks and made a good dent in some of my greens. I'm not sure this quilt is going to comfort quilts any longer, I'll see what I end up doing for sashing and borders.

Other recent finishes include this Wedge Star quilt from this Missouri Star tutorial. The bright batik fabrics printed with squares are all from the same line, samples donated to our comfort quilt program. I cut them into 10" squares to follow along with the layer cake required by the tutorial. Only a little extra fabric from my stash was required to finish the border.

Finally, another monochromatic star quilt with crumb blocks. I was happy to use a nice piece of fleece on the back which was leftover from a jacket I made 10 years ago!

Check the Rainbow Scrap Challenge to see other green creations this week!

The Scraps Continue

I've been playing along with RSC19 and continuing to work through lots of scraps, even though my blog posts are few and far between. I know several people in my life with fabric accumulations bordering on hoarding, which scares me and makes me want to use what I have and share my quilts with others. I'm glad my guild has an active comfort quilt program which will find a good home for anything I want to make.

This yellow scrappy rail made a good dent in my bag of yellow scraps. I always try to use up larger pieces on the back, and this is no exception with pieces from one of the graduation quilts I made last year.

For years I have cut many of my scraps into usable sizes, inspired by Bonnie Hunter's scrap user system. My box of 4.5" squares was overflowing, so I pulled squares with blue and/or green for this scrappy quilt, anchored by the solid blue star. At least the lid on the 4.5" square box snaps securely now!

Check out other scrappy projects at Angela's blog. I'm looking forward to tackling some of my green scraps in March!

Last Minute Finishes

Our guild meets tomorrow and I successfully finished up a few more things ...

The scrappy rail top I made earlier this summer is now quilted, bound and ready for the comfort quilt team.

My addiction to happy blocks continues, this quilt is finished for comfort quilts. I love the bright colors and seeing fabrics that have been hidden away in my stash included in a quilt at last. I have enough centers and borders cut to make two more when I'm so inspired.

This little wall hanging (19" x 25") was made with a photo I took, printed on a fat quarter at Spoonflower, and then cut into an attic window setting. I have seen panels done this way, but I like the intimate look of a smaller photo. I have four more printed photos in my sewing room to try soon. This wall hanging is destined for a charity auction.

My work-in-progress is a double square star quilt (instructions found at Missouri Star Quilt Company) destined for Quilts of Valor. I like it's scrappy look so far, but it didn't make much of a dent in my red fabrics.

Check out Oh Scrap this week for lots of inspiration!

Fat Quarter Creations

Our guild has a very active comfort quilt program, and I was the chairwoman for 4 years. We provide kits to members which include fabric, batting and an easy pattern. Now that two other ladies are chairing the committee, I am the "comfort quilt consultant" and stop by to check out the (huge) fabric stash, suggest pattern ideas and make samples.

We receive many yards of donated fabrics and try to find patterns that work with the fabrics we receive. The fat quarter bins are overflowing, so I set out to find some easy, free fat quarter patterns. I started with 2 different sets of 12 fat quarters. This first quilt is the small lap-quilt size Fat Quarter Fizz from the Fat Quarter Shop website.

I quilted loops in the rectangles and funky flowers in the squares.

I used up the remaining fat quarters and some extra fabrics from my stash for the backing. I cut one binding strip from each fat quarter as I cut the primary pieces. The only downside of this pattern for our purposes is the size: it is 48 inches wide, so the backing must be pieced. We try to make most of our kit quilts 38-40" wide so the backing can be a single piece of fabric.

With my next set of 12 fat quarters, I made this triple square quilt. I found inspiration and instructions here, but I modified it slightly. My center squares are cut 5", the first border is cut 2.5" and the second border is cut 3". This gave me 13" finished blocks, and I could cut a binding strip from each fat quarter as well. Overall size 39" x 52", no piecing required for the backing.

Even though piecing the backing was not required, I found several flannel pieces to combine for a cozy scrappy back.

One other fun comfort quilt completion was this Hoffman Supernova panel. Adding stars in the border gave it a perfect finish!

Linking up with Moving it Forward where I always find lots of great inspiration!