The month of April was all about digging, cutting and trimming. Nope, not outside. Inside. In my sewing room. Having a love affair with my scraps. Oh how I love thee.
It is so satisfying working with scraps, even the teeny tiny pieces. If you have worked with them, then you know how time consuming the process can be. It takes weeks, even months to “grow” them into a piece large enough for a quilt. I even have names for my latest scrap projects. Hot Pockets. Stairsteps. Wonky HST’s.
Want to see?
This is HOT POCKETS.
At first I was just piecing together scraps. Mixing up the fabrics and colors. Then to make it more interesting, I decided to add a square of polka dots here and there. Little pockets.
So far, I have orange, lime and pink sections. Lots more colors to add. Except for the pocket square, it is 100% scraps. Probably a few more months of piecing.
STAIRSTEPS is next. Last month I showed you the beginnings of this project. It looked like this.
It was made with cut off ends from my Scrappy Trip Around The World blocks. Didn’t have many so I created strips from scraps.
At first I named this project Dominoes. But after taking about 30 photos, I started seeing little burgundy steps. Stepping down row by row.
So calling it Stairsteps just made more sense. I LOVE creating these strips. I have pulled from everywhere. Charm packs, scraps purchased on Ebay, fabric from friends, stash. But mostly my scraps. Sashing is 1 1/8″ wide and I get three strips per WOF.
Three panels are completed. They are hanging on my design wall with avocado fabric in the background. I plan to use it for sashing.
This photo shows how I want it to look when finished.
WONKY HALF-SQUARE TRIANGLES (HST’s). Except for the white filler triangles along the outsides, this project is 100% scraps.
If you remember my Hugs and Kisses quilt, all those snowball-type corners created a ton of cut off ears.
I wasn’t sure what I would do with them but saved them anyway. There are hundreds of them. So far, I have made 20 of these wonky blocks. The HST’s are different sizes, hence the wonkiness of the blocks.
I haven’t completed the design yet. Working on how I want to connect the blocks. I am thinking 50 blocks should make a nice sized quilt. More details coming. More photos to follow.
You may remember me showing you my 5 by 5 blocks last month.
Well, they grew too!! From 8 blocks to 18. I added aqua/turquoise (love them!!), red, blue, mauve and pink.
I will probably do a couple blocks in black/white and maybe gray. Still thinking on this one. The final design hasn’t popped into my head just yet. Maybe add a HUGE border to make it lap size.
Even my Block of the Month quilt from my quilt group grew since the last time you saw it. This is April’s block.
I now have six blocks completed. Half way there.
Won’t have the quilt top finished until around the end of November. One block per month. But I have been auditioning fabrics for sashing and borders. Leaning toward more of the purple for the final border and maybe the back.
Not too many finishes for April. Just a few. I will post photos on my sidebar. The little doll quilt I showed you a couple days ago is finished. I ended up using the mauve fabric for the binding.
Binding machine stitched front and back.
And the doll pillow I was making turned out human sized so now I have to start over and piece more squares to make a much smaller one.
Just one of these should do it. Squares are 1 1/2″.
Well… that does it for me. I had one Heck Of A Scrappy Month. Happy. Happy. Happy. 😀
What all have you been creating? Do tell.
This Year's Dozen 