Monday, September 17, 2007

This last week was not a productive one for me. I didn't do a lot of sewing and as you can see, I also didn't post to my blog. I'll try to do better this week, but I do know it is going to be a busy week...so don't hold me to this as a promise. I have grocery shopping and errands today, Wed. is sewing group and one of the elderly ladies is bringing her quilts to show, and Thurs. is applique class.

Darlene asked on her blog about what we do with our scraps when we finish a project. I have a Rubbermaid bin that I put mine in. I am very frugal... so I keep anything that I can get a 1 1/2 inch square from. Growing up and early in our marriage, money wasn't plentiful and I think about the fact that I paid as much for the scraps as I did for the fabric I used....and if it is a usable size....then that is throwing out money. Besides, I love scrappy quilts. They make me think of my grandmother as that is all she ever made. I have even been known to buy scrap bags to get colors that I don't often work with.

Here a few pictures of items where I have used scraps from other projects.
All of the pieces on my rocker were made from the scraps left over from a Trip Around the World quilt I made for DD when she went away to college. I still have a few 2 1/2 inch squares of fabric from that quilt left to use up.
I don't normally work with darker colors, but I was doing a block of the month at LQS and it was dark colors. I used some leftovers from that and bought a couple of $4 scrap bags and the quilt above is what I made with them. I found that pattern in a magazine....I can't remember which one, but I do know I still have it. The article said to not plan color arrangement....to just sew whatever you picked up together. They said the pattern would appear from the placement of the half square triangles and the squares. Hope you can see how the squares formed by the lines of the half square triangles appear in the close up photo. This top is queen size......and is a flimsy! I think I am going to try machine quilting this one by quilting in the ditch around the squares.
I also showed the cathedral window I have as an on going hand stitching project in an earlier post. I'm using some of the same scraps I used in the flimsy above...plus some from other projects. I'm not planning to use only darks in the CW. I'm going to use any color!
I also cut some of the dark scraps into strings and have been making blocks using those. I am saving dryer sheets, pressing them, and then using them as the foundation for sewing the strings. Then I trim them to a consistent size. When I have enough, I will put them together into a top.

If you have a project where you have used scraps....I would love to see it.





5 comments:

Unknown said...

What beautiful quilts Belvie, I love the cathedral window on white, so soft and pretty. Also love the scrappy dark quilt, my gosh all those 1/2 square triangles. Would love to konw the measurements and directions for that one, it would be a good way of using up alot of my scraps.

Darlene said...

Wow, your use of scraps is in incredibly, Belvie. See, I agree with you - I paid for those scraps so I just can't part with them. I've had friends beg me for all my scraps but I know they would make a beautiful quilt that I would want. I need to figure out a way to sort them and come up with something scrappy and wonderful - like yours!

And, by the way I love your cathedral windows!

Norma said...

I love scrap quilts, especially one that uses the scraps from another quilt. It comes out two for one that way. I buy remmants and use them sometimes so I have more color selection. Yours are lovely!

corry said...

I also love scrap quilts! I really like the ones you made. Ooh, that yoyo cushion is so gorgeous!

Andrea said...

I mainly make scrap quilts but have no sort of order to them. Just lump them all together in a big box. I can't believe I used to throw out all my scraps....Your quilts are beautiful Belvie.