I May Have A Scrap Problem... Great Techniques Make Life Easy!

Hi, all!

It has been a busy week around here, but I did manage to make time to work on all three of the My Small World quilts!  This week I made fifteen orange peel blocks, five for each of the three quilts.  All of these blocks were made from 5" squares I had cut from scraps which made me very happy!

These green blocks will go in Nathanael's quilt...

...while these blue beauties will hang out in Lilli's version.

And for Emmy, whose favorite color is "rainbow", there's a lot of lovely color!

These blocks were quick and easy to make, thanks to a great book I read years ago...

First of all, if you don't already have this book, I highly recommend it - Lara has lots of fun projects in the book that all use her super-easy raw edge appliqué technique.  Her trick?  Using Mod-Podge for fabric to seal the back of the pieces to be appliquéd!  The edges don't fray and can be appliquéd with a raw edge and yet will hold and look good.  Much much easier and quicker than turned needle appliqué!

So that's what I've been working on scrappy this week - I'm almost through the required blocks that are due 11/15, so I'm still ahead of the game!  

What have you been working on these days?  Are you having fun playing in your scraps?  Do tell!

Hugs!

Sarah

I May Have A Scrap Problem... A Scrappy Finish for Christmas!

Hi, all!

Christmas is just around the corner, and I am so excited to have a scrappy finish of my own ready to go under the tree!  

As you may have read earlier in my blogposts this month, each year I make an "annual" quilt for each of my grandkids to commemorate their year.  As Lilli has gotten older (she just turned ten) I've given her some say in what her quilt looks like.  This year, after changing her mind three times, she settled on dolphins - she wanted a dolphin quilt!  Now, if you've ever looked for dolphin fabric, you'd find that there isn't much, and what is available isn't what I wanted to work with.  But then I saw the Athena pattern from Gotham Quilts and eureka!  I had the beginning of an idea!   And hallelujah, it could be made from scraps!

A little bit of surfing around on Pinterest and I found the picture above - a dolphin tattoo!  Fortunately, my son-in-law saved the day and printed it out 36" tall for me to use as a pattern.  After raiding the blue scrap tub and piecing the background, I cut out the pieces for the appliqué and put them in place.  I'm very thankful for the blanket stitch on my Singer - it made attaching those pieces much easier!

Lots and lots (and lots and lots) of wavy line quilting around the dolphin creates the illusion of water!  And adds a lot of fun texture, too.

And look at that backing - isn't it just perfect?  It reminds me of the scallop shells we used to find at the beach when I was a kid.

And of course, the quilt isn't truly finished until the label is sewn on!  The labels I make for these quilts are like a little "time capsule" - I tell something about what they were like during the year.  I love to think of their children reading these labels some day and imagining their parents as little kids!  

And one last shot, just because it's pretty!  I think Lilli will really like it - it's a dolphin quilt, but it's kind of grown-up, too.  And even if she doesn't, I'm really happy with it.  I love it when I manage to create what I see in my mind's eye!

Next week I'm planning to share the twelve (or more) projects I'm putting in my "draw jar" for the Scrap Attack challenge.  Are you working on choosing yours?  I'm really excited about this - the thought of getting twelve scrappy projects done is getting my creative juices going!  I do hope you'll join in.  You can read more about the challenge by clicking on the link above in this paragraph!

See you next week!

Hugs!

Sarah