Welcome back, scrap lovers.
It’s the day my friend Gun in Sweden and I host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.
Despite lots of ‘real life’ interruptions to my sewing time and my relative blogging silence, I’ve managed to get the $11 Rainbow scrappy quilt half quilted. I’m assembling this by sandwiching and quilting it block by block and will then be joining all the quilted blocks with narrow strips. I’ve decided to go with a simple 3 inch square crosshatch for the quilting. I like how the diagonals contrast with the (mostly!) horizontal and vertical lines of the scrap blocks, and it has the added advantage of keeping the quilted block fairly square, rather than contracting it more in one direction than another.
I have a bunch of leftover strips from the Bonnard quilt which will make good sashing for the back. They’re a bit vivid for my taste, but in narrow bands will work really well, so another good way to use up those strips. It’s good that I have this use for them, since some of them are distinctly bendy, having not been cut straight. I have to trim them to a narrower width for this purpose, so I can minimise the bendyness at the same time.
ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of scraps is eligible. If your scrap collection is out of control and you’d like to turn them into something beautiful instead of leaving them to collect dust in the cupboard, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either email me at the address on my Contact Me page, or leave a comment below. You can also contact Gun via her blog to join. We welcome new members. You don’t have to worry about making a long term commitment or even join in every month, just let either of us know a day or so in advance if you’re new and you’ll have something to show, so we can add your link. Regular contributors will receive an email reminder three days before the event.
Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).
Kate (me!), Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean
See you again, same time next month!
All those scrappy colours make me very happy Kate 😊 it’s great that you are able to use the leftovers from the Bonnard quilt too.
I’m looking forward to using the tiny scraps in the sashing too! I’ll have to be careful, because they’re quite fragile, but the effect will be lovely – I hope!
Your $11 rainbow is coming along nicely, and it’s great you can find a use for Bonnard left-overs. I’ve just posted mine, and spookily, our posts are almost the same 🙂
Those blues were never going to find a home outside a scrappy context; I prefer either much darker or paler. I’ll be over to look at your post shortly!
It just gets better every post! I love the diagonal lines in white, a great bit of contrast without getting overdone. 😄
Oh dear… the quilting lines are actually dark blue, and the white you are seeing is the lines of my ceramic marker! I hope you’ll still approve 🙂
😂 I think navy blue is just fine, I was just thinking you were so brave for crossing that navy fabric with white!!
I did consider it – and then rejected it for exactly that reason! And I do feel that blue recedes enough to let the colours speak more loudly than the quilting.
I like where this one is going. All those colors make a person happy.:)
It’s going to be soft, snuggly and cheerful. All excellent qualities in a quilt 🙂
It looks very pretty, love the colours
Thanks!
Gorgeous. I’m determined to use my fabric scraps like this too – one of these days…..
I found the easiest way was to dive into a box of blue, for example, and pick out my favourite scraps, press them, lay them out in an approximate square shape and then stitch. No pressure, no deadline, just a pretty square of all your favourite bits at the end of it. Plus you’re emptying that box just a little…
If only my scraps were so organised as to be in colours.
I used to have my scraps all mixed up, but one day I got sick of it, got a bunch of shoeboxes out and just got sorting. Even if you don’t finish the job, getting a bunch of them colour-sorted gives you something to work with. Do half an hour a day for a week. It’d be a great ScrapHappy post, with before and after photos!
[…] and backing and binding. I usually fudge on at least one of those items. Visit Kate’s Tall Tales from Chiconia to see more scrappy posts. (I’ll update with specific link […]
it’ll be a lovely reminder to have the Bonnard fabric included.
It will… only visible on the back, of course, but this is supposed to be a reversable-ish quilt!
It’s incredible to look at something so pretty and to realise that it is made from scraps which might have gone into a bin. I think it’s amazing and very attractive.
I have been using up scraps this month too…
I think a lot of people would have put a lot of those scraps in the bin, but with the pretty bits I couldn’t bear to. I like to think of it as ‘made’ fabric… I’ll be right over to check out your post!
That’s great progress–I wish I worked so quickly!
Quick isn’t necessarily better….
With this one, though, I’m stealing 10 minutes here and there to quilt, I could have had it done days ago with a good run at it
This is turning out to be wonderful! Great idea to use the leftover Bonnard strips for the sashing on the back.
They’ll work well there, in relatively small quantities but with a similar overall batik theme.
The rainbow is well represented here in your clever collections of color scraps! You mentioned that some of the fabrics in your border were fragile. Was this due to age or type of fabric used?
No, the fabrics for the sashing strips themselves are OK, but with so many seams joining the pieces, there’s a strong tendency for the edges to stretch as soon as you look at them. The sooner I can get them stitched on the better!
Ah, that makes sense. Waiting for the finish!
Two more blocks quilted yesterday. Six to go… Getting there, slowly. I have a bit of a cutting session ahead with all the blue strips, and then assembly can start!
Good call on the quilting. And how fortuitous to have a use for the leftover strips from Bonnard. Who doesn’t love a win-win?!
This way, they get to feature but without being too ‘loud’, which is my main reason for not liking them so much.
very nice
Thank you 🙂
This is looking so amazing!!
Coming along 🙂 I’ll be able to start joining the blocks soon.
My grandmother made A LOT of quilts during the winter months. Some of her best looking quilts were the ones she made from scarps.
I agree; scrappy quilts can be the most interesting and attractive simply because of the huge variety of colours and designs.
“The quilt to be” is looking great! Now i must confess I did something on my PC and your comment just disappeared. I don´t know what happened. I´ve read it, but I can´t leave any answer, sorry about that. It´s so me, not technical at all. My fingers keep on dancing and sometimes they hit the wrong button 🙂 I´ll use the new list next month!!
Not to worry, we’ve all done it! I think it’s possible to retrieve deleted comments if you go into the WP Admin dashboard, go to Comments and look in the Trash. But I shouldn’t bother unless you want to get it back.
Hi Kate, I am just writing a post about scraps and I wanted to put a link into this post – but I wanted to check that it was ok first? If I understand correctly is it you and Gun hosting the scrap happy post jointly if so I should probably ask him too? Thanks Hayley
No, that’s fine, Gun adds people when she gets a request and just sends me the link, so I do the same with her. I’ll add you to my post that’s going out later this morning my time. Welcome to ScrapHappy. If you decide you want to join in more often, let me have your email address and I’ll send you a reminder a few days before.