SNOWBOUND

I am sorry I  haven't worked on the tutorial for the "Sweet Sixteen" Quilt yet.  Why?  I have had to rush to get a quilt together for another wedding.  It seems the stars and  planets were aligned, I had available just what I needed.   I participated in a block swap with 3 special friends.  Friends I met through the Internet.  One of them saw this pattern in a magazine (can't remember which one).  She wanted to do it.  We were visiting her in her home in Chicago.  It was the week of the first international Quilt show held in Rosemont.  We decided to help her out and make three different fabric blocks each (making 4 of each fabric) and then swap them out.  She had a bolt of white on cream which was divided between the 4 of us.  This would give some cohesiveness to our project. 

We worked on our blocks and swapped them out quickly, but mine sat waiting for me.  When the invitation to the wedding came I immediately thought of them.  The invitation had deep purple roses on it.  The couple lives in the Denver Area.  I thought about the snowflakes waiting. 

The stash held a purple that looked nice with them for borders.  There was just enough for binding (the only left over I had was 2 four inch pieces of binding). 

My Stash has been raided and my UFO pile is one less.  This is the quilt.

SNOWBOUND 78" X 53"

It has been so long since we made the blocks I can't tell you who designed the quilt or what magazine it was in.  I will tell you, the little blocks are only 1 1/2 inches unfinished.  Lots of ity bitty sewing went on!

Don't forget to raid your Stash. It is money saved, waiting to see how much interest it can earn!

Stash Raiding since January 1, 2010.

WITH TWO BITS YOU GET:

With two bits of fabric you can start a quilt.  Add two more, etc and etc, and you can end up with this:

I call this Quilt Pattern "Sweet Sixteen Gets Kissed". 

This is is my own pattern.  I made it from the trash I would have normally thrown away.  For years I have been cutting the tiny trash into squares and throwing them into a bag.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them.

I decided I needed to use the bag of 2" squares I accumulated. I have the need to control the outcome of my projects so sorted the squares (next batch I will sort as I go..lol).  I am not one who can just grab in a bag of of darks and a bag of lights and sew.  I would obsess when I pulled out a dark that it did not match with the light I pulled out.  The sorting began. I made a light bag and a dark bag of each color family. 

The squares were joined into four patch segments and the four patches were joined into a 16 patch block.  Then I constructed blocks the same size as the finished 16 patch block with a square in each corner which kisses the corner of the sixteen patch blocks.

Hence the name "Sweet Sixteen Gets Kissed".

The construction of these blocks is fairly elementary but I have a couple of techniques which made the top lay nicer.  I believe it will help with the quilting of the top. 

86" X 69"

Border sashing 6 1/2 inches unfinished. 

Construction techniques with pictures will follow in a blog titled:

"Sweet Sixteen Gets Kissed"

All pictures and Patterns presented here are mine. 

Don't forget to raid your Stash. It is money saved, waiting to see how much interest it can earn!

Stash Raiding since January 1, 2010.

FUN WITH SCRAPS

We have scraps and can't bear to throw them out. We inherit fabric,  we acquire fabric, we use it and have left over pieces which don't go with anything.  We put them aside hoping to find a use for them. 

An Internet group I belong to had a challenge.  A challenge which was to be fun, not demanding and would help get rid of some scraps (pattern free, impulse driven).

It was called "Iron Quilter Challenge". 

The items I chose to use for my Iron Quilter Project.

The rules were:

Pick a focus fabric and 4-6 supporting fabrics (or scraps).

Any embellishments you want

A fabric that was not quilting cotton

Backing fabric

Batting

Set aside 2 hours of time.  Pick out your fabrics (don't use part of your 2 hours to pick fabrics and embellishments) and make a mini quilt 9x12 inches.  Use the six supporting fabrics, inserting them into the focus fabric creating another piece of fabric.   Finish in the two hours time (this is including the quilting). This was the general idea. 

When I heard the challenge size I immediately thought of a sheet of paper and decided I would make a note book cover.  This changed to a note book pouch.  I don't have any finished pictures of the project because I gave it to my niece to carry her crayons and paper to the hospital with her for her Chemo/Radiation treatments before I realized I didn't have finished pictures.

This is my creation from scraps.  I had a fat-quarter Laurel Burch fabric which I knew I would never use.  It would just be sitting in the stash.  With the cat theme I used the fake fur for the zipper opening of the pencil hold pocket.  The pocket was lined with bright orange dotted fabric.  I made a ball of yarn for a zipper pull.  I inserted the fabrics so the cats looked like they were peeking out from where they were hiding in a lumber pile.  The front was batted and backed with orange dot.  I quilted it in the ditch.

For the back I made a zipper in the middle so she could slip a note book inside.  

I joined the zipper back to the front and used a binding I had left over from another quilt.

It was a fun exercise.  It was freeing not to have a preconceived pattern.  Now months later I used the idea to contrive a folder cover for myself.  This is a little larger.  I received a fat quarter from a friend in my favorite colors.  But as with all fat quarters there wasn't enough fabric to make a quilt or to use for an accent fabric in a quilt.  What was I to do with it (it was too busy to use for applique)?  Looking at it, I thought back to the Iron Quilter challenge.  I thought I will make something for my self.  I recently bought myself a large plastic file folder to use for filing instructions for current projects.  I am always needing things like reading glasses, rulers, pencils ETC.  I thought I will make a "cover bag" for it.  I set about measuring it, I knew I wanted to make a bag with a box bottom to accommodate the file case when it was loaded with goodies. 

I proceeded to grow my fabric so I would have enough fabric for both sides.  If I didn't, I knew I would have something in the stash to go with it.  The finished file folder cover is 15"x12"x1 1/2".

The folder cover front.

The folder slides into the top of the cover.

The colors are very purple, orange and a limey army green.

I put a zipper in the bottom row.  I put glasses and things like that in there.

Cover Back

The zipper opening on the left is a pocket the length of the cover.  I use it for rulers.

This will not be my last experience in "fabric insertion". This  has encouraged me to tame other fabrics to do my bidding.  I am curious as to what other objects d'art I can produce.  Hmm, maybe kitchen accessories for small appliances, or use the technique to make a fanciful set of place mats.  Each one different but all matching.  I am only limited by my imagination.

Take time and have fun, create something wonderful and utilitarian from your scraps

All pictures and writings are my own. 

Please ask permission before copying from my blogs.

Don't forget to raid your Stash. It is money saved, waiting to see how much interest it can earn!

Stash Raiding since January 1, 2010.

ARE YOU A FABRIC HOADER?

I have to admit I am one.  I am a fabriholic.  I could never work in a fabric shop.  I would return home without a single pay check.  Worse yet I would delve into my husband's pockets. 

I am one of the worst offenders.  I love any kind of fabric,  anything associated with fabric.  My biggest problem is I have more than I can ever use.  Last year I decided not to buy fabric until I didn't have any in the color I needed.  I vowed to not buy fabric for anything, not even the making of costumes.  You see, I have a vast collection of fancy dresses I bought at garage sales so I would have the fabric to make costumes for the grands.

There will be tutorials for the projects I make raiding my stash.  I hope it will aid you in using your stash.  I wish I had done a step by step on the table sets pictured but alas I didn't.  I will be making each of the items again and demonstrating the process (they use a substantial amount of fabric).

Looking forward to Posting. 

I have been busting stash since January 1, 2010.