Last 2 quilt finishes for 2013

I am a fan of Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  I love scrappy quilts and think Bonnie's ideas for using up small scraps accords with my approach to quilt-making.  Hence my Crumb blocks and the quilts that I create from them.

Another of Bonnie's ideas is her "Leaders and Enders" projects.  Instead of using scrap bits of fabric as Thread-catchers she adds to blocks for her next project.  In this way she sews a whole pile of blocks as a sideline to the quilt she is focussing on.

This is how I make my Crumb blocks and how I have made these two little Premature Baby Quilts:

 

I had been given a huge pile of scrap triangles, trimmings from blocks a prolific quilting friend had collected together.  She knows I enjoy using the tiniest of scraps, so as a series of "Leaders and Enders" projects I first created the small HST squares and then put them together in fours to make the kite-style blocks.

 

I had some of the Rabbit fabric left over from a child's quilt I had made for Ava so cut strips of this to intersperse with the kite-block strips.  Then more scrap string for the borders and I had made two Premature baby sized quilts.

 

I had a quick sort through more small left over pieces of fabric for the backing  and another look through my bag of leftover bindings and I was able to complete the little quilts.  One has pink binding scraps joined together and the other a mixture of blue scraps.

 

 

So, my final two Quilt finishes of 2013.

 

After these were finished I sorted out my sewing room.  Put all the scraps away neatly in drawers and sorted out my Crumb blocks-in -the-making tin so I could leave it with the lid shut!

Then a big dusting and Hoovering session and the room is packed away until 2014.

 

Only one more thing to do now - embroider a label for this quilt:

 

Baby Charlie was born on 11th December so this is a gift to welcome him to the world.  I will post it after Christmas to, hopefully! , avoid it getting lost in the Christmas Post Rush.

 

 

Strangely I have just realised that the Rabbit fabric leftover strips were from Charlie's big sister Ava's quilt!

 

Happy Christmas!

 

 

My scrap Pinwheels are now in a quilt

For the past few weeks I have been sewing triangle scrap pairs into small HST units and then turning those into pinwheel blocks.  Sometimes I have made these units in a leader/ender scenario and other times I have sat at the sewing machine churning out the HSTs and pinwheels.  As they piled up I thought of Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran with their "Parts Department".

But a few days ago I had enough "Parts" to start constructing a quilt. In true Gwen/Freddie style I have made a Medallion Quilt, using the pinwheels to make a centre panel and also borders.  The small HST units I also pieced into narrow borders.  As the colours were predominantly Autumn shades I just used two other fabrics for alternate borders:  an apple green with a yellow spot and a bright yellow with a deeper yellow spot. I hope these have helped to give this rather "busy" quilt a sense of calmness.

Again, like the dynamic duo, Gwen and Freddie, I let the "Parts" lead the design.  The black and cream and jazzy coloured pinwheels seemed to lend themselves to a dramatic centre panel and then I chose the borders as I got to them.  Good fun.

And here it is!

 

It measure 41" square.

 

I was given the scrap triangles by Wendy, a lady who makes (and gets others to make) hundreds of Project Linus Quilts.

 

On Monday I will see her at a Patchwork Group meeting and will hand over the finished quilt top so Wendy can back it and quilt it on her quilting machine.  I hope I see it before it is given away to the Linus organisation.

 

Lots of work in this one - I can't imagine how many hours sewing - but I am pleased with the cheerful quilt I have created from scraps most people would have thrown away plus some solid scraps and polka dot yardage from my stash.

 

And to finish, a couple of close ups of the pinwheels and HSTs:

 

 

I have also finished hand quilting my Rainbow Quilt so I hope to showcase that one next week.

Linking up with Maybush Studio's Brit Thursday Linky.

 

 

Triangle scraps being turned into Pinwheels

Linking up with Maybush Studio blog on her Brit Thursday Sewing Linky.

I have been continuing to turn my bag of gifted scrap paired triangles into HSTs and then into Pinwheels.  Quite a time consuming task but I am doing bits at a time.

I have now sewn all the paired triangles into HSTs and they are all trimmed to 1.75".  Most of those have been turned into Pinwheel blocks, with about 8 more left to sew into Pinwheels.  Some of the finished Pinwheels have also been trimmed to a scant 3" block.

This is what they are looking like:

 

The top row are waiting to be sewn, the middle row need trimming (not 4 Pinwheels there, but 4 PILES of Pinwheels!) and the bottom row ARE trimmed!

 

As I was congratulating myself on being so productive with the bag of gifted scraps I suddenly remembered a previous bag of paired triangle scraps the same lady had given me several months ago.  At the time I had lots of projects on the go and decided to put the bag away in a drawer.  And then forgot about it!

So, a couple of days ago I looked it out and was a bit non-plussed to find this bag 2 or 3 times the size of the previous one!  Oh my goodness!

 

Here it is!

 

The triangle pairs are literally stuffed into the bag! 100s of them!

For the past hour I have sewn paired triangles together and am now off to press them.  Then I will put all the piles into plastic bags until next week.  Of course I have barely put a dint into the stack of scraps in the bag.

However we have our granddaughter for the weekend, so no sewing can be done then.

I have also finished hand blanket stitching the I Spy bubbles to my Freckles Quilt.  That's now ready to be sandwiched.

And I have done a lot of hand quilting on my Rainbow Beeline Quilt.  It's looking great, the rainbow bands of colour being embellished with a row of largish Perle cotton stitches.

So a lot accomplished on the sewing front this week.  Hurrah!