Do I have CSD? ( Compulsive Squares/Scraps Disorder)?

As is my habit, I was idly flicking through Flickr this morning and came upon this delightful quilt from wombatquilts

wombatquilts.com/2013/08/postage-stamp-quilt-finished/

It's a fabulously bright Postage Stamp quilt made from 2" strips eventually creating 1.5" squares.  Well, of course I added it to my Favourites, looked at it intently, gazed at its largest sized picture using the "View all sizes" button, then used the facility on my iPad to enlarge sections so I could get an even better look!

This reminded me of a baby quilt I made some years ago using 2.5" squares, although mine were actually all squares and not strips, which I loved making as it appeals to my sense of using up scraps to make something new and pretty and functional. I called the quilt So many squares baby quilt and gifted it to baby Serena .  It was used as a cot quilt and then, when Serena graduated to a Big Girl's bed it was used as a bed quilt and looked really great!
This train of thought set me trawling through my Flickr photostream until I found the quilt and here it is:

www.flickr.com/photos/42497863@N07/4176150526/in/set-72157622854

I have obviously been smitten by the Small Squares bug ever since as I have drooled over Katy Jones' Scrap Vomit quilts which she based on an idea by Melanie which you can see if you follow this link:

www.flickr.com/photos/11712869@N00/3314948350/

Have a look at Katy's blog: imagingermonkey.blogspot.com and drool over the several Scrap Vomit quilts she has made.  All gorgeous and riots of colour.

imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/2011/03/quilted.html

I loved these quilts so much I have been gradually adding to my hoard of 2.5" squares by cutting a few from scraps left over from cutting fabric for other projects.  I have also added to them by taking part in 2 Swap bot swaps of Scrap Vomit squares.  It is a comfort to know there are lots of other people all over the world suffering from the same affliction!  Still not started sewing the quilt yet though!  Always too many other projects higher on the list.

Then a few years ago I saw another variation on the Small squares sewn together to make a quilt on Bonnie K Hunter's quiltville blog.
Another idea of making a Scrap Squares quilt but this time using strips which you turn into tubes and eventually make blocks of squares.  I stalked this idea for some time but didn't actually make that quilt either.  Then a few months ago up popped the idea again on Katy's blog and she started the Scrappy Strip Along craze that has been ( and still is!) raging on Flickr.  If you haven't got the bug yet, have a look at the Group's pictures on Flickr.  I have become so obsessed I have created 3 Scrappy Strip Along Galleries on my Flickr photostream and cut a load of 2.5" strips ready to start my quilt.

I have realised that I may have a problem...................... I can't resist small scraps of fabric, especially if they are magically turned into quilts made from hundreds of squares.  Perhaps I'm suffering from CSD?  Compulsive Squares/Scraps Disorder?!  Do let me know if you share the same problem - perhaps we could band together and form a Self-help group!

Happy sewing.....................  I'm off to gaze at my hoard of 2.5" squares!

Another finish for 2013

I've had a busy week, finishing one quilt, sandwiching a WIP quilt top and two little premature baby quilts ready for hand quilting and labelling a little quilt I made exactly one year ago.

Firstly, my finished Zigzag Quilt:

 

I am so pleased with this quilt, all made from stash, nothing new bought at all. 

A few statistics:

Quilt measures 40", which I think is a nice size for a cot quilt/playmat.

I used 72 of my completed 4" Crumb blocks and paired those with 4" squares of yellow, orange and ash Kona Cottons to make the 144 HST units. 

Borders cut at 2.5" from a bright orange polka dot fabric I also had in my stash ( just a small piece of that left now)

Bound in a marbled effect bright green fabric which was sent to me recently in one of the Swap bots I joined.  I had a fabulous parcel of scraps from Shevvy, several of which were very generous sized pieces, including this green one.  Again, I have a little left over.

Hand quilted with a variegated yellow and orange Perle cotton.  I just outlined the zigzags and quilted 1/4" inside the borders.

 

Exactly a year ago I made my first Freckles Quilt fron Emily Cier's Book Scrap Republic. I didn't have anyone in mind for the quilt and put it away with my pile of finished quilts. However, a good friend has recently become a grandmother again so I decided this pretty quilt would be an ideal gift for little Nisha. 
I have embroidered a label ( I have called the quilt Rainbow Bubbles) and sewn it onto the quilt and it is now ready to be mailed.

Here's a reminder of the quilt:

This Close up shows how the circles are constructed from strips of scraps joined together.  It's so effective, especially as the concentric lines of hand quilting make the circles pop out of the background fabric.  I shall have to make another of these quilts!  Again, the quilt was all made from scraps I had in my stash as I even pieced the background of this quilt.

There are three babies due in April and May, all grandchildren of New Zealand friends so I am making a few cot quilts to add to my little stash of finished cot quilts. My Zigzag Quilt was added this week and I also decided to turn a quilt top I made some months ago into a baby quilt.  It's orange, blue and lime green, featuring a lovely Owl fabric.  Simple squares and rectangles.  I managed to find enough pieces of fabric in my stash to stitch together for the backing and sandwiched the quilt a couple of days ago.  The batting is a pale green one made from recycled plastic bottles, a Cot sized piece I won in a Giveaway ages ago.
I even had enough of the batting left over to use for two Premature baby quilt tops that were also sitting in my WIP box. Last night I sandwiched those together, backing them with more of the vintage sheet I used as backing for my Siblings Together quilt.

So, all in keeping with my New Year Resolutions to finish WIPs and to use up my stash!

So, a productive week!  I can now enjoy looking after our little 3 year old granddaughter this weekend, all sewing put safely away, out of reach of little hands!

Have a great weekend and do comment on this post if something has caught your eye.

 

 

 

Pinch punch the First of the Month!

Yes, it's 1st February! I cannot believe how quickly January has passed, especially since we have had quite a lot of snow so I have been indoors more than usual. I really don't like the dark winter months and I am not a fan of snow either, so January and February are challenges for me.

However, I have done quite a lot of sewing, cutting out and participating in Swap bot swaps so perhaps that has helped dismal January along!

During the month I have made another I Spy Bubbles quilt and earlier this week I posted it to New Zealand, a gift for the new little grandson of special friends out there.  Another Elijah ( I made a quilt last year for our daughter's friend's baby, also named Elijah) so I hope he enjoys his bright quilt.

This week I also posted my Siblings Together quilt and today had confirmation that it had arrived safely in London.  Always a relief to know your hard work hasn't got lost in the post.  Today I also received a Thank you letter from Ava's parents as her Wise Owls quilt had arrived safely in Edinburgh.  Hurrah!

I have been busy putting my Zigzag Quilt together.  Almost finished the hand quilting with variegated Perle cotton and will soon be able to do the binding.

And I have participated in two swaps on Swap bot.  Both have now closed and the packets of swap fabrics are popping through my letter box.

The Scrap Vomit Squares Swap is the second of these swaps and I have taken part in both.  This time we had five partners and so far I have received swaps from three of them.  A great range of prints, colours, styles, etc which will be lovely when I eventually begin my quilt.  This is based on Katy's SV Quilt which you can read about on her blog Imagingermonkey.Imagingermonkey.blogspot.co.uk
I love this style of quilt, anything Scrappy is always a favourite with me!  I have been accumulating 2.5" squares in anticipation of making my own SV Quilt and the 2 Swap bots have added a different mix to my own squares.  Just need to finish a few more outstanding projects first.

The second Swap bot was called Shift Your Scraps Swap and this time we had just two partners.  One of mine lives in Wales so her parcel came a few days ago.. The requirements asked for a 200g Ziplock bag of scraps, 2.5" square and upwards. I was amazed and delighted when I opened Shevvy's parcel of fabric.  For a start there was so much that I felt I had to weigh it........ 335g!  This included some scraps, 20 x 5" squares, 4 LARGE pieces of fabric and so many 2.5" strips ( lots of them wof ) I think I could make lots of blocks for my other proposed quilt, the Scrappy Trip Along, also featured on Imagingermonkey.blogspot.co.uk although it was originally Bonnie Hunter's idea.
Thank you, Shevvy. Strangely enough Shevvy was one of my partners for the SV Swap so I hope she is happy with the squares I sent.  Think I ought to pop some more in the post to her!

 

The fabulous pack of Scraps from Shevvy!

So, a satisfying January: 3 quilts posted and 2 already with their new owners.
                                        1 quilt finished and 1 almost ready for binding
                                        2 blocks made for a Group Quilt
                                        2 swap bots completed
                                        Lots of 2.5" strips cut ready for my Scrappy Trip along quilt

I hope you all had a busy January too.

YEH! WIP finished

I am so pleased to announce my First WIP finish for 2013!  My Siblings Together Charity Quilt using fat quarters won in a Giveaway that Katy of Imagingermonkey fame hosted last year.

The winner had to make a quilt at least 50" square for the Siblings Together Charity to give to children who had been separated from their siblings and were meeting up at a summer camp.

The fat quarters were called Savannah Bop, a children's novelty-style design.  I found them pretty but not enough contrast in colours for me and a couple of the designs did not lend themselves to being cut up into patchwork pieces. So, I really had to think how to use them.  I love Gwen Marston quilts and her liberated style so I decided to make a Medallion Quilt in her style, using the giraffe print for the centre square.  Then I used some strong coloured fabric from my stash to add ZING!  An orange with white polka dot, a bright egg-yolk yellow stripe and a bright lime green Kona cotton.

I used the idea from Emily Cier's book of circles to showcase the fat quarter designs appliqued onto the lime green Kona cotton background as another border.

The final border was made from squares of the fat quarters interspersed with piano keys of the scraps.

The Giveaway asked for a quilt measuring a minimum of 50" square.  My quilt finished at 56" square.  Result!

Now for the backing.  Because of the size I was into piecing the backing and really didn't have anything suitable but I did have a vintage sheet used originally on my son's bed in the 1980s.  Just the colours and surprisingly, a patchwork design of hexagons.  To add more interest I added appliqued circles of the fabrics used in the quilt:

I did a combination of hand quilting:  Perle cotton to outline stars, giraffes etc and to outline the piano keys. I used ordinary quilting cotton to quilt in the ditch between the borders.

Then the binding was made from three different yellow fabrics I had, including one I had used in the Wonky Stars borders of the quilt.

So, here at last is the finished quilt:

I am really pleased with it.  It is bright, cheerful and has lots of things for a child to look at and discuss.  I used a good quality batting and, along with the soft sheet backing it gives a lovely feel to the quilt.

I am sorry it took so long to make but I hope it will make one child feel loved and wanted.  I will be posting it next week to Delma Hughes, the Siblings Together Group's organiser.

Scrap Vomit Swap

I am taking part in a second round of the Scrap Vomit Swap on Swap bot. Yesterday we were given our five partners and I have two in Wales and three in the USA.  This afternoon I am getting the swaps ready to hopefully post on Monday, weather permitting.  We had 5" of snow yesterday and today is bitterly cold.  I don't like snow and cold so am staying indoors as much as possible.  Fortunately our local Post Office is within walking distance so I hope to post the little packets  on Monday.

Here's a quick photo:  Each pair is one Swap, but they are easier and flatter for the post divided in this way. I have tried to include a good variety of colours and prints, some spots, stripes and fun fabrics too.

It's been a very popular Swap with 50 people swapping squares.

Now off to start sewing my Zigzag Quilt  rows together.

Hurrah! I have got some photos

This is a photo of my latest I Spy Bubbles Quilt which I tried to show a photo of yesterday. My clever husband discovered Blogger had a problem with their system and has managed to circumvent it, so, here are some pictures! The quilt is 30" square, a nice size for a new baby.

This photo shows the backing, which is a recycled vintage sheet from the 1980s.  I have already used some of this sheet to back another child's quilt which is in the process of being hand quilted. And there is still some left over.  Very thrifty!

I took this close up of some of the I Spy Bubbles before I hand sewed the binding down.

Then I had an idea of how to use up some of the many Crumb Blocks I had been making and storing in my biscuit tin.  I combined 72 of these 4" Crumb Blocks with 72 x 4" Kona solids blocks, in ash, yellow and orange. 

Then I laid them out in a Zigzag pattern.  Here they are:

I am really pleased with how well the zigzags show up.  Now I have to sew them together, perhaps tomorrow?  This will make a baby quilt to add to my stash. Several babies due this year so I should have a few to choose from.

I still have a lot of finished crumb blocks and some leftover 4" Kona cotton blocks which I hope to arrange into another baby quilt-top.  Watch this space!

I am so FRUSTRATED!

I tried to write a post today including photos of my First finish of 2013 and my first ongoing quilt for 2013. Since I last uploaded quilt photos on my blog at the end of 2012 the system seems to have changed and, as a novice computer/ blogger I could NOT find out how to access my file of quilts photos so that I could share some pictures along with my blurb........... The WHOLE POINT of my post!
Before I was able to click on Upload, type in the name of my file and then click on the photos I wanted to use.  Not today. There is now a message in the space where you could previously Type in the name of the file which says something like" you can upload various sorts of files" they are named, JPG or whatever ( I said I'm not a computer bod) but if you click Upload nothing happens and I cannot see any way of accessing my photos. Can't even find a way into the Help Desk for advice. The advice I did find told me to do what I always have done in the past! Great help that was!

 So, one frustrated quilter here. The only thing I can do is to direct you to my Flickr photos. My name is Koshka2 and you will find my finished I Spy Bubbles quilt there. Yellow Kona cotton background with my usual I Spy bubbles. This quilt is destined for New Zealand, a gift for the expected grandson of very good friends, Frank and Miriam. I have used a recycled vintage sheet, circa 1980s for the backing and used a bright green fabric for the binding. This has been in my stash for a while now and after I had finished cutting the binding there was enough fabric left to cut  two 2.5" x 16" strips for my Scrappy Trip Along quilt and a few 2.5" squares for my Swap bot Scrap Vomit swap with a few squares left over for my own SV stash.

Then the next photos would have been of the layout of my blocks for my Zigzag Quilt.  I have combined 72 of my 4" Crumb Blocks with 72x 4" solid Kona cottons in Ash, a yellow and an orange. I am really pleased with how it looks and now need to start sewing the blocks together. Not tomorrow though as we are on "Grandparent duty" looking after our not-quite 3 year old granddaughter as our daughter is really poorly in bed with a virus.

So, of you have any idea how I can add photos to my blog, please leave a comment!
THANK YOU!!!