Monday, December 10, 2018

Jolly Bar Meringue QAL with FQS

I recently had the opportunity to participate in another of the Fat Quarter Shop's Shortcut Quilt Series.  I love these simple patterns that use precuts so I joined in immediately!


  In a previous post, I shared this photo showing my fabric choices and the Creative Grids ruler needed for this project.  This pattern uses Jolly Bars, a Fat Quarter Shop exclusive.  

I chose the Hop, Skip and a Jump! collection by American Jane.  I have always loved the vintage feel of this Moda designer.




Today I can finally show my finished quilt. The Jolly Bar precut was the perfect size to make each block.  I am really pleased with how it turned out.




I have a few other specialty rulers that make a HRT (half rectangular triangle), but I have to say I really thought this one by Creative Grids was a lot easier than most.  Plus, many of you know I like big blocks and the size of this ruler allows a bigger block with ease.  I love that!



I used a white Kona for the background.  It worked perfectly with this collection.  The quilt just need a simple swirl quilting to finish it up.




I was also able to pick up this perfect backing in the clearance section when I ordered the Jolly Bar and ruler for the project.




This little shortcut quilt is cute, cute, cute!

The free pattern (and helpful video) can be found over on the Jolly Jabber blog if you want to make one of your own!

Finished size = 48" x 48".


In fact, the Fat Quarter Shop has a kit you can order which makes the process even easier!



Fat Quarter Shop Daily Flash Sale

This was the first time I have used a 5" x 10" Jolly Bar.  It is a great size and I am sure I will be using one again in the future.




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Sunday, December 9, 2018

Oh Scrap! : Always an Open Mind

This has been a bit of a rough year for me and I didn't always feel in control.  As the year is coming to an end, I find myself starting to focus on getting a few things back under my control.  And it seems like this also includes my scraps.

I have one bin in my sewing room that is full of what I think are hard to use fabrics.  I throw in my novelty (including holiday) scraps, bits that don't really fall into any specific color, and brown.  I don't really like to quilt using brown - I far prefer colors like purple, pink and orange.  Happy colors!



The first step was to sort out all the brown scraps and get them all into one place.  My plan was to cut them into 2.5" squares and then give myself permission to toss everything else.  I quickly realized there were just too many strings getting tossed in the garbage and I really didn't want THAT many 2.5" squares.  Hmmm...This just might mean more than one quilt!



When I started, I thought I would begin with a light/dark brown 4 patch and surround it with various green squares.  I already had the green squares cut and just pulled them out of my storage.

But the block really didn't do much for me.



I decided to just jumble up the colors and see what that looked like.  I still didn't love it but I think that had more to do with the colors than the design.



I made a few blocks of each design and started placing them in a staggered layout on my design wall.  I decided it was easiest to just jumble of the colors and get them sewn up.

I do however like this staggered layout.  So I think I have some motivation to get this quilt finished.



So I am filling my design boards with squares and sewing these up as a leader/ender project.  (I found if I just sewed squares, I was filtering out the brown squares and ending up with mostly green blocks.  This way I can make sure I am using up those browns!)

I have around three other projects all in process in my sewing room right now.  It is a chaotic mess but because I am seeing progress on lots of fronts, I feel like I am in control!

*********************************************

It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

  • This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
  • You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
  • If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
  • If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
  • This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
  • Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 
Quilting is more fun than Housework




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Friday, December 7, 2018

A Scrappy Finish

For some reason, the condition of my scraps have been really bothering me lately.  My bins are littered with a lot of tiny pieces and none of my drawers will close without a lot of force.

So I am finding myself focusing on making quilts that resolve some of those issues.


This is the first quilt I finished.  It is made 100% from the scrap bin.  I pulled a lot of my smaller red, orange and pink scraps to make some slab blocks.  I also pulled crumbs from my low volumes scraps.

I still have a lot of scraps in these colors but at least the small bits are cleaned out and the drawers will now close.



I am sure I will revisit this design in the future.  The blocks were pretty mindless to sew - it was just a matter of adding fabric until I had a piece large enough that I could trim to the size I needed.  In this case, the color blocks were 6.5 x 9.5" and the lights were 3.5 x 9.5".

When they are sewed together, they make a 9.5" block.



I did change thread colors on this quilt when I did the quilting.  I used the appropriate color thread in each color block - quilting in a squircle (a square design that turns into a circle in the middle).  In the light areas, I used a white thread and quilted a simple stipple.


Here is a view of the quilting from the back.



I didn't have quite enough of the striped fabric for the backing so I added a butterscotch floral to one side.  It makes for a fun little surprise.



As I was making this quilt, I started thinking about all the other layouts you could make with this same block.  Something to play with in the future!

Sunday I will be sharing a new project I started using green and brown (blech).  I don't use brown very often but scraps still slowly build up.  I finally got tired of looking at them and decided to add in some green and get them sewn into a quilt.

So stay tuned!




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Sunday, December 2, 2018

Oh Scrap! : Postage Stamp Progress

While I still try and decided what to put up on my empty design wall, I am keeping busy working away on cutting the pieces for my postage stamp quilt.


I am down to only needing three more blocks!



I have been using my 18" design boards to lay the parts out for each blocks.  
Here is the next one all ready to sew up!

Yellow, Green and Turquoise...My favorite block so far!

Happy Scrappy Sunday!

*******************************************************

It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

  • This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
  • You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
  • If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
  • If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
  • This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
  • Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 
Quilting is more fun than Housework



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Friday, November 30, 2018

I Thought I Would Never Finish

I love it when my quilts come entirely from my scrap bins.  And I am also happy when a quilt design cleans out my scrap bins of pesky small bits.

But I thought I was never going to get this quilt top together!



When I woke up this morning, I was determined to get this top together before I accomplished any thing else.  So many small pieces in this one!



While I was on a roll, I also pulled some fabric and sewed up the backing.  Now I just have to sneak it onto my longarm frame.

(You can just barely see my new ironing board cover in this photo.  I just pulled some unwanted fabric from my stash and ended up with this brown dot - it makes my board look like it has some sort of horrible pox.  It makes me giggle every time I use it.)

I now have an empty design wall to use for an older UFO.  I am torn between my Sew Kitschy wall-hanging and my Kaffe Splendid Sampler.  Cheer for your favorite in the comments below!

And have a wonderful weekend!





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