Sunday, January 31, 2016

Oh Scrap! : Alycia's Scrappy Block



It has been so great to see more and more quilters linking up their scrappy projects here on Oh Scrap! every week.  I just love seeing how everyone is tackling their scrap bins.

On this last day of January, I thought I would share one more way you can sew up those scraps 
(and help wrap a Veteran in love.)




Alycia over at Alycia Quilts is releasing a tutorial for a scrappy block for every month of 2016.  
Above is the block for February.  

Alycia is the Quilts of Valor Coordinator for all of Colorado.  In 2015, Colorado presented about 600 quilts to Veterans.  So if you want to sew up some of your scraps, you can make a few blocks, sew up a whole quilt top or even make an entire quilt and donate it to Quilts of Valor.  You can work with a Coordinator in your area (to find out who that is, look under QOVF.org  under the regional coordinator tab) or Alycia will be happy to take those blocks off your hands and you can send them directly to her. She has a whole team of wonderful volunteers ready to turn them into beautiful quilts!


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Now it is time to link up and share what scrappy projects you have worked on this week.  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

So if you love scrappy projects, feel free to grab my button for your sidebar or posts and get ready to share all your wonderful projects from scraps.  And if you have a great idea for using scraps and would like to be featured, feel free to contact me!







Friday, January 29, 2016

OMG - Improv!

I am always amazed at how quickly I can get through a project once I have a vision!




This fabric has been sitting in a pile for at least a year.  It was a fabric pull I put together from a bunch of older, "unloved" stash pieces.  I knew there was a quilt in there but every time I would pick it up to work on it, I was immediately distracted by something else.

I finally just decided to start cutting without a plan.  I knew the Jane Sassaman floral was going to require some fussy cutting.  I started with the biggest designs and then just kept cutting out all the areas I liked. 



Once the designs were cut out, I started framing them with some of the other fabrics and throwing them up on my design wall.  I saved the largest cut of the blue fabric in hopes that I might be able to use it for the background or the backing.  Once I had the blocks where I liked them, it was time to make a final choice on the background.  I only had a limited amount of blue and with the blocks being placed willy nilly, it was any ones guess how much fabric I would need.

I decided just to go for it and use the blue.  And yes, there was a lot of head scratching and partial seams to get this one sewn up!



 With just a few tiny strips of blue fabric left over, I was able to get it sewn up and loaded onto my longarm for some quick daisy-chain quilting.



 From "unloved" to loved!  
I am so pleased I went with the blue print for the background!




 My favorite part of the quilt is the diagonal tulip rectangles.  
Maybe because I am so looking forward to spring!


 And an orange print for the backing!


RedLetterQuilts



Finishing up this quilt was my One Monthly Goal for January so I will be celebrating by linking up to Red Letter Quilts.  Be sure and go see what others are sharing!


Linking Up:

Fret Not Yourself (AHIQ)

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish it up Friday)
A Quilted Passion 
Red Letter Quills (OMG)





Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Quilty 365 Blocks

As I was putting last week's Quilty 365 block up on my design wall, I realized I had not shared how I designed my block.  I started this project on January 1st and wanted a way to create a calendar quilt for the whole year.  My goal was to configure the circles so that I could match each fabric to a date.



 Here is the block design I came up with (this one is last weeks).  My week starts on a Sunday - which is the top half of the big HST.  It was a dark dreary day so I chose a gray.  Monday through Friday have circles that wrap around the block.  Saturday is the bottom half of the HST.

There are three different sizes of circles.  And each circle is hand turned appliqued on a 4.5" Kona Navy square.




 The year started on a Friday so the first block is mostly solid navy.  But the next three weeks are all complete.  The highlight of each day is choosing a fabric and spending a little slow time stitching it up.





I find I choose my daily fabrics based on an activity or event that occurred that day, the weather, my mood or scraps from a quilt I am working on.


Today was a trip to the dentist.  This silly fish fabric was the only print I could find with teeth.


....it will be fun to look back and puzzle out why I chose some of these fabrics!





Craftsy

And speaking of fun fabrics.  Are you a Cotton + Steel fan?  I spied a great deal on their C + S Fat Quarter Collection II out on Craftsy. I hesitated too long and missed out on the first collection when it was on sale.  Now the second collection is at a steal of a price!






Linking Up:

Quilty Folk (Quilty 365)





***This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you, I may make a small commission, which I appreciate so much!***

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Oh Scrap! : Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #19 Part Two

I was so looking forward to a weekend spent sewing scraps, but sadly, my computer printer had other ideas.  After many hours spent trying to get it to work, I finally just went and purchased a new one.  I am happy to be up and running again but not a lot of sewing occurred.

Which is a bummer because I am having a lot of fun with my newest Scrap-A-Palooza quilt!



A few days ago, I shared I was going to make a quilt using my odd shaped scraps.  My fabrics were going to be white and gray for the background pieces and some red triangles I found in my scrap bin.




I started each block by just grabbing two pieces of similar size.  As I stated, I limited by background fabrics to low volumes in white, cream or gray.





Once I sewed those two pieces together and pressed, I clean cut a side to prepare it for sewing the next piece to it.



Once again, I tried to find a scrap that was about the appropriate length so I didn't have a lot of waste.




I continued to clean cut and add various scraps to "grow" the piece to about 6.5" square. 




 I used my 6.5" square to help me visualize where I needed to add fabric.  You can see in the photo above, I need to add a narrow strip across the top.  And in the big corner, that is where I plan on putting my red scrap. 





 Once again, I just make sure I have a clean cut to sew the two pieces together.  The final step is to just square the block up to 6.5".





It didn't take long for me to have a nice stack of finished blocks.  My initial plan was to stick to just red for an accent but I also found a few odd shaped pinks so they are being added into the mix.

I hope to still find time this weekend to sew up a few more blocks.  Once I have about 48 completed, I will start playing with some layouts so stay tuned!


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

Now it is time to link up and share what scrappy projects you have worked on this week.  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

So if you love scrappy projects, feel free to grab my button for your sidebar or posts and get ready to share all your wonderful projects from scraps.  And if you have a great idea for using scraps and would like to be featured, feel free to contact me!






Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making)
Patchwork Times (Design Wall Monday)
Cooking Up Quilts (Main Crush Mondays)
Em's ScrapBag (Moving it Forward)



Friday, January 22, 2016

Friday Finish - Design Boards

I have been wanting to make up some design boards using Lori Holt's tutorial for quite a few years now.  So this week, I dug out all the supplies and got to gluing.



I had three 20 x 30 poster boards so I decided to cut one 20 x 20 and two 10 x 10 squares from each board.  That gave me a total of 6 cute little boards to use for small blocks. 



And three large boards for bigger projects. I also plan on using these for photography so I have a white side...




...and a dark gray side.




I would love to have a few more but all that hot gluing was not much fun.  I much prefer using a sewing machine to assemble things!



I already used one of my large ones to put together a sample board for an English Paper Piecing class I am teaching in March.  Not what I made them for but it worked great!

BTW - If you are in the Eugene area and want to take the class, let me know!

Now, back to sewing!

Linking Up:

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish it up Friday)





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