Happy Mail

 I haven't bought any fabric in a really long time.  I have been really determined to use what I have.  But in working on a few projects, I finally admitted that I needed to replenish my white on white stash.  I think I have used every tiny bit in my house.

Photographs of white on white fabric are kind of boring - but this happy mail sure excites me.  I have been digging through scraps for a couple years every time I need a "white" piece.

I ordered 8 lovely yards from Connecting Threads.  I received a nice selection of leaves, florals, geometrics and abstract prints.  This should last me quite a while.

If you need to replenish some stash, Connecting Threads extended their Labor Day sale for a few days.  I am off to my sewing room to finish up some blocks!

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A Little Bit Softer

Have you had a chance to check out Linda's blog over at kokaquilts?  She has such a wonderful scrappy Bohemian style.  Her fabric stash is very different than mine so I am always intrigued by the quilts she makes.

Recently she started on a project that plays with fabric values.  Her lovely blocks have been stuck in my head and I have been thinking it was something I wanted to try.

In the gifted scraps I received recently, there are a ton of precut squares.  There are both solids and prints and in looking at the fabric, I would guess they come from three different projects.

I began thinking that maybe I could use those squares to make some blocks of my own.

I started marking and trimming a whole bunch of HSTs so I could start playing.  My prints are a softer volume than Linda's and I find myself wavering between calling this one an interesting success or a big fail.

I guess I am not ready to give up on them yet because I keep making blocks.  This nighttime photo shows I finished up at seven blocks last night and I think there are another handful just waiting to be sewn.  I am totally intrigued by the shadowy impression the design has.  I could bump up the value of the prints but then I think they might just become a "regular old" scrappy quilt block.  

I was wanting something that made someone go "Hmmm..."

I will probably figure it out once I have enough blocks for a whole quilt top.

Right now I am just enjoying the process!

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Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #16 Finish

I have to say, I have really enjoyed working on my Scrap-A-Palooza offset log cabin quilt.  

In Part One, I shared the cut sizes and a tutorial on how I sewed up the blocks.  I have been wanting to play around with scrappy low volume backgrounds and this block worked out great for doing so.

I made a total of 24 blocks in 9 different colors in Part Two.  These are also the 9 different colors I sort my scraps into so these blocks helped to lower the level of all of my scrap bins.

 

In Part Three, I shared some of the different layouts you can use with these blocks.  I really love the visual curve these blocks have! So much fun to play with.

And here is my finished quilt!  I just went with some simple fun circles.  

For the quilting, I went with a freehand swirl and feather combination in a cream colored thread.

Thanks to the input from many of you, I put a light print I found in my stash on the back.  For the binding, I went with a mustard yellow solid.

I will say I enjoyed experimenting with more of a scrappy background.  I did learn that when you are using low volume prints in your backgrounds, you should use strong colors in your designs.  In my quilt, I just tried to make the three circles that blended in more with the background a design element.

Um yeah.....I meant to do that!  ;)

And now for a few quilt statistics:

Lap Quilt

Size: 54 x 63"

42 - 9" finished blocks

4 ea of 9 different colors

6 ea of all background fabric

Not sure what I will make for my next Scrap-A-Palooza quilt.  I do have a number of leftover solids chunks from previous projects so I might try and do something with those.  Thanks to quite a few rainbow scrap quilts and my scrap vortex work in process, my color bins look pretty good!

I thought I would never get to say that!!

 

 

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