Category Archives: scrap quilt

Some Scrappy Fun

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When you’ve been quilting as long as I have, you own an endless supply of scraps (and sometimes not much yardage). Therefore, here are a few more recent scrap quilts, all for donation to various places.

This first one was made from blocks I used as leaders and enders. I took a bag of single-color scraps and joined them randomly, sometimes inserting a spark of another color just for fun. The background is a navy fabric with fun gold swirls that I’ve had for some time and needed to use!

Happy Scrappy, 61″ x 69″; this one will go to Flying Horse Farm

This next quilt was made from a free pattern called Wickedly Easy Quilts, available at byannie.com. However, be aware that the format on the site has changed since I got the pattern. It used to be just a free pattern; now it’s part of a free course. Whatever.

As I’ve mentioned before, I cut my scraps into standard widths and store them that way. This quilt was made by pulling blues, greens, and orange accent strips from those storage drawers.

Wickedly Easy quilt, 49″ x 49″; this is a lap quilt for the senior center

Finally, here is another Circle of Nine quilt using improvisational blocks made from a combination of orphan blocks and scraps.

Circle of 9 quilt, 54″ x 54″, a lap quilt for the senior center

Do you have a favorite scrap quilt pattern or method?

Flying Horse Farm Quilts

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Please note if you live in Central North Carolina: One of the guilds I belong to is having a quilt show soon!2024 card.JPEG

One of my other quilt groups makes quilts for Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses. Here are my contributions for this spring.

This quilt was inspired by Maryline Collioud-Robert’s Carnival Quilt, in which she mixed many striped fabrics with her scraps. I didn’t use her pattern, just her idea of including lots of striped fabric. However, here’s the link to her pattern if you’re interested.

Quilt Stats

Name: Strips with Stripes

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Designed by: me, with inspiration from Maryline Collioud-Robert

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

Here is the second Flying Horse Farm quilt:

This quilt is inspired by the Bento Box pattern I had years ago and made several quilts from. The pattern has been re-issued and I bought it, but I do not like the new instructions at all! Therefore I completely re-designed the construction process and made this my way.

And here’s a peek at the back of the quilt–more scraps used!

Quilt Stats

Name: Bento Box Revised

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Designed by: me, with inspiration from the original Bento Box pattern

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

These were both fun, easy (as revised by me) quilts. I used the scrappy one at the top as leaders-and-enders and it came together quickly.

 

Finally, here is a scrap quilt called “Blue Sky and Sunshine”–my husband says the name is corny but I like it 😀

Quilt Stats

Name: Blue Sky and Sunshine

Finished size: 61″ x 73″

Designed by: me, using up orphan blocks

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

Happy quilting!

More Orphan Blocks

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First, I found this on the blog from Frances Arnold, a fellow quilter as you can tell:

How true!

And the same seems to be true of orphan blocks. Here’s the box with mine, despite my having made multiple quilts from them recently.

Here’s the latest top made from orphan blocks. It will go (eventually) to Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses.

Blue Sky and Sunshine, 60″ x 72″

And here are a few more made from orphan blocks.

Quilt made using orphan blocks and the BQ5 pattern from Maple Island Quilts.

But look back up at that full orphan box. I think orphan blocks must follow the same rule as scraps!

What do you do with orphan blocks?

Pattern Review: Strip Search

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I found this pattern at Five Little Monkeys and it turned out to be as much fun as it appeared to be! The pattern said that, if you followed the instructions exactly, none of the strips would try to line up, and that was right! This means the only thing to “match” is the corners where the blocks come together, but really, the blocks are big so that was easy. Easy and fun–that’s what we like!

Here’s the first quilt I made from the pattern. I thought at first that the blocks needed sashing. However, that was not an improvement, so I removed the sashing and just added a border. The blocks are about 15″ square, so this was a good size quilt.

The second quilt is for Quilts of Valor and will be just the right size without a border. This is just a picture of part of it so the pattern of the strips shows. It isn’t finished yet.

And finally, here is a quilt I made to be used on one of our twin beds with a pillow sham.

This is an excellent pattern for using 2.5″ strips, either from scraps or a jelly roll. The instructions are clear and work well if they’re followed carefully. I recommend it!  

These folks developed the Stripology ruler so they recommend it, but it isn’t necessary for this pattern. Here’s a source for the pattern if you can’t get it at your LQS.

 

On to 2024!

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Having reviewed my faves from 2023, I’m looking at plans for 2024.

First: My MQG is having one of those UFO challenges where you pick one each month, so I’ve made a list and started that. The current project is cutting up some of the orphan blocks, shown here…

…and making them into different blocks. Some are on the design wall here:

Who knows where that will go!

Second, having enjoyed the Bloem pattern by Libs Elliott, I’m making her pattern La Fin Du Monde.

Next up will be some map quilts. I took Timna Tarr’s map class via Creative Spark in 2022 and have been enjoying my experiments since.

It’s time to actually finish some of those map quilts…

And speaking of map quilts, I’ve been facing these and hanging them as usual, but the Chief Consultant (AKA husband) thinks they need to be framed. I’m considering adding borders to frame them, or mounting them over stretched canvas (still without a frame). Or maybe a poster frame? Or maybe just stay with the facing.  Anybody have an opinion?

One more thing I’d like your help with: I’m on the program committee for one of my guilds. Has your guild had any outstanding programs you can recommend? We are in Greensboro, NC, and we need either someone nearby or someone who presents via Zoom in order to stay within our budget. I’d appreciate any ideas.

 

Personal Favorites from 2023

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Here are my personal faves of the quilts I made in 2023.

This is my version of the Bloem pattern by Libs Elliott. I think I showed in-progress photos but forgot to show it once it was finished!

I made this from a panel I just had to have. I especially enjoyed making the balloons and trees the opposite of each other.

This is made from Rachel Hauser’s Oodalolly pattern, which I’ve admired for years.

Swedish Sunrise is one of several quilts I’ve made with a sunrise theme. When It’s art we call it “working in series” rather than “perseveration” 😀

I made “St. Agatha in Venice” to use this beautiful print fabric.

Yes, it’s being held out a window by hand, so the picture isn’t as nice as the ones taken by the magazine folks!

The Tilda fabrics are beautiful, but so similar in value that they needed structure when they were all mashed together.

The “Wish” pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew was perfect for a Quilt of Valor

“Mod Owls” made a good teacher gift because the mascot at my grandsons’ school is an owl

Aha! Orphan blocks can be cut up to make new blocks, as I did with my Giant Circles quilt, here

Next post will be the “on to 2024” edition 😀

Classes, First Quarter 2024

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Here’s what I’ll be teaching at Studio Stitch in the first quarter of 2024.

Strip Swirl, January 18 & 25.

I made this quilt from scraps (of course!) but it could be made from a jelly roll for a more coordinated look.

Make Your Own Tilda Quilt, January 23 and 30.

Tilda fabrics are just beautiful! But they’re almost all mid values, which makes them challenging to use in a quilt. I designed this block and then made the entire quilt top a replica of the block! Learn how I did it and either use my design or make your own design in class.

Love Pillow, February 2

This is a chance to use your zipper foot, walking foot, and zigzag foot if you’d care to! And you get a cute pillow in time for Valentine’s Day.

A Little Orange, February 10

Yes, it’s being held out a window by hand, so the picture isn’t as nice as the ones taken by the magazine folks!

This is the quilt I had published in Quick + Easy Quilts recently, though their quilt was in holiday colors. This is the orange one I made to test the pattern before submitting it. It’s easy and would make a great second quilt for a relative beginner.

NOT Paper Pieced, March 5.

This is a quick and fun quilt that I made to use up a group of coordinating fat quarters.

Help! (UFO Rescue), March 15 and/or 16

This is my quarterly class for customers to bring anything unfinished and I’ll try to help. Some people sign up just to get some dedicated sewing time away from household chores!

And that’s it for the first quarter! Best wishes to you for the coming year!

 

What Was I Thinking?!?

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I found this unusual pattern at Five Little Monkeys and liked the look of it.

The pattern wanted me to buy a 120 degree triangle ruler, but after discussion with a math-loving friend I decided to try cutting those 120 degree angles using the 60 degree line on my long ruler.

It worked, sort of. After making a few blocks that way I concluded that the price of the recommended triangle ruler was less than the price of the fabric and time I wasted trying to get the triangles right.

The result was that some of the triangles for the quilt were cut with one method, some with the other. However, the real oversight on my part was failure to notice that there are places in this quilt where TWELVE points come together! Or don’t actually come together, in my case. Yikes!

I do love this quilt. It is a striking design that works well with these bright fabrics.  So I’ll make do with these points that don’t match and use my own little trite saying for this situation: “A good quilt is a done quilt!” (Thanks, Diana, for this insight years ago in another context!)

Quilt stats

Name: Oops

Finished size: 54″ x 63″

Pattern: Henry’s Humongous Hexagons by Carl Hentsch

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Another Batch for Ronald McDonald House

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When the quilt closet gets too full, it’s time to send some to various organizations that use them as comfort quilts. Ronald McDonald House of Cincinnati has been a favorite over the years, in part because they are so appreciative when the lady from our group brings the quilts to them. Therefore, these 8 are going to them.

This first quilt was made in 2009. It hasn’t been given away yet in part because I love all those floral fabrics and in part because it was pulled a bit out of shape by an inexperienced quilter who will remain nameless. The pattern is called Crumbs, notwithstanding that the name has been used for a very different quilt since that time.

Second is this quilt made last year and entitled Bright Scraps. No pattern; I made it up as I went along.

Bright Scraps, one of many scrap quilts made last year. And no, the scrap pile has NOT diminished!

Splendid Stars, 2021, is one of several quilts I’ve made from star blocks left from other projects.

Splendid Stars, 51″ x 53″, was made from orphan blocks left from numerous projects

And here is another quilt made in 2022 from my sizeable stash of floral fabrics.

This quilt, called Summer Night, was made in 2005 and includes fabrics with stars that glow in the dark!

The quilt below is one of my favorite “rescue” quilts. The circles were cut from blocks that had failed two or three other arrangements. I cut them out and sewed them onto a background I had already quilted.

 

The following quilt was made from a free pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew. Thanks to my friend Gwen, the “Textile Ranger”, who identified the source.

And finally, this quilt is called Candy Cubes. It was made in 2020 from the book New Patchwork and Quilting Basics by Jo Avery.

And if this seems like a lot of quilts to donate, consider that I’ve now made over 500 and they need to go to folks who can use them. As some other quilters have noted, I don’t want to leave a lot of “stuff” for my daughter to have to dispose of–when I die many  years from now!

 

Eeeek! Another Start!

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OK, so the Bloem quilt is off to be quilted and I thought of the other pattern I got at Five Little Monkeys. It’s on the right below. (That’s Bloem on the left.)

I had some strips of Kaffe [2.5″ strips of fabric by the designer Kaffe Fassett] and no intention of following most of the instructions on the pattern, so I just started.

I usually reserve Kaffe fabrics for quilts designed by him, or at least for modern quilts. I did think this design modern enough for them to work, but then…

Those are interesting blocks, but they don’t much hang together. It might have been a good idea to follow some of the pattern’s instructions about color placement. And maybe cut back a little on the Kaffe.

To be continued 😀

And not to worry; if there aren’t a few mistakes I’m not stretching my skills enough!

What’s your latest experiment?