Dark Squares Scrap Quilt

My previous scrap quilt was made with all the fun bright scrap squares I cut. Now I had a lot of dark squares left. 

Dark Squares Quilt

I had one yard of this colorful print that could be sashing.

I began sewing the squares to sashing strips.

Then cut them apart to sew them all together. 

I wasn’t coming up with any good ideas to make this small pieced section into a larger throw quilt, so I decided it would be a lap quilt. It measures 52” X 43”

I let it sit on my design wall for weeks…..not liking it much. Funny how a thing like that grows on you and changes your mind.  

It was fun quilting it once I decided how I wanted to do that.  The length for the quilting was simple, just stitching from one end to the other.  

 To quilt across, I stitched across a square then turned the quilt at an angle to either stitch up or down to get to the next square to stitch across and then repeat going from one side of the quilt to the other. 

Except for the outside border, every fabric (including batting scraps stitched together) came from my stash.  How good it always feels to lighten the stash load!

February Alpha Table Scraps Challenge

The alpha challenge for February is the letter M and/or V. This challenge is hosted by 

The Joyful Quilter

Ive made only one postcard for the challenge this month.

M for Man

But don’t you know, his name is Victor.

The Bloomin’ Minds pattern company calls him Slim.



As usual, I have reduced the pattern to fit a postcard.

Valen”tiny” Pillow

My Guild challenged us to make a Valen”tiny” something just for ourselves.  Any size up to 24”. 

I had a 12” pillow form kicking around forever.  It’s quite old and quite solid.  Time to give it life. 

Anyone that knows me knows that I love collage.  Whether it be with paper or fabric.

Even though it has hearts on it, I tried to keep it on the generic everyday side more than strictly for Valentine’s Day.

It was a fun time putting this together.

After finishing the cover and stuffing the pillow form inside, I looked at it and immediately noticed that I didn’t include a selvedge!!!  How could I, of all people, forgotten to include a selvedge?!

Well, my mind has mostly been elsewhere, so “stuff” happens. 

Alpha Table Scraps Challenge

I’ve got a plan for 2023 Table Scraps Challenge hosted by 

The Joyful Quilter

This year is an alpha challenge with letters of the alphabet.

For January the letter choices are C, R and/or J. 

I’m taking a little break from non-stop quilting and plan to focus on sending out fun postcard mail.  I’ve hit the ground running for January.  I made cards relating to all three letters.

Scraps are all that’s needed for these little mail greetings and wishes. 

For letter C I have a cat and a chicken.  (Along with Christmas)

For letter R I have a reindeer, a rabbit and relatives.

    

For J I have Joy.



(I’m hoping that when December rolls around again, I’ll have all my Christmas postcards sewn and ready to write and mail.)

Now to give credit to the designers of these fun images…

Cat

Chicken

Reindeer

Rabbit

Relatives

Joy

I’ve reduced all the patterns to fit a 4” X 6” postcard.

I love the always fun and adorable Bloomin’ Minds pattern designs and I’ve sewn several things over the years from the Art To Heart, I Believe book.  

Scrappy Nine Patch Quilt

After working with the guild challenge scrap bags, I was ready to clean out my own scrap bin. My bin is not large but it has gotten quite stuffed.

I cut a lot of the scraps into 3.5” squares.  As I was laying out the pieces, it seemed that mostly brighter colors were what looked best.  I stitched together nine patch blocks with a black square in each center.

I have had this rainbow stripe fabric in my stash for years and years.  I think it was a good choice for the binding on this scrappy quilt.  And I am so thrilled to have finally used “most” of it.

It turns out to be a nice throw size quilt at 52” X 64”.

As I’ve never been much of a fan of scrap quilts, this was an adventure outside my comfort zone. But I’m rather pleased with the results.  



Now I have the darker fabric cut squares to deal with.  Yes, there is a plan developing.

How nice it is to have a not-so-stuffed scrap bin too!