My Scrap System

So my buddy Cynthia has challenged her followers and fellow quilting peeps to a make something only out of scraps challenge.  Cynthia was over at my house for a sew day and told me she would never let me look at her scraps because I have a system.  We were chatting about this on facebook the other day and Felicity asked me what my system is.  So I told her and now I thought I would share it with you.  Because it works.  I think.  Just saying.  Here goes.  And I did not used to do this.  I used to just through the scraps into a cardboard box but this does not work at all.  It is just a mess.

First of all, my wall of shelves is the best.  My husband built them for my quilting stuff.  See the shoe boxes on the shelves?  Those are my scraps.  I have multiple boxes for certain colours like green, pink, blue, and yellow. I have one box for my I spy precut squares as well.

1.  I keep a basket on my table for scraps but it is not a big basket.  It is a small one. This is on purpose.  If it is small, then you have to deal with it regularly.  As pictured below, this is my basket and it needs to be emptied.  I call it fabric filing.

See that is my hand.  The basket is not big.

2) I use plastic shoe boxes to store my scraps.  Folded and pressed, the scraps are put away with folded scraps on one side and strings on the other for ease of future use.  The boxes are sorted by colour including white and I also have one for linen scraps, leftover binding and also my box of precut squares which are mostly 4" squares that are cut from leftovers or leftovers from projects.  I use 4" squares a lot, especially for baby quilts.  It is really important to put the scraps away neatly and pressing is important because that encourages their usage.  Really.  Don't skip this step!

3)  The box directly above is my precut box.  I organize the 4" squares by colour.  This makes it super easy to pull our squares for a baby quilt quickly.  Just above the precuts is my box of leftover binding scraps.  I don't cut 5" squares because I just don't seem to use them.

4) and this is what it looks like when I am fabric filing.  First the sort by colour and then into boxes.

5) The next step is making sure you use the scraps!  And that is why you should pop over to Cynthia's blog and check out her #scrapsonlychallenge!  Have fun!!!!

Thread Sale at Sew Sisters!

I do like thread and I do like a sale.  Sew Sisters has both.  At once.  Bonus!  Stock up on thread and while you are there, take advantage of the awesome flat rate shipping and add some Kona solids or some of the other awesome fabric.  Or some Machingers.  They are on sale too as the deal for August.  Only $8.39.  

But do it quick because the thread sale is August 19-21!

Sometimes you need to make a zippy pouch or two

 My buddy Cynthia was over for a sewing day last Friday.  She was busy making pouches so I joined in.  Sometimes you just have to.  Zippy pouches are so satisfying!  I went diving into the scraps and came up with this combination.

And then this one.
Lots fun!

Scrappy Bow Tie Baby

   Name:  Scrappy Bow Tie Baby

Design:  Inspired by Blue Elephant Stitches

Size:  39" by 39", blocks are 6"

Fabric: Stash fabrics and scraps

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white beside each square

So I saw this quilt on Jolene's blog, Blue Elephant Stitches.  I love so many of her quilts.  I had to make it.  I think the beauty of this one is in the variety of the background solids and not quite solids.  Lots of pale Kona solids in blue, pink and pale yellow with a dash of light grey dots and a few squares of an out of print Sweetwater fabric in a colour I remember they called pickle.  The bow ties are almost all scraps but I also used some leftover bits of  2 different Moda Candy packs.  This is a wonderful way to use those little 2.5" squares.  The binding is a floral print that does not read as baby at all but some how it works with this.  I truly believe the zing of orange and navy is important to this design.  So be brave if you try this quilt.   So much fun.  The quilting is simple.  Just Aurifil 50 wt in white around the seam lines.  The backing is a ditzy floral print that I have had for ages.  The flowers are pink, orange and turquoise with a bit of grey.  It totally works.  Light and soft.  There it is below when it fell out of grandmother hazelnut.

What I have been making

I have been getting to know my serger.  It is a ton of fun.  I have cranked out many pairs of baby super skinny harem pants, a Brindille and Twig pattern.

 And then I decided to try a hoodie.  Also a Brindille and Twig pattern that is free when you sign up for their newsletter.  Awesome!  But I did not want to cut into any "good" fabric before trying out the pattern so I went shopping in my husband's closet for t-shirts he rarely wears.  Bonus!  I found a red one that he has never worn and he assured me that he would not ever wear it so it met my scissors. This was a lot of fun to make.  I guarantee that the trickiest part was the little pocket on the front and even that was pretty straight forward.  This is tiny.  A 0-3 months hoodie just right for our little man.

And speaking of our little man.  He came to visit.  We had such a good time.  Lots of baby snuggles and now we are missing him, and his mummy and daddy too.

A Quiet Quilt

   Name:  Quiet

Design:  4" squares

Size:  36" by 44"

Fabric: Stash fabrics 

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white in cross hatch

I stitched this up the other day.  My buddy Cynthia came to sew and while she made a bazillion pouches, I made a baby quilt.  This one is very quiet.  I intentionally picked fabrics that were calm, mellow and low key.  This quilt is for the crib in the spare room at home.  Just right for when our grandbaby comes to visit.  The low key fabrics made it tricky to photograph but here it is on the barn wall.  And down below in the grandmother hazelnut tree behind the barn.  

The funny thing was, this quilt seemed to just come together because I was so busy chatting away with Cynthia, I did not notice I was making a quilt top!  Not only did I make the top, but the back and sandwiched the whole shebang too!  All in a day's work!

I used my go to baby quilt method of late.  Simple 4' squares in a variety of prints.  I used a Heather Ross print as the bouncing off point.  It has a wee froggie at a pond on a white background.  Very cute.  Quilted in cross hatch in Aurifil 50wt in white.  One thing that I did differently with this one is that instead if zig zagging the edge before applying the binding, I serged the edge.  Woo Hoo!  That was fun!