Making Scraps!

I am working on a Mystery Quilt class for my guild...one that will use scraps, as they requested.
This would seem to be a good way to actually reduce the contents of my own scrap container. 
I dumped it out and sorted by values (all that will be covered here soon!), then proceeded to cut it all up. OK, except for the solid black and solid white fabrics that I didn't want to include. And there were some too-small pieces...all that went back into the container.
I even decided to do a scrap background, and that took up quite a bit of the light colored fabrics.
After sewing almost everything I cut....which I can't show you, because it's for a Mystery Quilt...I was within 10 blocks of having enough for 2 quilts! So I raided my stash, because, after all, it's just like a big scrap container! And I am trying to get all the commercial print fabrics out of the studio cupboard so I can replace them with my BATIKS!
Here's the sad-but-true thing about scrap quilts: you cannot use up all the scraps. In fact, you will probably make more scraps...which is what I did:

Scraps of scraps!

The 1/4 full container is now back to almost full, and I also got some nice little pieces for the Mile-A-Minute box (on the right).
It reminds me of a favorite poem, by Lewis Carroll, "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from Through the Looking Glass.
This part:

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

But they are different scraps than the ones I started with, so no tears are being shed!

Stitchin' Sisters have a Mystery Quilt

The Stitchin' Sisters meet at the Methodist Church in Yulee FL.

They have been learning how to sew and making quilts for several years now, under the leadership of Julie Mainor. Each Tuesday they are at the church making a variety of patterns for gifts, charities, and even occaisionally themselves!

I was honored to be their first "outside" teacher, and provider of their first Mystery Quilt!

We had a wonderful time making The Stadium Quilt, a small quilt designed to be taken to a sporting event.

Of course at the end of the class everyone gets a picture of the quilt to add to their Clues (the instructions broken up by steps).
I like to design these Mystery Quilts with some techniques to learn. The Stitchin' Sisters have a lot of beginners, so they learned about making triangles: Quarter-square triangles, and two different ways to make Half-square triangles!

Usually these days quilters make HSTs with squares cut 7/8" or 1" larger than the finished size, or they use the printed paper for triangles.

This is the first way I learned about making lots of HSTs....on a grid....because you always seem to need a batch!

On the wrong side of the lighter fabric, draw a grid of squares the desired size (choice of formula above) with one diagonal line through each square. Layer it right sides together with a dark fabric. Sew 1/4" away from each side of the diagonal line. Cut on the drawn lines, press open, and, as in the photo above, you get 24 HST units (from a 3 x 4 grid)!

The best part of class is seeing all the different fabric choices. There were lots of the expected sports teams, especially the local college teams...but not one Jaguars! There were even some out-of-state teams. You can get a printed fabric for just about anyone's favorite team, which makes this sort of quilt a great gift.

There were also some lovely quilts made with fish fabrics, flowers and just pretty colors. One lady had fabric she'd saved for over 15 years!

See...it pays to buy it when you see it, even if you don't use it right away!

The Stitchin' Sisters had a covered dish lunch that was unbelieveable! Those ladies sure can cook, and there was so much food they called their husbands to come over an eat with us. I think a few of those guys were waiting for the call!

I should have taken a picture for you, but I was too busy filling my plate with the best fried chicken ever.

Fabric...food...fun...the Stitchin' Sisters have it all! What a great day it was, and I heard since then that most of the quilts are finished!

I showed my two samples, which were quilted onto fleece that was printed in a team motif. If you do that, you can have a double sided statement of your team spirit! (or any of the other zillions of motifs available...really, have you looked at what all is printed on that fleece stuff?)

When you use the fleece, it can be both back & batting, which makes a light weight quilt that can be moved easily through the machine while quilting. I did all-by-machine bindings on those....trust me, you don't want to hand stitch on that fleece!

Sounds like a good idea for a future tutorial!

The Big Box Mystery Challenges continues...

It has been so much fun just cutting 2-1/2" strips and making blocks any which way! But I thought the quilt should be bigger, so I cut the all the remaining fabric into strips. Time to chain piece!

The least fussy blocks to make are the "floating square" ones, because the 9-Patches don't have any same-colored squares in them. So I had at it and made two of each color surrounding a black square, and one of black surrounding each color.

I kept the pieces close at hand and just whacked and sewed away at them ...until I was out of two colors! This is all that was left:

So I had a total of 49 blocks to play around with (actually there would have been 50, but one had some sort of glitch that caused it to disapper into the trash). I chose a 6 x 8 block setting, which accounts for that one poor orphan 9-Patch.

Up on the wall went the blocks, and I moved them around a couple times, but held firm to my commitment NOT TO FUSS!

Here they are un-sewn:

And here they are sewn together:

It's always interesting to me how different it looks when the sewing is all done. And these rows practically put themselves together.

Well, what to do now? I still had some fabric left, so I gave the quilt another round of strips & squares...sort of like a border, but what I really like is that it pulls the eye out to the edge and breaks up the block-by-block pattern. That orphan block got a new life, after being taken apart into rows!

Now this is really what's left:

I'd like to say there is enough for a plain black round, but there is not. So I'll toss those strips into the 2-1/2" box (the ones on the right are full width of fabric) for another project.

This quilt has several things I like (besides being super-easy!): it has bright colors with black, and floating effects. All I need now is a nice stripey binding...could there possible be the right piece waiting in my stash?

The Big Box Mystery Challenge

You may remember these fabrics from the previous post:

That's 1-1/2 yds of the black-with-bright-dots and the others were a fat quarter bundle. I decided to just start cutting strips and see what would happen. That's why this is a mystery and a challenge!

Sewing in a motel room is fun, especially since I was by myself and wouldn't be in anyone else's way. Many motels have ironing boards now, so that's a real plus! Were they tired of finding iron-shaped burns in the carpeting?

When in doubt, cut a 2-1/2" strip....I believe the quilting industry has proven that's a convenient width!

I was thinking about a block with a square floating in the center. Maybe even some plain 6" squares. I really didn't know, so I cut 4 strips of each fabric, which left me enough to have some plain 6" squares if I wanted them.

This is like a dream come true (at least on a temporary basis). The chair was not comfortable, but when sitting there, I could type on the computer with one hand and open the refrigerator with the other!

I do not have a computer in my studio, so it was fun to cut strips and have email at the same time. I even watched The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims & Alex Anderson!

Oops! A boo-boo cut needs to be redone. This shows making a new clean cut before I continue.

The boo-boo was savable...if not, you know it just would have gone into the Pot Holder Pile when I got home.

See...I really did watch The Quilt Show! It was fun to be quilting and watch quilting...thanks to my good friend who gave me the trial subscription (you know who you are, PT...or should I say, AP?!).         

This is what I call a sweet set up! A comfy chair, a sewing machine, a TV, and an ironing board set at half-height! The iron is on the other side of the chair, where I could just reach over and plug it in after setting the machine down.

This is really the ultimate in lazy, eh? But what fun! I totally enjoyed sitting down to iron...at home, I have things set up so I must get out of my chair and stand up to press.

Oh boy..."American Idol" is on! I really wanted to have a picture of sewing with Simon Cowel, but couldn't wait for the shot.

What? You don't care for "American Idol"? Well, you'd probably like it a lot after watching 3 hours of curling!

The Olympics are great for sewing with the TV on. I watched a LOT of curling, and I still don't understand it. But I sure can appreciate that it takes tremendous skill. And I loved the way the guys would slide from one end of the court...alley...lane...whatever it is...on their one Teflon foot, to get up there by The House to confer about what stone to try to bump.

Well, maybe I absorbed more about curling than I thought! I love the sweepers.

By this point I had decided to sew some 9-Patches (both X and O). I tried to make each one with all different colored squares, hence these strip sets. Nope...I did NOT plan it out!

But they all came out great.

I ended up with 15 blocks that had colored corners, 9 with black corners, and 5 each with a black square surrounded by a color or a color surrounded by black:

Here they are back at home, just smacked up on the design wall. I like what I'm seeing....the way the background makes the block edges fade in and out.
I knew I would need both X and O 9-Patches (look at where the black is in the blocks to see why they are called that) if I wanted to put them together for a checkerboard, as you can see at the botton right.
That's as far as this project got (what? can you hear the steady thrumm of a UFO apporoaching????).
But I think I'll just whack up the rest of the fabric into strips and make more of the same blocks, then have some fun arranging them.
With a nice border, they'll make a wonderful kids quilt for the guild's charity project!

Catch up time: Gee's Bend & SSQA & more

I've been busy (who hasn't?) and just want to take a minute to catch up!
We had the last official event with the Gee's Bend Quilts (they will be here until August 2). Can you imagine listening to a fine choir while sitting around the quilt frame? This is the second group we had the pleasure to hear, both came from the LaVilla/Ritz area local school, a magnet school for studying the arts.

Another Big Project has been assisting in the re-design of the Sunshine State Quilters Association website.
After ten+ years, it needed a new fresh look, new organization, and a whole lot of re-writing.
You may know how it is, when you care about something being done "right"...I couldn't let the shiny new look go out in public with the same old content! And many pages that had been ignored for years would now be re-examined!
Is this my job? No. But I made it my job, so who do I have to blame?
That's right...the same old one always put her foots in it!
There was a ton of updating and creating...and I hope it compliments the bright and exciting new look of the whole site!
Visit and let me know what you think! http://www.ssqa.org
This is not my solo effort by any means! At this point I give a huge Shout Out to Pat the Webmaster, who did all the heavy lifting with arranging the pages & HTML coding & figuring out colors & all that computer magic that is beyond my ken. There was nothing I wondered about that Pat could not find a way to do!

Of course, there was some quilting going on, too...
Just so you know, the Black T-shirt Quilt is in process! More on that later.


Also in the works is another Mystery Quilt, this one for Seaside Piecemakers in Satellite Beach, FL.
It is not like any other Mystery Quilt I have designed! The design is unique, and I always offer two sizes...so besides the traditional large lap size, the smaller size can be a two-sided baby quilt!
You'll have to wait until August for the Big Reveal on that one.

Dos Quilts for Cinco de Mayo

Late as usual! If I can get this post done in 50 minutes I might still make it for Cinco de Mayo!
Then again, it really doesn't matter for all my friends over on the other side of the planet...it's already tomorrow!

Here are a couple quilts I made awhile back, but they are perfect for celebrating Mexico's liberation.
The first one is often confused for a Halloween quilt:


But a closer inspection reveals that indeed it is made of Mexican food fabric!

That little red piece in the center (with the blue shape on it) is from the very first challenge my guild did...19 years ago!

Before this small quilt was made there was The Spicy Quilt!
It was the Mystery Quilt for the SSQA Symposium several years ago when the theme was "Variety Is the Spice of Life". You may well wonder when I will stop using this sofa to stage photos!
It's a variation on the Mexican Cross block (a pattern that goes by many names!).
What would you put on the back of The Spicy Quilt?

Mexican food fabric, of course! And since there wasn't enough, I was fortunate to have some nice Margarita green batik.

This is why you must buy fabric when it catches your eye....there is just no telling when you will need it!

I hope you enjoyed a good Cinco de Mayo....freedom is always worthy of celebration!

NOTE: 5/ 28/ 10
A request for a picture from this post made me realize I had not given credit to M'Liss Rae Hawley's "Quilt Interrupted" pattern from her book, Phenominal Fat Quarters. My apolgies! The Mexican Food quilt, which has since been purchased, was a sample for a class using her book.

Space Coast Quilters' "Stars of the Quilt Show"

I had a wonderful time last month with the Space Coast Quilters in Titusville, FL!

This was the first Mystery Quilt for almost everyone in the class, but they did a good job with fabric selection, which can be quite a task with an unknown pattern!

They got their first clue and went right to work.
It's always fun to see how people get their next clues...do they march triumphantly up front? Or do they quietly edge to the clue baskets, not wanting anyone to know they are getting ahead of the group?

It doesn't matter in my class, because there is No Competition!

Everyone gets a prize, and there is a nice bowl of chocolates and mints right by the clues...a little reward or incentive, if you need one.

Candy is in a fabric bowl, of course! Made from a home-dec fabric I had for years, just awaiting the right project!

Organization is the key to "mystery quilting"! The fabrics have to be labeled (it could be easy to mistake B for D!), all the sewn parts need to be pinned together until needed again, and the clues are best kept in order, too.

It is delightful to see the fabric choices, and strips cut before class really help to speed things up.

This pattern needed only 5" and 2.5" strips.

In the process of designing a personalized Mystery Quilt, I go through a lot of options...thank goodness for EQ6! It does not do the designing, but it does let me look at a lot of different value and setting combinations, after I have the basic pattern idea.
For the class, I often choose based on what will be easier to get done, but I love to share all the variations that the pattern can be made into!

Get those creative juices flowing!

Her's the finished quilt, along with lots of variations printed out and posted:

Even slanting the diagonal design to the left or right can be an important choice!

Because I know many quilters don't care to invest in a lot of fabric for something they have not seen, and everyone likes to feel their work is amounting to something sooner than later, I have started adding a wall-hanging size to my Personalized Mystery Quilt classes
It's like getting an extra pattern, because the wall hanging is the same block(s) but often in a different arrangement.

Just because the EQ6 block shows a seam, it doesn't mean it ends up in the final design! This is why good instructions are a must for any pattern.

In fact, I even had several variations on the wall hanging! I just don't know when to stop, and so I bring it all along to share.

There is a simple "secret" to art and creativity:

The more you look, the more you can see.

The more you can see, the more you can do!

Yes, the "doing" part is where things often bog down, but if you can see it in your mind, you can find a way to make it happen. Don't be afraid to ask for help! That's what teachers are for...and all your many friends, both nearby and connected by the wonderful World Wide Web!

Promised Details & Piano Keys

At last I can catch up on a couple details that have been missing.... not to mention an entire post!

It is published below "Midnight Mystery Quilt Revealed" (Feb. 4). Scroll on down to see "BLOOMS". There are some nice pictures of class projects.

That what happens when you write something but forget to change the date.

Meanwhile, how about those scrappy Mystery Quilt blocks finally sewn together?

I went with the sashing style setting to get those floating 9-Patches, and to make a larger quilt.

It's going to want quite a bit of background quilting!

So what can you do with something so incredibly scrappy?

Add more scraps, of course!

There's nothing like a "piano key" border to use up some strips....

How To Make a Piano Key Border
Start with one long strip, and place another strip on it, right sides together. They do not need to be the same length. Begin sewing with a 1/4" seam. When you get to the end of the top strip (assuming it is shorter) just put another strip on and keep sewing.
You may continue adding strips to the top or bottom as needed, or cut off whichever strip is longer (then use that piece to help fill up another strip).
After sewing quite a few sets (it is hard to determine ahead how much you will actually need), cut them into sections that are the width of the border you want.
I cut this border 4.5" because that is the cut size for the rectangles in the block pattern. One of my best guidelines is when you need to figure a size for something in the border, use a unit from the block.

Now that you have a bunch of little strip pairs, you can figure how many are needed for each side of the quilt. Just sew them together with wild abandon (according to how much you really need to be in control...). Remember, this is scrappy!

Finally, and very important, is to run a line of stay stitching along what will be the outside edge. (Of course, I learned this the hard way!). That will keep the many seams from opening up before you get the quilt done, and keep the edges from stretching.
You can see the stitching in the picture below. It will get covered when you put on the binding.

If you like to have lots of control/ order/ etc. , I might suggest making dark & light strip sets, which do look like piano keys, especially in black & whites! A great border for a musical quilt, of course.For those working with jelly rolls, you might even like to position all the colors so they progress through the color wheel order, or maybe shade the values from light to dark and back again, making a wave-like effect.

And whatever did happen to that crazy striped fabric that would have scared the groundhog back into his burrow? (Feb. 2)
It did become the binding on my latest-but-still-needs-more-quilting creation, "Roxanne's Honeymoon"!

What do you think...some big roses quilted into those plain black setting triangles? With pink thread? Ooo-la-la!

Midnight Mystery Quilt Revealed!

I am very happy to at last be able to show you the Mystery Quilt for the retreat in Panama City! These blocks are from a very scrappy version I did right out of my scrap basket. OK, except for the background.

This is how the blocks look set side by side:

Blocks with squares in each corner have some interesting design options

When you make a scrap quilt, it's nice to have one element provide some unity.
I used all the same fabric for the center squares. The others squares that form a cross around the center are all dark green, but I used three different fabrics (all from the scrap basket, remember!)
With the blocks set together, I knew the corner squares would form a 4-patch, so I used different values of teal. The fabrics are the same in opposite diagonal corners.

Here's how the blocks look set up with a sashing:

By using a cornerstone, and matching the sashing to the background, you can create a floating 9-patch! It's like getting two blocks for one!
Now this whole thing was planned for using 2.5" strips, but I think it would look even better with a narrower sashing strip and smaller cornerstone. You'd still have that 9-patch, but it would have large cornersand a small center.

I want to finish this up at least to a top, so I decided to stick with the fabric already cut. I needed more of the background.
Of course, I had yards & yards of it...so where did it go???
I could not find it anywhere! And having cut from it recently, it could not have gotten completely lost.
About the time I was making Plan B, and feeling both disappointed & confused, I found the fabric!

For once I had attempted to use up all of a fabric, and I had sewn the rest to make up the backing for a quilt I have yet to baste!
Eureka!
And yes...I did rip up that back (it wasn't such a good choice anyway) to get the few strips I need to complete the Mystery Blocks top. That is, if I would get off the computer and go do the sewing! It will make a nice comparison picture between blocks stuck on a design wall and the same blocks sewn together.

I do want to thank all the brave quilters at the retreat for participating in the Mystery. They boldly sewed where no group had sewn before! They even did the dreaded partial seam construction I sneaked in, and handled it like champs. (It's not hard, it just sounds like something nobody wants to do!).
Their machines were set up in the three different-but-connecting classrooms, so I really got a workout that night.

I wrote the "clues" for making one block, as it was an evening event and some people do like to go to bed! Not to mention they were not totally invested into a quilt that they wished was made with different colors or fabric placement. But the blocks were beautiful, and many people were excited about continuing to make a top, because, of course, I had also provided the cutting instructions to make a 12 block quilt!

And I did say I'd show you the other quilt I made using these blocks in a very different way, but I'm finishing the binding made with the wild pink/ green/black striped fabric. It should be done soon, and then you will see "Roxanne's Honeymoon".

Mystery Quilt Revealed!

The Crossroads Quilters in Perry, Georgia, were thrilled with their Mystery Quilt, and I hope you like it, too!
Most of the quilts are being made for their charity, teenagers at the Georgia Industrial Children's Home in Macon, so I designed a special long-twin size for those. The quilt you see here is the regular twin size.

This was done in EQ6...what a great program!

It will be available soon as a pattern with three sizes included (I know you want to make a bed quilt! The pattern gets even better with more blocks).

So now it is official....I have driven over 4 hours and across state lines to talk about scraps!
Call me crazy (you will not be the first OR the last!) but I do love to be together with a group of quilters, sharing our love of fabric, colors, and probably chocolate. The Crossroads Quilters are a fun group, and had an awesome Show & Tell!
Here's a look at the Famous Over-Flowing Scrap Basket in action:

It has some friends on board....Perky Old Men ( 3" nine-patches & blacks & whites), charm quilt, and a blue & yellow scrap quilt.
Yes, scrap quilts can be made in a planned color scheme, you just need lots of different fabrics of the same color. This is especially good for people who want to be scrappy but still need to keep things under control.
You true Scrap-a-holics out there know the truth, though.
The more different fabric/ prints/colors you use, the better they all go together!