I'm sure we all have some of these. Every once in awhile it's fun to get the fabric scraps out and just play! As a bonus, if you use them up every so often, you are less likely to drown in them.
Here's what I like to do with my fabric scraps. Using the sew-and-flip method, I piece them together crazy quilt style. I try not to think too much about which pieces go next to each other. I grab two pieces and stitch them together. But if the occasional combo really bothers me, I don't use them next to each other, after all this is supposed to be fun.
Next I flip the pieces open, finger press and grab another piece to sew to that unit ... sew and flip, sew and flip, and so on.
Once I get a bunch of them pieced together, I sub-cut them further into little shapes: squares, circles, rectangles etc. On the wall hanging below, I cut them into inchies (1" square fiber art pieces) and appliquéd them onto a black wool felt background. I love how the black really makes the colors pop!
If you look carefully, you'll see that my "squares" are not really square. That's because I simply laid them onto the felt and stitched around them with a zig zag stitch: no basting, no pinning, no fusibles web. I let the sewing machine gently stretch them out of shape into these lively dancing shapes.
If you prefer your shapes not stretched out of shape, just iron some fusible web onto the back of your pieced scraps before you sub-cut them into smaller shapes. Then you can fuse them to your background.
Have fun with the design. Try geometric as well as freeform layouts before you commit to sewing or fusing them down. Or better yet, make two wall hangings: a geometric AND a freeform.
While you relax and play with your fabric scraps, your mind will have a chance to wander. By the time you finish you may very well have several new ideas to choose from, and you'll be ready for your next big project.
happy quilting! =(^_^)=
I sun-painted this silk with Pebeo Setacolor transparent paints, then over-painted freehand doodles with Jacquard Lumiere metallic paint. It's really easy and fun to do ... now that June gloom is finally over, I think I will go outside and sun-paint some more!
I miss the excitement and intrigue of those days when I would piece together a unit and immediately pull it out from under the foot to find out if the corners matched. These days I don't even look at my piecing until I have a stack of them lined up on the ironing board ready to be pressed.
Quilting art postcards and all their embellishments fit just right in plastic pencil cases, ready for you to bring along wherever you might go. Why not keep several pencil boxes by the front door, each with a different project and its supplies in it. You can get quite a lot done while waiting here and there, and it sure beats reading old magazines in the waiting room!
You can also keep those wider spools of thread that don't fit in the regular narrow spool case in plastic pencil boxes.
What's in your pencil box?
I'm sure we all have some of these. Every once in awhile it's fun to get the fabric scraps out and just play! As a bonus, if you use them up every so often, you are less likely to drown in them.
Next I flip the pieces open, finger press and grab another piece to sew to that unit ... sew and flip, sew and flip, and so on.
If you look carefully, you'll see that my "squares" are not really square. That's because I simply laid them onto the felt and stitched around them with a zig zag stitch: no basting, no pinning, no fusibles web. I let the sewing machine gently stretch them out of shape into these lively dancing shapes.
This fabric makes me smile. I love the adorable white rabbits peeking in and out and the blue checkerboard background. Just the right amount of whimsy and fun! It's a Japanese cotton pique from Maeda Importing.
Out of the vaults of Area 51 comes my We all scream for ice cream quilt, last spotted in August 2007. I did machine stitch-in-the-ditch around all parts of the individual blocks, and now I've started the hand quilting in the yellow strips. I couldn't decide what to quilt, so I'm quilting right next to the 1/4" seam allowance. I figure that by the time I've outlined the three columns of blocks, I'll know what designs to quilt ... or that's my plan anyways.
Any suggestions? =(^_^)=
I've been doing quite a lot of fabric washing the past few weeks. I went on a yellow and orange fabric buying binge, but there was still not enough yellow and orange fabrics to fill the washing machine.
Here is the worrysome batik, as well as other potentially troublesome fabrics from that wash load, along with the whites, off-whites, and the used Color Catcher. You can see the loose dye that it picked up.
