nothing but scraps

Here is what I've been up to lately-- more quilting for men. These are my blocks for the "Nothing but Scraps" challenge. Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes a scrap vs. stash. I say it's a scrap if it's smaller than a fat quarter, and something that has previously been cut by me. I have a hard time throwing away any piece of fabric, no matter how tiny or odd the shape may be, and I have all of these scraps loosely arranged by colour, in those three-drawer plastic rolling containers. It works well for me, especially because they fit under my sewing machine and cutting tables. Even the white for this quilt came from my scrap collection. Here are my 15 blocks. I did some free piecing and then trimmed the blocks to 12.5" square, then added 2.5" white borders. I'm not crazy about long pieces of sashing, and so this is my way around that (this time).Here are some of the blocks laid out on my living room floor, not yet sewn together. I'm not sure what I'll use for the backing. If I'm to stay true to the Nothing but Scraps spirit, I'd sew together my batting scraps for the middle and some of my bigger pieces for the back. We'll see. My 84-year-old grandfather recently fell on the ice and broke a few ribs, so he's recovering at an assisted-living facility (which he hates, naturally). I'm going to surprise him with this quilt. I figured it's bright and colourful, and will hopefully raise his spirits, at least a little bit. My family and culture really doesn't have any sort of a quilting tradition, which is good for me because that means that my family continues to be amused/amazed.

Update: Max got his quilt in the mail, and he was impressed. He called the cheater print a "macho border". He's anxious to use it on his couch-- before, he said, he'd get cold and put on a hooded sweatshirt and smush his feet under his basset hound. The quilt is a much better option.

Max

Here is the finished quilt for Max. I'm very happy with it! I decided to brave the cold this morning and took these pictures out on my patio.The backing is the only fabric I didn't already have in my stash. It's lime green flannel from JoAnn. I asked Max what his favorite colour was before starting this, and he doesn't appear to have one. He did say, "Geniuses like green." And, here's my favorite, all folded and ready to go:

IKEA goodness

There isn't an IKEA within my state, but there are 4 in 3 nearby states. I was lucky enough to visit one this past weekend, and treated myself to 3 yards of fabric:












I love them all. IKEA fabric is wonderful, because it's canvas, or home-dec weight.. A handful of my favorite fabric designers have a couple of their quilting-weight cotton designs printed in the extra wide, heavier home-dec fabric. It's way more expensive then the average cotton, and inevitably, the designs chosen for this special treatment aren't always my favorites.
IKEA, meanwhile, has a pretty good selection of huge repeats that aren't available anywhere else. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with these. I could make some more purses, or throw pillows. The red and orange one seems to be a little lighter weight, and I'm kind of tempted to make a simple A-line skirt, if I can bring myself to cut into it.
Meanwhile, I am in the process of washing the Max quilt-- pictures soon!

in progress

This is the Max L. quilt in the process of being quilted. It turned out to be quite a big larger than I expected, since I added 2.5" strips of khaki fabric between rows. Then, realizing it was a lot longer than it was wide, and Max L. simply isn't very tall, I added a 5" border all the way around. I used a cheater print that I got on super sale. (It's the black colourway)


Meanwhile, Mom got the package I sent containing her purses, the make-up bag, and a matching tissue holder. She adored all of it, which made me very, very happy. Being the master seamstress she is, she only gave me one good recommendation: to use some stiff interfacing to make sure the handles don't wrinkle. Good advice, as always. She also said it'd be an easy pattern to modify by adding welting of the liner fabric where all those seams are. I responded with, "Yeah, that'd look nice... but it'd be much more tricky!" I really think she's getting a kick out of me finally sewing, after years of watching her stay up all night in HER sewing room, rolling my eyes and not getting it. Creating makes me feel both closer and further away from my mom. I guess it's the curse of being a Jewish daughter-- finally appreciating my mom, now that I'm grown up and married and living 1,000 miles away from her.

So I don't end on a sappy note, here's a picture of a happy purse I made for myself:
The background is my Marimekko shower curtain. This is a pretty good canvas-- you may be seeing it a lot!

top secret

I'm making a quilt for a very good friend of mine, who may or may not read this. Since I'm trying to keep it a secret, I'll just show you the fabric I picked out:Also, I've been working on a variation of a stacked coin quilt for my brother, Max. Here's what I have so far, laid out in my upstairs hallway:
It's not nearly as wonky as it looks in this picture. There are 60 different fabrics, with each one repeated once. The sashing is the same khaki Kona that I show in the top picture. I bought a ton of it on sale about a year ago, and it's been sitting around, taking up precious space.

Quilting and creating for boys is a lot more difficult than quilting for women. I enjoy the challenge. It's a good thing to stretch myself, and to stay away from the overly girly prints (those will all go together in another scrappy quilt, maybe for myself). I hope these two guys like their quilts!