Finished My Scrappy Cat Quilt

This was so much fun to do. I think those projects that just happen because you feel like it in the moment are often the best. 

I used solid fabrics and leftover tone-on-tone prints for this quilt. Did not have to look for long for fabric to use as I seem to have an abundance of scraps from previous projects. As I often use solids and tone-on-tone prints I had plenty to choose from. Even managed to piece together the binding from binding strips that were left from other projects (yes, do save them as well!).

The completed quilt measures 47in x 57-1/2in

This is the cutest quilt. so bright and cheerful...love it! I quilted it with an allover edge-to-edge design called Ginger Paw (by Melonie Caldwell and Apricot Moon Designs available through Urban Elementz) in a light yellow Aurifil 40/3 thread

Love those little paws! Bit harder to do on the sitdown machine as it varies between long sweeping movements and then all of a sudden you are at those little paws and have to slow down again (and concentrate!). As I have done this design before on my other cat quilt I was prepared for that and did manage quite well. Needless to say none of the paws are totally identical as you zoom around but I managed to stay straight and in line with the pattern, so was very happy with how this turned out.

I have written up the pattern and put as a new listing in my Etsy shop for people who are interested. It is truly the ultimate scrap buster and a great beginners quilting project. Easy to do and comes together quite quickly. I used 30 different fabrics to complete this quilt but it can be done really with whatever you have got on hand and can be as scrappy as you like. 

Funny how after all these years scrap quilts are still my favourite quilts to construct.

Karin

To do Tuesday #86 - Getting BackTo It

Well, it's been at least 3 weeks since I last set some goals. I completely dropped my bundle since then and apart from working on my machine cover have not been doing much else...struggling with motivation which often happens after I finish a major project.

When this happens I need something to 'grab' me and it is usually scrap quilts that do that for me. So I sat down and sorted through my leftover bits and pieces taking out most of the strips that were floating around.

In terms of project I was looking for something that does not require much thought...just mindless sewing. I have got a nice book from the Tilda collection and found a very nice quilt where the author just put strips together in a Chinese Coin arrangement separating the columns by sashings. 

This book is just gorgeous...you can see the strip quilt in the background. The book has a lot of very easy but eye catching designs in very pretty fabrics with some fantastic quilting all over it. Highly recommended! The strip quilt caught my eye as it has feathers quilted all down the strips and some easy quilting designs in the sashings. Looks absolutely gorgeous.

In the book the strips are coordinated in terms of colour and placement. They are also the same size. I am doing mine a bit more haphazardly, i.e. sewing strips of varying widths together to arrive at the required 10-1/2in for the section. I am cutting mine straight, but really, you could also just sew them together in a wonky way.

So, no thinking involved apart from making it long enough to make the 10-1/2in. Here I am using some of the longer strips and just cut them into sections of 4-1/2in, but I also am doing some smaller ones from just little strips that were left over. I already have a stack of them, so this should not take too long. Not sure which colour I will make the sashing, maybe a light grey or beige. We'll see.

This has gotten me a bit more motivated again and today I sorted through my solids and blenders leftovers. Intending to make a very simple scrap pattern for my Etsy shop from that.

In terms of tasks for this week I am intending

- to make a start on the quilting for my background filler project

- make more sections for my strip quilt

- cut out the solids/blender fabric requirements for another little scrap quilt to go in the Etsy shop.

- continue with my knitting of the second sock that I started a couple of months ago (it's almost spring here!)
There are a few other things that have been started over the last few months, but I am leaving them off the list for now as this would just become overwhelming. For now I just need to get back into it.

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #86 over at Quilt Schmilt.

Karin

Scrap Project Continued

OK, so maybe this is not the fastest way of getting rid of some scraps!

I have been working pretty solidly on this project

Decided to make 20 blocks, set in a rows of 4 x 5 blocks. The whole room has been taken over by this project. This is actually the space where the new machine will sit, once it finally arrives in Australia (getting slightly impatient now!)

Anyway, completed my 20 blocks and today finally started working on the surrounds and sashings.

Had to do a few alterations...the colour arrangement in one of the blocks did not work, so I changed that and then got going on the surrounds. Bit of a hold up there as well as I kept muddling up my cut out diagonals, however finally got there. This should now advance a bit quicker. Actually, the most time consuming part (which I had not considered, of course) is the cutting of the pieces. While I have lots of scraps lying around, the cutting of the individual components does take a fair amount of time. While I had myself sorted for the house construction, today I had to put in some time to cut out the surrounds and sashing pieces. With that being mostly done now, this should be plain sailing now and come together relatively quickly.

The quilt will measure about 58in x 69in with a 4 1/2in border. This will look hilariously colourful...I do love scrap quilts and using the last bits of that very special fabric that one finds amongst the scraps is so satisfying. There is some fabric in here that I have had for at least 10 years, if not longer...

Also, today, I got my parcel from the Fatquartershop in record time. I ordered on the 15/2...what a fantastic service!

I had a very large gift voucher and decided to spent it all in one hit given the postage. This took me days to go through the shop and select items, but wow, can this girl shop or what...I did pack a lot in there and picked up a fair few specials. That white fabric you see on the right is  Swiss Dots One Yard 'Grab a Bag' deal. As I do use a lot of dottie fabric I was hoping for something that I could use as background...really happy with the neutral tan dots on white fabric that I received...perfect! Apart from that, got a Kona solids fat quarter bundle and some more fabric carefully selected for the next few projects. And yes, a little Fat Eights bundle of Elizabeth Hartman fabric because it was on special and a few other bitses and pieces.
I love getting parcels! Bit of an irony here though as I have been saying over the last few weeks that I am drowning in fabric. My scrap quilt will definitely not make room for all of that 😂

Karin