Binding Scraps - Amanda Jean Made Me Do It

Amanda Jean Made Me Do It

50’’ x 60’’

Those little triangles you cut off when joining strips for binding or Jelly Roll Race quilts? Do not throw them away!! Keep them for years and years and then you can make this quilt.

Years ago, when I was writing Sunday Morning Quilts with Amanda Jean Nyberg she convinced me to start saving those little triangles. Until then I confess that I was throwing them out. Fast forward a few years and her next book, No Scrap Left Behind, has a delicious pattern for all those little triangles!

It can be daunting when working with So. Many. Small pieces at once. Generally, I would recommend having this be an ongoing project. A little bit here and there or maybe using them as leaders and enders. I ended up doing nothing but this project for a few weeks, at least to get the top done. It nearly killed me. Tedious, to say the least. But the end result was fantastic!! The top needed to sit a little while though, to muster up the steam to see it again.

My recent desire to finish things though brought this quilt up again. I actually had the back made a long time ago too, a request from my oldest, The Monster. At a time when she was feeling down she asked me if I ever made something as a reminder that life can get better? Until then, I had not. Now we have this two sided quilt for the rough days.

It wasn’t too bad to quilt it, even with all the seams. I lifted up the presser foot a bit and dove in with an angular meander. On a scrappy quilt like this you aren’t going to see much in the way of quilting so something all over is perfect. Any colour thread would do as well, so I picked a favourite turquoise variegated from Wonderfil. It worked perfectly.

For those of you that also follow me on Instagram I had a fun time getting help with binding choices. Usually I know exactly what I want to do but this time I was torn. So I put the top choices out to the world. It was really interesting to see what other people thought too. In the end I chose away from my norm. I typically go for a high contrast binding. This time I went for something that blended. I think it was the perfect choice.

And now I’ve finished two quilts already this year. That is already more than last year, I think!

Epic Battle With the Scraps

Victory is mine!

A month ago - after teaching multiple scrap and Values Plus workshops - I got it in my head to buckle down and hit the scraps. And I hit them hard. While I have my lovely little bins of colour sorted a blue IKEA bag kept getting filled with strips and random bits. I sorted out a bunch of little bits back in May, but otherwise the bag sat there taunting me.

Hey you! Hey! I’m talking to you. You know you won’t throw me out, you simply can’t do that. But did you know I grow when you aren’t looking. The rest of the fabric? It comes to me at night and fills me up. You will never take me down!

Oh yeah? Let the battle begin.

I spent an hour or so sorting that bag by colour. Easy enough. And usually sorting is enough for me. It gives me the calm I want and finding order makes me happy. But there were just so many scraps! So I went headlong into the fury and am happy to say I emerged victorious!

This morning I finished the last of the blocks for a queen size quilts based on my Values Plus class. As I sorted, sewed, and trimmed for those blocks little bits and little strings revealed themselves, like soldiers stalking me in the grass. Well, they’ve been tamed too. I have a pile of skinny strings ready to action on my side - in some little log cabins. And the little bits leftover from battle are contained in colour sorted bags, another project in mind.

All my Morning Makes and any other free time in the last month has been spent on this battlefield. I became solely focused on this. While I generally have no issue with scraps something just got in me that these needed to be dealt with. Like an itch I couldn’t scratch it became an obsession to empty, sort, and use everything in that blue bag. While not everything is used yet, it all is designated or tamed. I am winning!

Now I hope to spend some time actually finishing a quilt or two, that’s a whole other battle.

Ripples - Prince Rupert Inspired Quilt

Sometimes I get a little obsessed with my Morning Make. As in, I am just so in to the project that what is supposed to be 15 minutes turns in to an hour. Not counting the sneaking away in the afternoon to sew more. 

That's what happened with with particular quilt. The improv curves went together so quickly that it was hard to make just a couple at a time. I wanted to make dozens at a time. Needless to say, the top came together fast. (I actually finished this a few weeks ago but have had no time to snap a pic.)

Inspired by my beautiful walks on the Prince Rupert waterfront back in April, Ripples is an homage to those calming mornings in a literal sea of blue. I watched seals and birds eat breakfast, breaking the surface of the ocean that was so calm you could have waterskied. I sat to witness the fog roll in off the ocean. I listened to the small island ferries and visiting fisherman. It was a magical weekend inside and outside the classroom and I wanted to mark it.

Alas, I live on the Prairie, so I need quilts (and photos) to bring me back to my ocean love affair. 

This is another in my landscape series. It was supposed to just be Alberta landscapes but apparently I decided along the way to include all my special places in the country. 

CMYK - First Mighty Lucky Row Done

Paper piecing 12 blocks isn't so bad if you do them half a block at a time. 

That's what I kept telling myself, and it worked. Carolyn Friedlander's patterns are easy and graphic. Each one of these blocks is made in sections so I did a section at a time. Low stress. And sure enough, they add up. Sometimes it was Morning Make, sometimes I snuck in a bit of sewing in the sweet spot between when the kids go to bed and I crash. Seam by seam it gets done.

These are the first rows of the 2018 Mighty Lucky Quilting Club. Month one was about making a colour story. Mine was inspired by the CMYK issue of Uppercase Mag. It's been different for me to work in such saturated colours and just them. I quite like it. The key, I think, has been to vary the fabrics in print and texture. That's how you get distinctions, almost like value, when working monochromatically on blocks. Sometimes the distinctions are subtle, sometimes strong. Overall it works well.

And yes, my sandals match. True fact: I nearly entirely match the quilt. I have these sandals in turquoise, yellow, and red (not pink). But now that we are mentioning it...

On to the next round  - little improv crosses.

Check it out for more info on Mighty Lucky and to sign up for the entire Year of Colour.