The tiny scraps that I sorted out earlier this week have been transformed into a handy little cosy for my great-niece to put her MP3 in. The mobile phone cosy with a button that I made last year I gave to my sister in law, and her granddaughter, aka my great-niece, loves it and wanted one for her MP3.
So here it is, ready to be put in an envelope and posted off to Surrey. I will have to write a grovelling note of apology because she particularly wanted me to include the teapots fabric used in her grandmother's cosy, and I clean forgot... something along the lines of "terribly sorry darling, I am a great aunt after all, more ancient and forgetful by the minute, especially when caught up in a creative whirl... " should fit the bill.
Here is the back, and especially for Esther ipatchandquilt, who thought it was a bit of a lark having a post just featuring a picture of scraps, giving them the movie star treatment, I have stood the cosy on its own little red carpet.
And here it is opened out, so you can admire the naff brown striped lining in all its 1970s glory.
To compensate for me forgetting the teapots fabric, I hope my great niece enjoys a game of spot the fabric next time she visits her grandparents and sees this quilt. In the quilt she will find the pinky purple flowers at the bottom of the second picture, and the green floral and brown floral on the third picture, which all belonged to her great grandmother, and which she bought in the USA.
A very satisfying little project, making something useful with tiny scraps. In fact, the strip that I used for the button loop was already chucked into the rubbish box on my table, and I suddenly thought better of it and fished it out. I am so glad I did. With the blue button it clashes so fascinatingly horribly with the green.
Linking up today with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday.
After last week's mega fast scrappy project I thought I would continue along scrappy lines, but on a much more modest scale. I have received a small commission from my sister in law, who was phoning on behalf of my great niece, who has been inspecting one of my creations and wants one. Luckily for her, I have found another scrap jar that I overlooked last week, and which contains yet another little piece of the roses on navy background - just when I thought I had used it all up.
So this photo might seem a bit boring, but for my great niece it is immensely fascinating.
This, I guarantee, is truly boring for everyone - a strip of wadding cut off from the edge of some free motion quilting, but a scrap nonetheless and essential to the project, so it gets its own photo.
I am quite looking forward to doing hardly any sewing this week
This is a record for me, so I'm immensely chuffed. A scrappy cot quilt, 43 x 30 inches, free motion quilted yesterday on the 1945 Singer 15K treadle, and all the rest of the work done with the 1949 15K hand machine.
It is ages since I free motion quilted a pieced item, and I wanted to try it again and do a better job. All the seams were pressed flat so they didn't give any bumps when quilting.
Lots of tiny scraps went into this quilt. The tiniest piece, the red, measures an inch by three eighths of an inch (ridiculous - I'm not likely work on this scale too often). It is part of a strip of four tiny bits trimmed from the edge of the Quilt within a Quilt Doll Quilt that I sent to Pattilou. Carla might recognise the polka dots, which is the left over binding from when I made her tea cosy.
This is the one diagonal seam, in the middle of the last remaining strip used on the back for joining the sections of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Quilt I made in 2012.
These pretty roses on dark navy are the last tiny bit of an offcut I bought in Liverpool in about 1980.
The most economical fabrics in the quilt must be the bits from charity shop finds - the blue print, and the 1970s Laura Ashley to its right.
When I posted a picture of the completed top on Wednesday, Susan TBZ left a comment saying how much she loved purple. I replied saying that in real life it was more dark maroony red. What did I see when I pinned it up for a photo once I had finished it today? Nothing but purple! The blue on red of the printed plaid in the border just zings and makes you see all the other shades of purple in the quilt. A colour spotter's badge to Susan!
Now the quilt is finished, and I can see how the colours work together, I can see that the fabrics that bring the whole mixture to life are the bright green floral...
...and its matching fabric. The black background was really useful. I put this piece near the centre to make sure the overall layout didn't look empty in the middle.
All told, this scrappy project was immense fun. It used up lots of bits that were getting on my nerves sitting in the scrap jar and ended up as good practice in the use of colour.
Linking up today with Jessica's blog Quilty Habit for TGIFF
and Nina-Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art... Whatever for Off the Wall Friday
and Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday
and Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Barbara's blog Cat Patches for the January NewFO Linky Party
This is something of a record for me - I only started this on Monday. Here it is hanging from a clothes rack in the kitchen. The daylight is not up to much today, so the colours on this picture aren't particularly accurate.
The colours are more accurate on this close up.
Making the quilt sandwich will have to wait. It is lunchtime, and I need a sandwich more than the quilt does.
Linking up today (Thursday) to Lee's blog Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.
Yesterday I started making a top for a cot quilt. Here are the strips laid out, not in the final arrangement, but some sections are already joined together.
I had a jar full of left over ends of strips that I had used for binding, and lots of odd shaped remains of fat quarters. Joining up all the tiny strips to make larger scrappy strips takes far longer than I would like it to - this isn't quite the ultra quick project I thought it might be - but I am enjoying it nevertheless.
Repeated cutting of strips means I have ended up with a miniscule rectangle of the bright red.
When I made the sewing machine cover I was incredibly lucky to have enough of the border to use as binding, and ended up with only about an inch and a half left over. The left over scrap is now in this quilt top - it is next to the green flowers at the top right.
Welcome to Ulla, the latest follower - thank you for joining!
Linking up today with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday - lots more projects to see there!
I was rummaging in the cupboard today and came across these - triangles joined in little strips, each a fraction less than six inches long. They were made from the cut off spare triangles when I made a quilt in the Sister's Choice pattern about two and a half years ago. I made them and then shoved them away, not quite knowing what to do with them, but after coming across them today I think there might be an idea brewing...
